A group of 58 researchers is calling for a new, better way to measure obesity.

The global team’s recommendations were published in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology on Jan. 14.

Body mass index (BMI) has been the international standard for measuring obesity since the 1980s, according to many sources, though some experts have questioned its validity. 

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A person’s BMI is calculated by dividing his or her weight by the square of his or her height in feet.

“Obesity is a complex problem and has different significance at the individual level,” the report’s lead author Francesco Rubino, chair of bariatric and metabolic surgery at King’s College London, United Kingdom, told Fox News Digital.

Obesity is a “spectrum,” he said, rather than a “single, distinct clinical entity.”

Rubino went on, “It is impossible to say if obesity is a disease or not, as disease status cannot coincide with body size or mere excess body fat.” 

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The Commission on Clinical Obesity has proposed a “reframing” of obesity that distinguishes between people who have a disease here and now, and those who may have a risk for future disease, Rubino said.

Instead of relying solely on BMI, the researchers recommend also measuring adiposity, which is the amount of excess body fat.

A person’s BMI is calculated by dividing his or her weight by the square of his or her height in feet. (iStock)

Adiposity can be determined by measuring a person’s waist circumference or taking body scans to measure fat mass, according to the researchers.

The group of experts recommends using two levels of obesity: preclinical and clinical.

With preclinical obesity, the person has excess body fat that has not affected the function of their tissues and organs.

“People with clinical obesity suffer from a chronic illness and should be treated in the same way as people who suffer from any other chronic disease.”

The person may have, however, an increased risk of developing clinical obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease and some types of cancer, the researchers noted. 

Clinical obesity is defined as “a chronic, systemic illness characterized by alterations in the function of tissues, organs, the entire individual or a combination thereof, due to excess adiposity.”

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With clinical obesity, the person may experience “severe end-organ damage, causing life-altering and potentially life-threatening complications,” the researchers wrote.

Potential effects of clinical obesity may include heart attack, stroke and kidney failure. 

“As these categories of obesity are entirely new, we can’t measure their relative prevalence in the population,” Rubino noted. “Doctors have not yet had the possibility to make such a diagnosis, because many of the organ dysfunctions that characterize clinical obesity have not been routinely assessed so far.” 

When excess body fat is confirmed, clinicians should assess individuals to determine whether obesity may have caused any organ dysfunction, the study researcher said. (iStock)

The researchers call for future studies into these diagnoses. 

“We recommend that clinicians thoroughly assess people with obesity in the clinic and use other measures of body size — waist circumference or others — to understand if an increased BMI level is due to excess body fat or other reasons, like increased muscle mass,” Rubino told Fox News Digital.

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When excess body fat — meaning obesity — is confirmed, clinicians should assess individuals to determine whether obesity may have caused any organ dysfunction, the researcher said.

“People with clinical obesity suffer from a chronic illness and should be treated in the same way as people who suffer from any other chronic disease,” Rubino said. 

People with preclinical obesity should undergo “evidence-based health counseling, monitoring of their health status over time, and, when applicable, appropriate intervention to reduce risk of developing clinical obesity,” they wrote.

Between August 2021 and August 2023, approximately 40% of U.S. adults had obesity, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Around 9.4% of those adults had severe obesity.

‘Outdated measure’

Dr. Brett Osborn, a neurosurgeon, longevity expert and fitness competitor based in Florida, agrees that BMI is an “outdated measure” for diagnosing obesity.

“It is clear that obesity should no longer be defined solely by physical appearance or weight.”

“As medicine evolves, it is clear that obesity should no longer be defined solely by physical appearance or weight — or weight relative to height, as in BMI calculations,” the doctor, who was not involved in this new research, told Fox News Digital. 

“Instead, the condition must be understood through the lens of metabolic dysfunction.”

Obesity isn’t just a disease of excess weight, Osborn said, but a “systemic metabolic disorder requiring nuanced and individualized care.”

The condition is better measured by looking at factors like inflammation, insulin resistance and glucose tolerance, according to the doctor.

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In some cases, using BMI can result in “muscular athletes” being labeled as obese, he noted, and people with “normal” BMI can sometimes have “harmful” levels of visceral (abdominal) fat.

Osborn noted that in his own clinic, he and his team do not use BMI, relying instead on visceral fat scores, skeletal muscle mass and body fat percentage. 

In some cases, using BMI can result in “muscular athletes” being labeled as obese, one doctor noted. (iStock)

Skeletal muscle mass (the muscles that connect to the bones) is critical to physical strength and metabolic efficiency, Osborn said.

For optimal health, he recommends that males aim for 50% skeletal muscle mass relative to total body weight and females target 45% — although other factors, like age and fitness levels, come into play.

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“Remember, your resilience — your ability to ward off disease — resides in your muscle,” Osborn added.

“By integrating body composition metrics, metabolic markers and personalized assessments, we can more accurately diagnose obesity and tailor interventions to each individual.”

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Ivanka Trump, the daughter of incoming President Donald Trump, has been known to lead an active life.

As the mother of three kids and a lover of outdoor sports, the 43-year-old is always on the move, recently adding jiu-jitsu to her mix of physical activity.

In a recent appearance on The Skinny Confidential Him & Her podcast, Trump shared how her daughter, Arabella, expressed interest in learning self-defense when she was 11.

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“I’m just so in awe of [her],” Trump said about her daughter. “She came to me and said, ‘As a woman, I feel like I need to know how to defend myself, and I don’t have a confidence level yet that I can do that.’”

Trump responded, “At 11 … I was not thinking about how to physically defend myself, and I thought it was the coolest thing.”

After researching self-defense options, Trump enrolled Arabella, now 13, in jiu-jitsu (martial arts) classes with the Valente Brothers in Miami, Florida – and soon the whole family joined in.

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“[Arabella] started asking me to join – I joined,” she said. “Then my two sons wanted to do what their older sister was doing. Then my husband joined … It is good for everyone.”

“It’s almost like a moving meditation.”

Trump, who is now a blue belt in jiu-jitsu, described that she likes how the sport “meshes physical movement.”

“It’s almost like a moving meditation because the movements are so micro,” she said. “It’s like three-dimensional chess.”

“There’s like a real spiritualism to it … The grounding in sort of samurai tradition and culture and wisdom.”

During President Trump’s first term in the White House, Ivanka Trump noted that she had very little focus on fitness, only taking weekly runs with husband Jared Kushner and “chasing the kids around the house.”

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Trump shared that she was “never a gym person,” but always loved sports, which still holds true today.

She said she enjoys skiing, surfing and racquet sports like padel tennis (a hybrid of tennis and squash) and pickle ball, which she described as “fun and social.”

Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner are seen out for a walk with their children on Dec. 10, 2022, in Miami, Florida. (MEGA/GC Images)

‘Elevating awareness’

On the podcast, Trump said she was drawn to jiu-jitsu because it combines physical fitness and philosophy.

It also focuses more on how to extract yourself from a dangerous situation before having to harm someone who’s a threat, she noted.

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“Having these skills makes you less likely to get into a fight, not more likely to,” Trump went on.

“Once you have the confidence that you can sort of move out of a situation, there’s a real focus on elevating awareness.”

Ivanka Trump waves as she arrives at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland for US President Donald Trump’s departure on Jan. 20, 2021. (ALEX EDELMAN/AFP via Getty Images)

In a previous interview with Fox News Digital, Rener Gracie, head instructor of jiu-jitsu at Gracie University in California, stressed that the only truly reliable skills are those that have been “mastered into muscle memory.”

This occurs through extensively practicing self-defense methods like Brazilian jiu-jitsu, which are “leverage-based and don’t rely on you having a physical advantage over the subject,” he noted.

“Having these skills makes you less likely to get into a fight, not more likely to.”

“And by that, I mean strength, speed, power and size — because in almost every case, the attacker is going to target someone who they feel is physically inferior to them.”

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Gracie, whose family created Brazilian jiu-jitsu and the UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship), shared that jiu-jitsu is “highly sought after” because it only takes weeks or months for someone to “develop the core skills that could keep them safe in a violent physical encounter.”

‘Transformative’ strength training

In addition to mastering self-defense skills, Ivanka Trump recently revealed a shift in her fitness routine to include weightlifting and resistance training.

On Instagram, Trump posted a video displaying different exercises with various equipment in the gym, noting in the caption that she used to focus primarily on cardio, yoga and Pilates.

“Since moving to Miami, I have shifted my focus to weightlifting and resistance training, and it has been transformative in helping me build muscle and shift my body composition in ways I hadn’t imagined,” she wrote.

“I believe in a strength training approach built on foundational, time-tested and simple movements – squats, deadlifts, hinges, pushes and pulls. These are the cornerstones of my workout, emphasizing functional strength for life.”

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Trump added that prioritizing form is “essential” to ensure results before adding on weight.

“This ensures a safe and steady progression while maintaining the integrity of each movement,” she continued. “I incorporate mobility work within my sessions to enhance range of motion.”

“I believe in a strength training approach built on foundational, time-tested and simple movements – squats, deadlifts, hinges, pushes and pulls,” Ivanka Trump wrote in an October Instagram post. (Ivanka Trump/Instagram)

“Weightlifting has enhanced not just my strength but my overall athleticism and resilience,” she added.

Trump said she dedicates three to four days a week to strength training, including two solo sessions and two with a personal trainer.

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She also said that increasing her protein intake has also been “critical” to her progress.

“I now consume between 30 and 50 grams of protein a meal,” she said. “It works … I’ve never been stronger!”

Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump are seen arriving at the beachside eatery on May 2, 2024, in Miami Beach, Florida. (MEGA/GC Images)

Trump also still enjoys weekly yoga sessions, spending time outdoors with her children and playing sports with friends, she said.

“I also incorporate a couple of short (10-minute), high-intensity interval training sessions (such as sprints) each week to keep my cardiovascular fitness sharp and dynamic,” she noted.

“This balanced approach has infused new energy into my fitness routine and yielded great results.”

Fox News Digital reached out to Ivanka Trump for comment.