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Malaga, Spain – April 19, 2025 – Standard Body Mass Index (BMI) categories significantly overestimate overweight and obesity rates among male athletes, according to new research presented at the European Congress on Obesity (ECO 2025) held in Malaga this week. The study, conducted by researchers in Italy and Lebanon and published in the journal Nutrients, proposes revised, higher BMI cut-off points specifically tailored for this athletic population.
Body Mass Index, calculated by dividing a person’s weight in kilograms by the square of their height in meters (), is a widely adopted method for population-level weight status assessment. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines overweight as a BMI of or higher, and obesity as or higher for adult men and women.
However, the applicability of these thresholds to athletes has long been debated. “BMI doesn’t distinguish between body fat and lean mass, which includes muscle,” explained lead author Professor Marwan El Ghoch from the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Italy. “As a result, a muscular athlete with low body fat can be wrongly classified as living with overweight or obesity. Despite this, many sports organizations still rely on the traditional BMI classification system.”
To investigate this discrepancy, Professor El Ghoch and colleagues from the University of Verona, Italy, and Beirut University, Lebanon, conducted a cross-sectional study involving 622 competitive male athletes (average age 25.7 years) from sports including soccer, rugby, basketball, and cross-fit.
Participants were assessed using both the standard BMI system and dual X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) scans, a highly accurate method for measuring body composition, specifically body fat percentage (BF%). For the study, BF% thresholds were set at for overweight and for obesity.
Using the conventional BMI cut-offs, the results classified 23.8% (148 individuals) of the athletes as overweight and 3.7% (23 individuals) as obese. In stark contrast, the DXA scans revealed a dramatically different picture: only 3.1% (19 individuals) had a BF% indicating overweight, and a mere 0.8% (5 individuals) were classified as obese based on body fat. Over 96% of the athletes fell within the normal BF% range.
“This demonstrates that the current BMI cut-off points are clearly flawed in determining weight status in athletes, as many… were misclassified,” stated Professor El Ghoch.
Based on statistical modelling comparing BMI results with the more accurate BF% data, the researchers propose new BMI cut-offs for young male athletes:
- Overweight:
- Obesity:
Study co-author Professor Chiara Milanese from the University of Verona highlighted the practical potential of these revised figures. “Although DXA scans measure body composition accurately, they are not always available in sports settings,” she noted. “Weight and height… are easy to obtain and, with the new BMI cut-offs… BMI could be a highly useful tool in sports clubs… We encourage sports organizations and committees to adopt the new BMI classification system [in the absence of direct body composition assessment].”
The authors caution that direct body composition measurement remains the gold standard. They also emphasize the need for further research to establish specific BMI cut-offs for female athletes and potentially for different types of sports not included in this initial study.
Disclaimer: This news article is based on research presented at a scientific conference and published in a peer-reviewed journal. It is intended for informational purposes only and should not be considered medical or professional advice. Weight status and body composition assessments should be conducted and interpreted by qualified healthcare or sports science professionals. The proposed BMI cut-offs are specific to the population studied (young, competitive male athletes) and may not apply to other groups.
