The Number on the Scale Is Not the Whole Story: Rethinking How We Measure Health
Body mass index has dominated clinical weight assessment for decades, yet the scientific case for its limitations has never been stronger. Emerging research on body composition, metabolic markers, and cardiorespiratory fitness paints a far more nuanced portrait of what health actually looks like—one that a single ratio of weight to height simply cannot capture. Here is what the evidence suggests patients and their physicians should be paying attention to instead.