Comments and Key points
Frankly, this is a difficult study to read and understand. It’s results indicate that, for young adults in the United Kingdom (UK), at Age 18 – women are more overweight than men, but this reverses by Age 23 – when men are more overweight than women. But the numbers of of overweight men and women was equal at age 19.5. Thus, therefore, hence, they created their own table showing their idea of optimum Body Mass Index cut-off thresholds for "overweight’ and "obesity", and notice that the table stops at age 19.5. Sweet.
| Age (years) |
"Overweight" is a BMI greater than: |
"Obese" is a BMI greater than: |
|||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Boys | Girls | Boys | Girls | ||
| 2 | 17.8 | 18.1 | 19.6 | 19.9 | |
| 2.5 | 17.4 | 17.7 | 19.2 | 19.6 | |
| 3 | 17.1 | 17.5 | 18.9 | 19.5 | |
| 3.5 | 17.0 | 17.4 | 18.8 | 19.4 | |
| 4 | 16.9 | 17.3 | 18.7 | 19.4 | |
| 4.5 | 16.9 | 17.3 | 18.8 | 19.5 | |
| 5 | 16.9 | 17.3 | 18.9 | 19.6 | |
| 5.5 | 17.0 | 17.3 | 19.1 | 19.8 | |
| 6 | 17.0 | 17.5 | 19.3 | 20.1 | |
| 6.5 | 17.2 | 17.7 | 19.6 | 20.5 | |
| 7 | 17.3 | 17.9 | 20.0 | 21.0 | |
| 7.5 | 17.5 | 18.2 | 20.4 | 21.5 | |
| 8 | 17.7 | 18.4 | 20.8 | 22.0 | |
| 8.5 | 17.9 | 18.8 | 21.3 | 22.5 | |
| 9 | 18.2 | 19.1 | 21.8 | 23.0 | |
| 9.5 | 18.5 | 19.4 | 22.3 | 23.5 | |
| 10 | 18.8 | 19.8 | 22.8 | 24.0 | |
| 10.5 | 19.1 | 20.1 | 23.2 | 24.5 | |
| 11 | 19.4 | 20.5 | 23.7 | 25.0 | |
| 11.5 | 19.7 | 20.9 | 24.2 | 25.5 | |
| 12 | 20.1 | 21.3 | 24.6 | 26.0 | |
| 12.5 | 20.4 | 21.7 | 25.1 | 26.4 | |
| 13 | 20.8 | 22.1 | 25.5 | 26.9 | |
| 13.5 | 21.1 | 22.4 | 25.9 | 27.3 | |
| 14 | 21.5 | 22.8 | 26.4 | 27.7 | |
| 14.5 | 21.9 | 23.1 | 26.8 | 28.0 | |
| 15 | 22.3 | 23.4 | 27.2 | 28.3 | |
| 15.5 | 22.6 | 23.6 | 27.6 | 28.6 | |
| 16 | 23.0 | 23.9 | 27.9 | 28.8 | |
| 16.5 | 23.3 | 24.1 | 28.3 | 29.1 | |
| 17 | 23.6 | 24.3 | 28.6 | 29.3 | |
| 17.5 | 23.9 | 24.5 | 28.9 | 29.4 | |
| 18 | 24.2 | 24.6 | 29.2 | 29.6 | |
| 18.5 | 24.5 | 24.8 | 29.5 | 29.7 | |
| 19 | 24.8 | 24.9 | 29.7 | 29.9 | |
| 19.5 | 25 | 25 | 30 | 30 | |
The authors of this article think that the International Classification of overweight and obesity isn’t super-great, and they suggest that the UK should use a definition based on UK data.
Well, here’s how their charts compare to the standard CDC definition of overweight and obesity. They are rather close, don’t you think?
So, this article that suggests that the adult overweight definition BMI of 25.0 kg/m2 is suitable for young adults at age 19.5
A subsequent paper on body mass index cut offs to define thinness in children and adolescents is also good.
