Americans now have official guidelines to tell them just how fat they are.
The guidelines, from an expert panel convened by the National Institutes of
ÎçÒ¹¸£Àû1000¼¯ºÏ, use body mass index (BMI) to determine whether a person is too heavy.
They define anyone with a BMI of more than 25 as overweight, and more than 30 as
obese. BMI is weight in kilograms divided by the square of height in metres. A
waist circumference of more than 100 centimetres in men and 89 centimetres in
women presents additional health risks for people with a BMI of more than 25.
According to the guidelines, 55 per cent of adult Americans are overweight or
obese.
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