Obesity diagnoses are based “solely on BMI cut-off values,” but do not take into consideration the distribution of body fat and the role that plays in the severity of the disease, the statement said. It added that this new recommendation challenges body measurement criteria as the sole component of the obesity diagnosis. The accumulation of body fat is associated with an increased risk of conditions such as heart attacks, strokes, and diabetes, and is a stronger cause of disease than BMI—even in people with levels lower than the standard measure of obesity, a BMI of 30, the statement said.
Its new recommendations for treatment would also include those now diagnosed as overweight instead of obese, as well as those with increased abdominal fat and obesity symptoms, such as functional or psychological impairment. These people were not included in the old guidelines. This increase should include those who are labeled as overweight, but not obese, with a BMI of 25 to 30, a waist-to-weight ratio of over 0.
5, and “medical, functional or psychological impairments or complications.” “This statement may also be seen as a call to pharmacological companies and regulatory authorities to use inclusion criteria that are more adherent to the clinical staging of obesity and less to traditional BMI cut-offs when designing future clinical trials with obesity medications,” the authors said in their press release. “This statement will move obesity management closer to the manageme.