Your number on the bathroom scale could be misleading. New research finds that a substantial portion of people with \u201cnormal\u201d weight still have obesity\u2014and the higher risk of other health problems that goes along with it.<\/p>\n
A large, international team of scientists examined survey data from the World Health Organization. They found that roughly one in five people worldwide with a healthy body mass index (BMI) show clear signs of abdominal obesity, or excess body fat. These skinny-fat individuals were also more likely to have conditions like high blood pressure. Doctors could be missing important health issues if they only focus on their patients\u2019 BMI, the researchers say.<\/p>\n
\u201cRelying solely on BMI may be insufficient to identify these high-risk individuals and provide timely interventions,\u201d they wrote in their paper, published<\/a> this month in JAMA Network Open.<\/p>\n \u201cNormal\u201d but obese <\/p>\n BMI is calculated using a person\u2019s weight and height, with obesity traditionally defined as having a BMI of 30 and over. In recent years, however, some doctors and patients have pushed for an expansion of what should be considered obese.<\/p>\n In January, a large group of obesity experts, backed by organizations like the American Heart Association, released<\/a> alternative criteria for diagnosing obesity. This criterion asks doctors to either use BMI alongside one other measurement of excess body fat or to rely on these other measurements entirely. One such measurement is waist circumference.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n In this new study, the researchers analyzed data from the WHO STEPS survey, a long-running project monitored<\/a> by the WHO that allows countries to keep track of their residents\u2019 risk factors for noncommunicable diseases, particularly those related to their lifestyle. In total, they looked at nearly a half million participants across 91 countries between 2000 and 2020.<\/p>\n All in all, 21% of respondents met the threshold for \u201cnormal-weight abdominal obesity,\u201d meaning they had a healthy BMI but a large enough waistline to be categorized as obese. Compared to people with a normal BMI and healthy waistline, this group also had a higher prevalence of hypertension, high cholesterol, and diabetes, the researchers found.<\/p>\n Not just BMI <\/p>\n Other recent research has highlighted the importance of moving past BMI alone.<\/p>\n