Research
Micronutrients & recovery
Revised BMI cutoffs of 24 for women and 28 for men better predict obesity (defined by DXA percent body fat) than the standard cutoff of 30.
If you are a woman, your 'obese' BMI might be lower than 30 (e.g., 24-29). If you are a man, it might be 28-29. This doesn't mean you are 'fat' in a cosmetic sense, but it may indicate high body fat relative to muscle, which increases health risks. Discuss this with your doctor.
GoodQualifiesHIGH confidence
A more appropriate cut-point for obesity with BMI is 24 for females and 28 for males... These new cut-points increased diagnostic sensitivity with small losses in specificity.
Why this rating
Based on ROC analysis optimizing sensitivity and specificity against a gold standard (DXA).
Source
Measuring Adiposity in Patients: The Utility of Body Mass Index (BMI), Percent Body Fat, and Leptin
Nirav R. Shah et al. · PLoS ONE · 2012
DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0033308
cross_sectional · n=1393Cited 552×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
More from this paper
- Standard BMI cutoffs (≥30 kg/m²) significantly underestimate obesity prevalence, particularly in women, due to failure to account for sarcopenic obesity and body composition changes with age.Good
- Leptin levels can be used to adjust BMI estimates to better predict percent body fat, particularly in women with high leptin levels (>30 ng/mL).Good
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