Body mass index (BMI) has been a measuring stick for obesity for years. Your BMI, which is calculated using your height and weight, determines if you’re underweight, in a healthy weight range, overweight, obese, or severely obese.
The latest guidelines for measuring obesity — created by 58 medical experts, endorsed by 76 organizations, and published in the Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology journal in early 2025 — are shifting away from solely using your BMI to measure obesity.
This shift provides a more comprehensive approach to understanding and managing obesity.
So, how does this new approach affect you?
Below, board-certified general surgeon Dr. Mikhail A. Botvinov and the Bergen Bariatric and Surgical Solutions team explore the new guidelines for measuring obesity and how it can impact you.
While BMI has been a long-standing tool to assess your weight in relation to height, it doesn't account for other factors like body composition, fat distribution, or health risks.
It also doesn’t look at your quality of life, that is, how the excess weight affects your daily life.
While your BMI is still used as a “first pass” screening tool, a true assessment takes several different measurements into account.
The updated guidelines emphasize the importance of your waist circumference and waist-to-hip ratio. These measurements give you a better picture of fat distribution, especially abdominal fat.
This type of fat is known to be more closely linked to health conditions like heart disease and diabetes. For example, an increase of 12.5 cm (roughly five inches) in waist circumference raises the risk of coronary heart disease by more than 1.5 times. So, by measuring these factors, our team here at Bergen Bariatric and Surgical Solutions, P.C., can better assess your risk and create recommendations for weight management.
The new guidelines now recommend measuring both body fat percentage and fat-free mass. This approach looks at how much fat you have compared with lean tissue, which provides a clearer understanding of your overall health beyond just weight.
This is important because two people can weigh the exact same but have vastly different body compositions. A DEXA (dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry) scan can measure your bone density, lean tissue, and body fat.
The new guidelines look beyond quantifiable numbers; they also look at how your weight impacts your life and what (if any) activities are limited because of it. If your weight limits your daily activities — like climbing the stairs at work or walking around the grocery store with ease — we take that feedback into account.
So, why does this matter to you? These new measurements offer a more accurate picture of your health beyond the limitations of BMI. They help target the root causes of obesity-related health issues and allow for more personalized care.
Here at Bergen Bariatric and Surgical Solutions, Dr. Botvinov uses the new guidelines for measuring obesity and recommending treatment plans. He provides personalized consultations to help you determine the best path forward for your weight loss, whether with nonsurgical weight loss or bariatric surgery.
To schedule your weight loss consultation here in Westwood, New Jersey, call 201-778-5344 or schedule an appointment online.
