London - Millions of people are healthy, despite being branded overweight, say researchers.
Doctors advise if someone is overweight or obese on the basis of the Body Mass Index and may tell them to shed some pounds accordingly.
But a study suggests that the index – which indicates whether someone is a healthy weight for their height – can be misleading.
Far from being under a “death sentence”, many people classed as obese are perfectly healthy, the researchers found.
Doctors may be wrongly advising some with high BMIs to lose weight when they do not need to. Rather than becoming obsessed about weight, it may be better to ensure they have a healthy diet and get regular exercise.
When other health indicators were taken alongside BMI, the study showed that nearly half of all people labelled overweight and roughly a third of people labelled obese had little to worry about.
At the same time, around one in three people with apparently healthy BMI figures may have a false sense of security when they are actually at risk of heart disease, based on blood tests and their blood pressure readings.
The researchers say the focus on BMI by healthcare systems is also adding to “anti-fat bias”, increasing the prejudice that the overweight face.
BMI is calculated by taking a person’s weight in kilos and dividing it by the square of their height in metres.
Typically, a BMI below 18.5 is regarded as underweight, anything between 18.5 to 24.9 is “healthy”, 25 or over is “overweight” and 30 or more is categorised as “obese”.
In the new study, based on the US population, around half of adults classified as “overweight” – some 34.4million – were found to be healthy. A further 29 percent of obese individuals – around 19.8 million – were deemed healthy as well.
Among the ‘”ery obese” – those with a BMI of more than 35 – 15 percent, or around 2million, had a clean bill of health.
Researcher Janet Tomiyama of the University of California, Los Angeles, suggested that the findings incorrectly label more than 54 million Americans as unhealthy. While the study was based in the US, BMI is widely used to measure obesity here. The findings would suggest that many millions of British people classed as overweight or obese by their GPs may be healthy. The only way to be sure would be to carry out a battery of tests.
The researchers’ findings published in the International Journal of Obesity. Professor Tomiyama said: “Many people see obesity as a death sentence. But the data show there are tens of millions of people who are overweight and obese and are perfectly healthy.”
The scientists analysed the link between BMI and several health markers, including blood pressure and levels of glucose, cholesterol, triglyceride (a measure of fat in the bloodstream) and C-reactive protein (an indicator of the health of the circulatory system).
Jeffrey Hunger, co-author and a doctoral candidate at University of California, said the study “should be the final nail in the coffin for BMI”.
Daily Mail