Obesity: can we cure our dependence on BMI?
Obesity remains defined by the flawed metric at the heart of its diagnosis—BMI. Carla Delgado reports on the fresh attempts to move away from this, as weight loss drugs usher in a new age for the obesity crisis The explosion in popularity of weight loss drugs such as semaglutide (Wegovy, Ozempic) and tirzepatide (Zepbound, Mounjaro) has brought a twist to the management of obesity. Patients usually need to exceed a minimum BMI threshold and have at least one weight related health condition to get a prescription for a weight loss drug. And that’s again put a spotlight on the way obesity is defined, measured, and diagnosed. In January 2025, the Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology global commission on clinical obesity tackled this head on. The report recommended a new framework that moves away from BMI as a singular indicator and instead approaches obesity as a disease spectrum.1 Experts say that not knowing what BMI means can lead to incorrect assumptions about a person’s health and risk o
