For decades, body mass index—or BMI—has been the go-to tool for evaluating weight and overall health. But a new study says it might be time to toss that metric aside for good.
CNN reported that researchers from the University of Florida analyzed data from over 4,200 adults and found that BMI may completely miss serious health risks, especially in younger people.
While BMI simply calculates weight in relation to height, it doesn’t account for muscle, fat, or water composition, factors that could mean the difference between health and danger. Instead, scientists point to bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) as a more accurate and revealing method.
BIA uses a small, painless electric current to determine your body fat percentage, lean muscle mass, and water content. According to the study, people with high body fat, regardless of their BMI, were 262 percent more likely to die from heart disease and 78% more likely to die from any cause within 15 years.
“In this younger population, BMI didn’t flag any risk,” said study author Dr. Frank Orlando. “But high body fat absolutely did. That’s a game-changer.”
The researchers argue that even those who appear “normal” by BMI standards could be walking around with hidden health threats, like visceral fat wrapped around major organs. That type of fat has been linked to high blood pressure, inflammation, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, and insulin resistance.
Doctors have long known that BMI has flaws. Athletes often show up as “obese” due to muscle mass. Seniors can appear healthy despite having dangerous fat-to-muscle ratios.
The appeal of BMI has always been its simplicity. It’s cheap, fast, and easy to calculate. The new study suggests that simplicity may come at a cost.
“Let’s face it, the magnitude of risk this study shows is enormous,” said Dr. Andrew Freeman, director of cardiovascular prevention at National Jewish Health, who was not involved in the research. “It’s scary to think that we may have been using a surrogate — BMI — that may not have been all that accurate over the years.”
While BIA machines aren’t as expensive as gold-standard DEXA scans, they’re still not as widely used in doctor’s offices. But as tech improves and awareness grows, the hope is that body fat percentage, not BMI, becomes the new gold standard.
Because when it comes to your health, what you can’t see might hurt you.
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