We are obsessed by weight and as long as our weight stays roughly the same, who cares about that tightening waistband? It’s the all important number on the scales that counts. And who can blame us? Our GPs are similarly obsessed. Who hasn’t been asked to step on that monstrous machine in their doctor’s office? “Just hop on the scale for me will you?” It’s less a request than a command.
This dreaded figure is then used to tell us our BMI (by dividing our weight in kg by the square of our height in metres) . If yours is between 18.5-24.
9, you can breathe a sigh of relief. You are a “normal” healthy size. More, and you’re too fat.
Less, you are underweight. Anything above 30 is considered obese. It’s the gold standard measure used by GPs in our midlife health check and to decide whether we should be offered operations – or not – as a high BMI can lead to complications.
Except now experts aren’t so sure it’s even worth the paper it’s written on. A new Italian study is ringing alarm bells – and it’s far from the first time experts have questioned the measure. Scientists at the University of Tor Vergata found that BMI failed to spot around a third of obese people.
The study of 4800 adults aged 40-80, found 38 per of men and 41 per cent of women were categorised as obese using a BMI calculation. But when participants’ body fat levels were scanned, 71 per cent of men and 64 per cent of women were in the obese bracket. The study authors suggest lowe.
