New Way to Measure Obesity Uses Hips Not Weight

The 200-year-old system of measuring obesity may finally be put to rest: The body mass index may be replaced with a new system experts are working on called the body adiposity index.

BAI relies on height and hip measurements as opposed to the height and weight ratio of the BMI system.

"The problem with BMI is it doesn't take into account that a person may be an athlete or a fitness expert," Dr. Michael Wolfe, chair of medicine at The MetroHealth System and professor of medicine at Case Western Reserve Medical Center, told AOL Health. "Someone with higher muscle mass will have a higher weight. BAI tells you more than just weight; it also tells you composition of weight."

The study, which was published in the journal Obesity, said BAI is more flexible than BMI and takes into account many more factors like lifestyles or nationalities. For instance, an athlete cannot be compared to a couch potato and African Americans may have a different body build than Caucasians. Similarly, men and women can have the same BMI but very different amounts of body fat.

BAI is also much simpler to calculate since scales or accurate weight numbers are not needed.

Researchers are still studying if BAI is the most reliable system to gauge obesity.

Visit AOL Health to learn more about BAI measurements.