Withings: Leverage technology for more reliable definition of obesity

BOSTON – Nearly 40% of consumers classified as overweight or obese under traditional body mass index (BMI) definitions would no longer carry that diagnosis under newly proposed criteria recently published in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology, according to an analysis by Withings. Withings, which has been offering scales with body composition assessment since 2009, analyzed data from 3.4 million anonymized users aged between 20 and 79 years old and found: 

• More than a third (38.4%) of people classified as “overweight” under BMI guidelines have unhealthy fat and should receive further screenings for organ dysfunction and metabolic disease; 

• 2% of people with a “normal” BMI have high body fat percentages, exposing hidden metabolic risks; 

• 6% of those classified as “obese” based on BMI exhibit low health risks when assessed through body composition analysis and would not be considered obese under the new guidelines. 

"Relying solely on BMI oversimplifies health assessments, leading to misjudgments, treatment disparities and weight-related stigma," said Aline Criton, chief clinical and regulatory affairs officer at Withings. "Our findings highlight the significant impact of adopting a more reliable definition of obesity. With this new definition, over a third of our users would be reclassified, profoundly influencing clinical and lifestyle decisions." While BMI has historically been the only inexpensive, non-invasive approach for identifying obesity in clinical settings, advances in technology and methodology have rendered clinical reliance on this outdated tool obsolete, Withings says. Utilizing home-based connected devices, such as Withings' body composition scales, empowers both physicians and users to tailor treatments and health behaviors effectively.