Obesity in India - The Standard is Changing

by Martha Edwards (Subscribe to Martha Edwards's posts)
Dec 1st 2008 9:00AM

Categories: Diet & Weight Loss, Celebs & Entertainment

BMI classifications are accepted universally: 18 to 24 is considered normal, 25 to 29 overweight and 30+ obese. Correction -- BMI classifications were universal but now, one country is changing the standard.

India is re-defining what it means to be overweight or obese. Whereas the old standard classified people with a BMI of 24 as normal, anyone who ranks over 23 will be considered overweight. And those who have a BMI of 25 or over will be considered obese.

This means, of course, that hundreds of thousands of people who thought they were healthy will have to think again under the new guidelines. Kind of seems unfair, huh? The government doesn't think so. "This revision has been long overdue," said Anoop Misra of Fortis Hospital, New Delhi. "The new values will have tremendous public health implications."

What do you think? Is setting a new standard a good idea? Should the rest of us follow suit?

(via Calorie Lab)

Comments (4)

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Adam 12-01-2008 @ 10:27AM

What isn't fair is the use of BMI at all. When will the governments realize that having a BMI of 30 but only having 10% body fat shouldn't be considered obese. They need to take into account body fat and muscle mass.

u262f 12-01-2008 @ 2:56PM

I completely agree with Adam. BMI is a lousy shortcut for cheap and lazy researchers in the first place. Also, changing BMI standards sounds to me like a nasty trick to charge people more for health care insurance.

If people are going to use BMI at all, then there is a lot of research done by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases backing the current BMI numbers. Those number are there because that's where the health risks for diabetes and heart disease changed in the research the institutions did.

If the numbers are no longer valid, then it's an indication that BMI was never a good measure to begin with. The fact that India recognizes that the numbers have changed means that they should also recognize that BMI is not a useful measure. However, shifting the BMI cutoff numbers around isn't truly fixing anything. Merely shifting those numbers sounds to me like they know that BMI is a problematic indicator, but they don't want to equip doctors' offices with tape measures and/or calipers.

u262f 12-01-2008 @ 3:01PM

Blech. This is what I get for not reading the linked article first.

It looks like India also has "healthy waistlines values" recommendations. They should probably modify the waistline values according to height, but the fact that they have such recommendations at all is definitely a step in the right direction. I think we should be taking ideas from the "healthy waistlines values" part, not the BMI shifting.