The BMI health metric is being replaced

The Body Mass Index may soon be a thing of the past

What you probably already know: The Body Mass Index — a ratio of height to weight — has been used by medical professionals to determine if a person is overweight or obese, but to say it is imprecise would be an understatement. Some Olympic athletes qualify as overweight using this metric, and it has been criticized for relying on young, male Caucasian body types to determine the “healthy” ratios. Now, a new kind of measurement, called the Body Roundness Index, is gaining traction as a more accurate way to measure whether someone is truly overweight.

Why? BMI can be used to determine a person’s risk of type 2 diabetes and heart disease, and can be used by life insurance companies to determine premiums, so it’s accuracy can have serious health and monetary consequences. The body roundness index, on the other hand, takes into account the visceral fat that builds up around your organs, which is the most dangerous kind of fat and is linked to a variety of chronic health issues. It is a measure of waist circumference to height, and if the number is greater than 0.5, a person is at risk of more serious health issues.

What it means: Women tend to have less visceral fat than men even though overall they have 10% more body fat, meaning they often have higher BMIs but lower risks of heart disease and diabetes than a man with the same BMI. At least, until menopause, when women can start to put on visceral fat. But a woman’s BMI might stay exactly the same pre and post-menopause, while her risk of health issues as a result of increased visceral fat went up. The body roundness index would flag these potential issues better and thus help women get the medical treatment they need to stay healthy later in life.

What happens now? Researchers are still studying this new metric to determine its effectiveness but one early study looked at 33,000 U.S. adults and found that a higher BRI was associated with greater mortality risk regardless of age, gender and ethnicity. As this metric gains traction in the medical community, you may find yourself with a measuring tape around your waist at your next doctor’s visit.