READ MORE: Ozempic could make you go BLIND warn experts as worrying studyCarrying round a small beer belly or 'muffin-top' but reassured by your not-obese body-mass-index result? You may still need obesity drugs like Ozempic, experts have suggested.
But despite its risks people can have high levels of abdominal fat and be nowhere near the BMI of 30 threshold the NHS uses to determine if people are obese. A coalition of experts from the European Association for the Study of Obesity have now called for the system we use to give people obesity drugs, having a BMI of 30 plus, to be overhauled.
'More specifically, the accumulation of abdominal fat is associated with an increased risk of developing cardiometabolic complications and is a stronger determinant of disease development than BMI, even in individuals with a BMI level below the standard cut-off values for obesity diagnosis .' Under the BMI system, a score of 18.5 to 25 is healthy. A score of 25 to 29 counts as overweight, and 30-plus means a person is obese, the stage at which chances of illness rocket