New research points to a better way to measure obesity than body mass index. Body mass index was first developed in 1832 and has been the standard way to estimate a person’s body fat since the 1980s.

In daily practice, physicians need a quick and simple way to assess whether a patient's weight presents a health risk. For decades, the body mass index (BMI) has been used for this purpose, with ...

The reason BMI is not very usable for measuring an individuals health is that the BMI only takes a persons weight and height ...