You can be fat and fit and even if you’re overweight you may not need to shed the pounds, scientists claim
MANY fat people do not actually need to lose weight, scientists claim.
They say a significant number are perfectly healthy and obesity is “overdiagnosed”.
A global commission of 56 experts said health is more complex than height-to-weight ratio.
They reckon many people classed as obese have healthy vital signs and could take a wait-and-see approach instead of rushing to slim down.
And they called for a better system than the current body mass index (BMI), which ranks about 15 million Brits as obese.
Professor Francesco Rubino, from King’s College London, said: “There might be some people who at the moment are classified as having obesity by BMI and we will find out that they don’t have it.
“Some people can maintain normal organ function and overall health, even long term.
“They might be athletes, play sports, be very active and have very strong bones.
“Classifying them as having a disease would obviously be an overdiagnosis.
“The level of risk is variable and we shouldn’t give the same intervention to everybody.”