A person falls in the obese category if his body mass index is more than 30kg/m2. BMI is the benchmark for separating individuals into different weight categories. When the figure increases further beyond 40kg/m2, person is at the risk of morbid obesity where the cure could be a gastric surgery.

For a healthy person, the target for BMI should range between 18.5 and 25, as stated by the American Institute for Cancer Research. BMI index differs in various countries and is intermittently renewed to accommodate various factors.

BMI was first discovered in the nineteenth century by Adolphe Quetelet. Although BMI is by and large used as a benchmark for comparing individuals in different weight categories, it is not the absolute diagnostic method to confirm that a person is obese. BMI alone does not confirm the distribution of unwanted fat in a human body. In many cases, it has been noted that athletes cross the BMI threshold level because of the heavy musculature, while the BMI of an older person could be normal in spite of having a lot of adipose tissue. The main cause for such anomalies is that BMI ignores the relative distribution of fat, muscles, and bones in the body.

Once the BMI of a person is ascertained, there are few other clinical methods to confirm whether a person is obese or not. Many doctors can check the eyes and say a person is obese Measurement of the waist circumference is one of the indication to categorize a person as obese. It generally predicts whether he is insulin resistant because of the excess deposit of visceral fat. Many super specialist clinics conduct bio-impedance test and skin fold test to measure the amount of thickness of subcutaneous fat layer. Since, such clinical tests cannot be used for collecting statistical data, BMI is mostly used to review the data.

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