New research to be presented at this year's European Congress on Obesity (ECO 2025, Malaga, Spain, 11-14 May) shows that the internationally recognized body mass index (BMI) cut-off points greatly overestimate overweight and obesity in male athletes. The study, from Italy, also proposes new cut-off points for overweight and obesity in this group. Body mass index (BMI) is a key method for measuring people's weight status, defining whether they have normal weight, overweight or obesity. However, some research has found that this classification system may not be good at identifying overweight and obesity in athletes and its use in this group has long been subject to criticism. BMI doesn't distinguish between body fat and lean mass, which includes muscle. As a result, a muscular athlete with low body fat can be wrongly classified as living with overweight or obesity. Despite this, many sports organisations still rely on the traditional BMI classification system." Professor Marwan El Ghoch, Department of Biomedical, Metabolic and Neural Sciences, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Modena, Italy The cross-sectional study involved 622 males (average age of 25.7 years, BMI ≥ 20 kg/m2) who had been referred to the Department of Neurosciences, Biomedicine and Movement Sciences, of the University of Verona, Italy, and participated in sports including soccer, rugby, basketball, volleyball, cross-fit, karate and others at a competitive level. Total body fat percentage (BF%) was measured using dual X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) scans – known to be a highly accurate tool for measuring body composition – according to age- and gender-specific cut-off points. A BF% of 21% or above was classified as overweight and a BF% of 26% or above was classified as obesity. Using this system, fewer than 4% of the individuals were categorised as living with overweight or obesity. Professor El Ghoch, who led the study, says: "This demonstrates that the current BMI cut-off points are clearly flawed in determining weight status in athletes, as many of the athletes were misclassified as living with overweight or obesity, where in reality, very few had body fat levels in this range." Study co-author, Professor Chiara Milanese, of the University of Verona, explains: "Although DXA scans measure body composition accurately, they are not always available in sports settings. In contrast, weight and height, the two measures needed to calculate BMI, are easy to obtain and, with the new BMI cut-offs that we identified, BMI could be a highly useful tool in sports clubs, both at training grounds and in competitions. "A direct assessment of body composition remains the gold standard but, in its absence, we encourage sports organisations and committees to adopt the new BMI classification system." The authors add that several further pieces of research are needed. These include identifying new cut-offs for female athletes and, potentially, specific cut-offs for different sports, particularly those were not included in the current study. Dr. Pascale Allotey advocates for comprehensive maternal health policies, stressing the importance of women's voices in shaping effective healthcare solutions. News-Medical.Net provides this medical information service in accordance with these terms and conditions. Please note that medical information found on this website is designed to support, not to replace the relationship between patient and physician/doctor and the medical advice they may provide. Hi, I'm Azthena, you can trust me to find commercial scientific answers from News-Medical.net. Registered members can chat with Azthena, request quotations, download pdf's, brochures and subscribe to our related newsletter content. A few things you need to know before we start. While we only use edited and approved content for Azthena answers, it may on occasions provide incorrect responses. Please confirm any data provided with the related suppliers or authors. Your questions, but not your email details will be shared with OpenAI and retained for 30 days in accordance with their privacy principles. Please do not ask questions that use sensitive or confidential information.