More people could count as obese under newly proposed definition — here's what you need to know

The concept of obesity is closely tied to numerous health issues, including heart disease, diabetes, and premature death. Medical professionals often utilize the Body Mass Index (BMI) as a convenient means to evaluate patients, but this method fails to account for individual variations in body composition. Dr. Francesco Rubino, a professor of bariatric and metabolic surgery at King's College London, recently chaired a team of 56 experts to refine the definition of obesity and establish new diagnostic criteria.

In January 2025, the team unveiled a novel framework that incorporates additional body measurements, differentiating between preclinical and clinical obesity. A recent study published in the journal Nature confirms that these revised criteria may provide more precise obesity diagnoses compared to BMI alone.