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More people could count as obese under newly proposed definition — here's what you need to know

Live Science · By Lauren Schneider · 4h ago

The Brief · written from 4 sources

A large international study published in Nature found that a new diagnostic definition of obesity outperforms BMI in identifying differences in health and prognosis, including mortality risk.
The new framework was proposed in 2025 by the Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology Commission and goes beyond BMI by incorporating measures such as body fat distribution and organ function.
The framework distinguishes between clinical and pre-clinical obesity, and Live Science reports that more people could count as obese under the proposed definition.

Why it matters

Obesity diagnosis drives clinical decisions, so a definition that better predicts health outcomes than BMI could change who is identified as at risk and who receives care.

Who’s affected

clinicians and researchers who diagnose or treat obesity
people whose obesity status could change under a new definition

#obesity
#bmi
#clinical-definition
#metabolic-health
#nature-study

Obesity is linked to a range of health problems ‪—‬ including heart disease, diabetes and early death ‪—‬ but it can be hard to know who is most at risk for these outcomes. Doctors and researchers often use body mass index ( BMI ) as a convenient tool to assess patients, but this…

Read the full story at livescience.com ↗