20 Mar BMI Can Be Misleading In Older Overweight Adults Due to Body Fat Redistribution
Prof. El GHOCH
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Prof. Marwan EL GHOCH
Professore Associato in Scienza dell’Alimentazione e Tecniche Dietetiche Applicate MEDS-08/C
Dipartimento di Scienze Biomediche, Metaboliche e Neuroscienze
Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia
Modena, 41125, Italy
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Body mass index (BMI) is an easy-to-use tool to determine an individual’s by classifying him/her as having normal weight, overweight, or obesity, and this is based on universal cut-off points suggested by the World Health Organization (WHO) for all age groups. Not taking into account the potential changes that may occur to body composition compartments during the individual’s lifespan. In fact, little is still known about this topic in people with overweight and obesity.
For this reason our study aimed to compare the body composition compartments between three different age groups (young, middle-age, and older adults), adopting a design that matched these 3 age groups by BMI.
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings?
Response: The main finding of the study was that people with overweight or obesity despite having similar BMIs displayed significant differences in body composition compartments according to their age group, such as higher body fat especially in central regions and lower muscle mass in arms and legs.
MedicalResearch.com: What should readers take away from your report?
Response: Our results indicate that we cannot rely only on BMI without considering the content and distribution of body composition in people with overweight or obesity across the different age groups, since those in middle- and older-age have higher central adiposity and lower muscle mass with respect to the younger group, especially since that above-mentioned alteration in body composition is usually more associated with major negative health consequences. Therefore the use of only BMI becomes useless and misleading.
MedicalResearch.com: What recommendations do you have for future research as a results of this study?
Response: Our findings open new directions for future research as we suggest that people with overweight or obesity might experience a sort of redistribution within their body compartments (i.e. fat and muscle) as they age, without meaningful changes in their BMI, namely an increased fat trunk accumulation (i.e. visceral adipose tissue) and a decrease in muscle mass in the extremities (i.e. sarcopenia), however this hypothesis should be confirmed through longitudinal studies.
Citations:
- Research presented at the European Congress on Obesity in Malaga, Spain, 11-14 May 2025
- The study has been published in the journal Nutrients.
For link to full study, click here.
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Last Updated on March 20, 2025 by Marie Benz MD FAAD