Editing Body mass index (section)

====United States====
In 1998, the U.S. [[National Institutes of Health]] brought U.S. definitions in line with [[World Health Organization]] guidelines, lowering the normal/overweight cut-off from a BMI of 27.8 (men) and 27.3 (women) to a BMI of 25. This had the effect of redefining approximately 25 million Americans, previously ''healthy'', to ''overweight''.<ref name = "CNN_1998">{{cite news | url=http://www.cnn.com/HEALTH/9806/17/weight.guidelines/ | title=Who's fat? New definition adopted | publisher=CNN | date=June 17, 1998 | access-date=2010-04-26 | url-status=live | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101122173108/http://www.cnn.com/HEALTH/9806/17/weight.guidelines/ | archive-date=November 22, 2010 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Nuttall |first=Frank Q. |date=2015-04-07 |title=Body Mass Index – Obesity, BMI, and Health: A Critical Review |journal=Nutrition Today |volume=50 |issue=3 |pages=117–128 |doi=10.1097/NT.0000000000000092 |pmc=4890841 |pmid=27340299}}</ref>

This can partially explain the increase in the ''overweight'' diagnosis in the past 20 years,{{when|date=February 2023}} and the increase in sales of weight loss products during the same time. [[World Health Organization|WHO]] also recommends lowering the normal/overweight threshold for southeast Asian body types to around BMI 23, and expects further revisions to emerge from clinical studies of different body types.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=World Health Organization|date=January 10, 2004|title=Appropriate body-mass index for Asian populations and its implications for policy and intervention strategies|url=https://www.who.int/nutrition/publications/bmi_asia_strategies.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061210180811/http://www.who.int/nutrition/publications/bmi_asia_strategies.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-date=December 10, 2006|journal=The Lancet|volume=363|issue=9403|pages=157–163|doi=10.1016/s0140-6736(03)15268-3|pmid=14726171|s2cid=15637224}}</ref>

A survey in 2007 showed 63% of Americans were then overweight or obese, with 26% in the obese category (a BMI of 30 or more). By 2014, 37.7% of adults in the United States were obese, 35.0% of men and 40.4% of women; class 3 obesity (BMI over 40) values were 7.7% for men and 9.9% for women.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Flegal KM, Kruszon-Moran D, Carroll MD, Fryar CD, Ogden CL | title = Trends in Obesity Among Adults in the United States, 2005 to 2014 | journal = JAMA | volume = 315 | issue = 21 | pages = 2284–2291 | date = June 2016 | pmid = 27272580 | doi = 10.1001/jama.2016.6458 | doi-access = free | pmc = 11197437 }}</ref> The U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey of 2015–2016 showed that 71.6% of American men and women had BMIs over 25.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hus/2018/021.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hus/2018/021.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live|title= Selected health conditions and risk factors, by age: the United States, selected years}}</ref> Obesity—a BMI of 30 or more—was found in 39.8% of the US adults.

<div>
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders floatleft"
|-
|+ Body mass index values (kg/m<sup>2</sup>) for males aged 20 and over, and selected percentiles by age: United States, 2011–2014<ref name="CDC-Anthropometric">{{cite web|url=https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/series/sr_03/sr03_039.pdf|title=Anthropometric Reference Data for Children and Adults: United States|publisher=[[Centers for Disease Control and Prevention|CDC DHHS]]|date=2016|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170202010330/https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/series/sr_03/sr03_039.pdf|archive-date=2017-02-02}}</ref>
|-
! scope="col" rowspan="2"| Age
! scope="colgroup" colspan="9"| Percentile
|-
! scope="col"| 5th
! scope="col"| 10th
! scope="col"| 15th
! scope="col"| 25th
! scope="col"| 50th
! scope="col"| 75th
! scope="col"| 85th
! scope="col"| 90th
! scope="col"| 95th
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center"| ≥ 20 (total)
| 20.7
| 22.2
| 23.0
| 24.6
| 27.7
| 31.6
| 34.0
| 36.1
| 39.8
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" class="nowrap"| 20–29
| 19.3
| 20.5
| 21.2
| 22.5
| 25.5
| 30.5
| 33.1
| 35.1
| 39.2
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center"| 30–39
| 21.1
| 22.4
| 23.3
| 24.8
| 27.5
| 31.9
| 35.1
| 36.5
| 39.3
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center"| 40–49
| 21.9
| 23.4
| 24.3
| 25.7
| 28.5
| 31.9
| 34.4
| 36.5
| 40.0
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center"| 50–59
| 21.6
| 22.7
| 23.6
| 25.4
| 28.3
| 32.0
| 34.0
| 35.2
| 40.3
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center"| 60–69
| 21.6
| 22.7
| 23.6
| 25.3
| 28.0
| 32.4
| 35.3
| 36.9
| 41.2
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center"| 70–79
| 21.5
| 23.2
| 23.9
| 25.4
| 27.8
| 30.9
| 33.1
| 34.9
| 38.9
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center"| ≥ 80
| 20.0
| 21.5
| 22.5
| 24.1
| 26.3
| 29.0
| 31.1
| 32.3
| 33.8
|}

{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders"
|-
|+ Body mass index values (kg/m<sup>2</sup>) for females aged 20 and over, and selected percentiles by age: United States, 2011–2014<ref name="CDC-Anthropometric" />
|-
! scope="col" rowspan="2"| Age
! scope="colgroup" colspan="9"| Percentile
|-
! scope="col"| 5th
! scope="col"| 10th
! scope="col"| 15th
! scope="col"| 25th
! scope="col"| 50th
! scope="col"| 75th
! scope="col"| 85th
! scope="col"| 90th
! scope="col"| 95th
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center"| ≥ 20 (total)
| 19.6
| 21.0
| 22.0
| 23.6
| 27.7
| 33.2
| 36.5
| 39.3
| 43.3
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" class="nowrap"| 20–29
| 18.6
| 19.8
| 20.7
| 21.9
| 25.6
| 31.8
| 36.0
| 38.9
| 42.0
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center"| 30–39
| 19.8
| 21.1
| 22.0
| 23.3
| 27.6
| 33.1
| 36.6
| 40.0
| 44.7
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center"| 40–49
| 20.0
| 21.5
| 22.5
| 23.7
| 28.1
| 33.4
| 37.0
| 39.6
| 44.5
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center"| 50–59
| 19.9
| 21.5
| 22.2
| 24.5
| 28.6
| 34.4
| 38.3
| 40.7
| 45.2
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center"| 60–69
| 20.0
| 21.7
| 23.0
| 24.5
| 28.9
| 33.4
| 36.1
| 38.7
| 41.8
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center"| 70–79
| 20.5
| 22.1
| 22.9
| 24.6
| 28.3
| 33.4
| 36.5
| 39.1
| 42.9
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center"| ≥ 80
| 19.3
| 20.4
| 21.3
| 23.3
| 26.1
| 29.7
| 30.9
| 32.8
| 35.2
|}
{{clear}}
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