The Los Angeles Times 
(4/3, Healy) "Booster Shots" blog reports, "As if the nation's weight
problems were not daunting enough, a new study has found that the
body-mass index, the 200-year-old formula used to distinguish between
healthy and unhealthy weight, may be misclassifying roughly half of
women and just over 20% of men as healthy when their body-fat
composition suggests they are obese." According to a study "published
in the journal PLoS One," it used "a patient's ratio of
fat-to-lean muscle mass as the 'gold standard' for detecting obesity and
suggests that it may be a bellwether of an individual's risk for health
problems."
The researchers "found that when women had a special scan called a
dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) scan, which measures body fat,
muscle mass and bone density, obesity measured by BMI alone
underestimated obesity," HealthDay
(4/3, Healy) "Booster Shots" blog reports, "As if the nation's weight
problems were not daunting enough, a new study has found that the
body-mass index, the 200-year-old formula used to distinguish between
healthy and unhealthy weight, may be misclassifying roughly half of
women and just over 20% of men as healthy when their body-fat
composition suggests they are obese." According to a study "published
in the journal PLoS One," it used "a patient's ratio of
fat-to-lean muscle mass as the 'gold standard' for detecting obesity and
suggests that it may be a bellwether of an individual's risk for health
problems."
(4/3, Reinberg) reports. "Among the more than 1,300 people who
underwent DEXA in the study, almost half of women (48 percent) were
misclassified as not obese by BMI, but were found to be obese by percent
body fat on DEXA." By "contrast, 25 percent of men were misclassified
as being obese by BMI, but
were in fact not obese by percent body fat."
WebMD
(4/3, Boyles) reports, "Researchers says adding a simple test that
measures blood levels of the hormone leptin to BMI could better identify
obese people who are at risk for diabetes, heart disease, and other
conditions, but an expert who spoke to WebMD is skeptical." The authors
"that a more appropriate cut-off point for obesity might be a BMI of 24
for women and 28 for men." In addition, they say "combining BMI with a
blood test to measure leptin would give a more accurate picture of a
patient's body fat with very little added
cost."
BBC News
(4/3, Gallagher) quotes one of the study authors who said, "The Body
Mass Index is an insensitive measure of obesity, prone to
under-diagnosis, while direct fat measurements are superior because they
show distribution of body fat." They also said, "Greater loss of
muscle mass in women with age exacerbates the misclassification of BMI."
(4/3, Gallagher) quotes one of the study authors who said, "The Body
Mass Index is an insensitive measure of obesity, prone to
under-diagnosis, while direct fat measurements are superior because they
show distribution of body fat." They also said, "Greater loss of
muscle mass in women with age exacerbates the misclassification of BMI." 
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