BMI or Body Mass Index has been the standard way of detecting obesity for years. Now a new technique, ABSI, otherwise known as “A Body Shape Index,” is the radical new measure proposed by Dr. Jesse Krakauer, an endocrinologist at Middletown Medical in Middletown N.Y, and his son Nir Krakauer,an assistant professor of engineering at City University of New York, as a means of determining whether or not you’re more at risk for premature illnesses caused by weight gain.

Using a person’s height, weight, and waist circumference doctors will be able to determine whether or not an individual has what the Krakauer’s dubbed as a “hazardous body shape.”

According to The Los Angeles Times,

“Their equation manipulates those three measures in a relatively simple and compact way: Take your waist circumference (in centimeters) and divide that by the product of two variables. The first is the square root of your height (in centimeters); the second is the square of the cube-root of your BMI.”

By using this method, doctors will be able to get a more accurate picture of a person’s inclinations towards premature death. It might even aid in reaching more of a conclusive result that can help the 78 million Americans who suffer from obesity.

around the web

3 Comments

  1. Something other than the BMI should be considered. Im not sure this is THEE solution, but its important to have alternatives, especially if insurance companies and doctors are going to be using these tools as measurement factors in over all medical health issues

  2. BMI is flawed but most obesity markers are because everyone’s case is different.

    • True, According to the BMI I should be 10 pounds lighter, but even my co-workers say I shouldnt lose anymore weight. And I also have a lot of muscle which I think skews things.

Leave a Reply to Nai Cancel reply