2025 Picks: Why we need to move beyond BMI

1 Jan 2026 · 16 min

Episode 2025 Picks: Why we need to move beyond BMI

0:00 15:31

BMI, or body mass index, has long been used as a simple calculation to determine if someone is underweight, a ‘healthy’ weight or obese.

But when it was devised by a Belgian mathematician almost 200 years ago, it was never supposed to be a tool to measure health.

Now, researchers are challenging the way obesity is defined and diagnosed. Today, a look at the new approach and why there’s a global push away from BMI.

First published 10 February, 2025

Featured: Willow Moscarda, Perth studentDr Louise Bauer, Professor of child and adolescent health, University of Sydney

The episode on the publisher’s site (opens in a new tab)

Shows are listed from Apple Podcasts' charts and directory, and Podcast Index where it is used. Every show and episode belongs to its publisher and plays from the publisher's own feed; this site hosts none of them. Explicit shows are for adult profiles only, and children’s profiles hear only children’s shows. More about this list.