Research

Mixed

Fat Mass Index (FMI) is a superior screening tool for predicting metabolic syndrome compared to Body Mass Index (BMI) and Percentage of Body Fat (BF%), providing higher predictive accuracy and independent risk association.

If you are screening for metabolic syndrome, do not rely solely on BMI. Use Fat Mass Index (FMI), calculated as fat mass divided by height squared. For men, an FMI cutoff of 7.00 kg/m2 and for women, 7.90 kg/m2 are optimal thresholds for predicting metabolic syndrome. This is more accurate than BMI or simple body fat percentage.

GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
Among the indicators used to predict MetS, FMI was the index that showed the greatest area under the ROC curve in both sexes... FMI seems to be a better screening tool in prediction of the presence of metabolic syndrome than BMI and percentage of body fat in men and women.
Pengju Liu et al. · BMC Public Health · 2013

Why this rating

Large cross-sectional study (n=1698) with robust statistical adjustment, but limited by cross-sectional design preventing causal inference.

Source

The utility of fat mass index vs. body mass index and percentage of body fat in the screening of metabolic syndrome

Pengju Liu et al. · BMC Public Health · 2013

DOI 10.1186/1471-2458-13-629

cross_sectional · n=1698Cited 243×
Read the paper
DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

This is one finding among thousands. Every one is graded and traced to its source, so you can see what the evidence actually supports. Browse the research →