Body mass index, or BMI, has long been criticized as a flawed method for measuring obesity — and now a group of experts is sharing new recommendations.
BMI is a formula that uses a person's height and weight ratio to assess whether they're underweight, normal weight, overweight or obese, although it is not a direct measure of body fat.
In the report, published Tuesday in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology journal, more than 50 experts proposed a new way for medical professionals to define and diagnose obesity that puts less emphasis on BMI.
While the new recommendations still uses BMI as a "first pass" screening tool, it drills down into whether a person has pre-clinical obesity or clinic obesity with other means of measure, Dr. Céline Gounder, CBS News medical contributor and editor-at-large for public health at KFF Health News, said on "CBS Mornings" Wednesday.
"So what that means is, do you actually have excess fat?" Gounder said, explaining there are three main ways to measure that.
