BMI is the go-to obesity metric, but there is increasing acknowledgment that it s an imperfect measure and can differ with ethnicity, sex, and body frame; hence, the growing chorus for alternatives.
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AMERICAN HEART ASSOCIATION â People with too much fat around their midsections and vital organs are at increased risk for heart disease, even if their body mass index falls within what is considered a healthy range, according to a new scientific report.
The statement from the American Heart Association, published April 22 in its journal Circulation, summarizes research on the ways in which belly fat and other measures of obesity affect heart health. Belly fat also is referred to as abdominal fat and visceral adipose tissue, or VAT.
âStudies that have examined the relationship between abdominal fat and cardiovascular outcomes confirm that visceral fat is a clear health hazard,â writing committee chair Dr. Tiffany Powell-Wiley said in a news release. Powell-Wiley is chief of the Social Determinants of Obesity and Cardiovascular Risk Laboratory at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute in Bethesda, Maryland.