The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology Commission, made up of more than 50 experts, has called for a ‘radical overhaul’ in how obesity is defined.

A new report says only using BMI to determine if a patient has obesity leads to under-diagnosing people who are ill and over-diagnosing people who don't currently deal with the negative health consequences of obesity.

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Our reframing acknowledges the nuanced reality of obesity and allows for personalized care,” said Dr. Francesco Rubino of King’s College London.

How we define obesity needs to become more nuanced, a report has argued, with BMI (body mass index) as a measure alone being too simplistic.

Obesity, long determined by the flawed metric of BMI, should be diagnosed based on other measurements, experts argue.

An international committee of scientists has proposed changing the way obesity is defined and diagnosed. The proposal adds more ways to measure body composition and fat.

“We recommend that BMI should be used only as a surrogate measure of health risk at a population level, for epidemiological studies, or for screening purposes, rather than as an individual measure of health,” the report reads.

A group of global experts is proposing a new way to define and diagnose obesity, reducing the emphasis on the controversial body mass index and hoping to better identify people who need treatment for the disease caused by excess body fat.

BMI is used to classify individuals as underweight, healthy weight, overweight, or obese based on their height and weight. It is calculated by dividing weight in kilograms by health in meters squared.