New Body Mass Index (BMI) Cut-offs for the Diagnosis of Obesity and Comorbidities

Obesity is a serious medical problem because it increases the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD), type 2 diabetes mellitus, and certain forms of cancer. The definition of obesity is based on an excess of body fat, not of BMI. However, BMI is the reference used to establish a graded classification of weight relative to height. Although BMI is widely used as a simple surrogate measure of body fat and has been shown to correlate closely with adiposity, it would be more appropriate to determine body fat percentage and to use this value for classification purposes. The present study contemplates the determination of the per cent body fat with the aim of establishing new diagnostic and therapeutic criteria according to the associated comorbidities.