Medical Group Says B.M.I. Alone Is Not Enough to Assess Health and Weight

The American Medical Association adopted a new policy Tuesday that encourages doctors to not rely solely on the body mass index (BMI), a metric long used but potentially misleading, to assess weight and health. The policy acknowledges the "historical harm" of B.M.I. The policy acknowledges that B.M.I. has been used to 'exclude racists'.

Dr. Cynthia Romero of Eastern Virginia Medical School's M. Foscue Brock Institute for Community and Global Health, who worked on the policy's development, said: "It's quite a change." Now we must be more mindful and holistic in our patient care.

This policy could be the first step away from a medical model that encourages people to lose weight if they are above a certain B.M.I. Dr. Scott Hagan is an assistant professor of Medicine at the University of Washington, who has studied obesity. He was not involved in the decision. He said, 'It is a big deal.' The A.M.A. While the A.M.A.

The association, which is one of the biggest medical groups in the nation, will recommend that doctors do not use B.M.I. The B.M.I. alone cannot be used to determine if a patient has reached a healthy body weight. The A.M.A. The A.M.A.

The body mass index has a complex history. It is a simple calculation. It is calculated by multiplying your weight in kilograms by your height in meters. The critics have long claimed that the B.M.I. is an incorrect measure of health because someone with little fat and a lot muscle may have the exact same B.M.I. As someone who is obese.

Dr. Hagan stated that the B.M.I. "Someone who has a high B.M.I. 'Someone with a high B.M.I.

Leslie Heinberg is the director of the Enterprise Weight Management Center, Cleveland Clinic. She said that where you carry your weight matters. She said that abdominal fat was associated with higher rates for Type 2 diabetes and heart disease compared to fat around the hips. This nuance is not captured by the metric.

There are many concerns about the B.M.I. In a statement, Dr. Jack Resneck Jr. who left his position as A.M.A. In a statement released this month, Dr. Jack Resneck Jr. said that doctors should be aware of both the benefits and the limitations of the metric.

Iliya Gutin, program officer at National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine and research affiliate at University of Texas at Austin, who has studied the metric and applauded the new policy, said it is "probably the best" we can do for assessing large populations. It's also efficient and inexpensive.

B.M.I. B.M.I. She said that she was shocked by the new policy. 'For the longest time, I've been in this emperor-has-no-clothes situation, where I just couldn't understand why really smart physicians continue to rely on something that was so clearly flawed.'

B.M.I. The measure is based on data from older generations of non-Hispanic White people. This makes it difficult to use the measure for a larger population.

Gutin stated that a lot of the standards and guidelines we have were built on it. Once that happens, the inertia is very difficult to overcome.