BMI ‘not a good measure of obesity’

In a retrospective study they compared the BMI status, leptin levels and body fat percentages of 1393 adult patients.

When BMI was used to measure obesity, 26% of the patients fit that description. However, when a dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA) scan was used to measure body fat percentages, the number jumped to 64%.

The study also found that  39% of the participants who were not obese according to their BMI were classified as obese by the DXA scan.

That result was much more likely among women, occurring in 48% of the females, the researchers found.

A quarter of men whose BMI classified them as obese were non-obese on the body fat measure.

Meanwhile, leptin levels were strongly correlated to body fat, leading the authors to recommend leptin testing alongside BMI to get a more accurate diagnosis. But Australian experts were dismissive of the advice.

“We have a lot of evidence about the relationship