BMI Alone No Longer the Go-To Measure for Weight Management
Overreliance on BMI as a measure of weight and health has deepened inequities and led to inaccuracies and overgeneralizations.
By Scott Hagan, Assistant Professor of Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Washington
Amid the buzz around weight loss drugs and rising rates of obesity worldwide, many health care professionals are questioning one of the key measures that has long been used to define obesity.
On June 14, 2023, the American Medical Association adopted a new policy, calling on doctors to deemphasize the role of body mass index, or BMI, in clinical practice.
The statement by the AMA, the nation’s largest association representing physicians, signals a significant shift in how clinicians regard BMI as a measure of general health. With over 40% of Americans having obesity as defined by BMI, a movement away from BMI could have broad implications for patient care.
As a board-certified obesity medicine physician with a research interest in patient-centered obesity care, I have written before about my concerns over use of BMI as a measure of health. The AMA’s policy statement creates an important opportunity to review the current use of BMI in health…
