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Scientists Discover Way to Send Information into Black Holes Without Using Energy

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Scientists Say BMI May Be Wrong: A New Formula Could Change How We Measure Healthy Weight

For nearly 200 years, Body Mass Index (BMI) has been one of the most widely used tools to determine whether a person is underweight, healthy, overweight, or obese. Doctors, hospitals, fitness experts, and health organizations around the world have relied on this simple calculation based on height and weight.

However, many scientists have long argued that BMI is far from perfect. It often fails to reflect a person's true body composition, muscle mass, age, or fat distribution. Now, researchers believe they may have developed a more accurate alternative called the Consistent Body Mass Index (CBMI).

Published in the journal Scientific Reports, the new study suggests that CBMI could provide a better understanding of a person's physical health by using mathematics, geometry, and real-world body measurements.

Why BMI Has Been Questioned for Years

The Body Mass Index was created in the 1830s by Belgian mathematician Adolphe Quetelet. Interestingly, BMI was never designed to evaluate an individual's health. Instead, Quetelet created it to describe the characteristics of the average population.

BMI is calculated by dividing a person's weight (in kilograms) by the square of their height (in meters).

Although the formula is simple and easy to use, it has several major limitations.

For example, BMI does not consider:

  • Age

  • Gender

  • Ethnicity

  • Muscle mass

  • Body fat percentage

  • Fat distribution

Because of this, two people with exactly the same BMI can have completely different health conditions.

A muscular athlete may be classified as overweight even though they have very little body fat, while another person with a normal BMI may have excessive body fat and a higher risk of disease.

These shortcomings have encouraged scientists to search for a better way to measure body health.

Introducing the Consistent Body Mass Index (CBMI)

Researchers behind the new study believe the biggest problem with BMI lies in one mathematical assumption.

BMI assumes that body weight increases with the square of height (height²).

However, humans are three-dimensional beings.

Using principles from physics and geometry, the researchers argue that body weight should naturally scale with the cube of height (height³) rather than its square.

This idea led them to develop a new formula called the Consistent Body Mass Index (CBMI).

Unlike traditional BMI, CBMI considers the body's three-dimensional structure, making it more consistent across different body sizes and age groups.

A Body Isn't Flat—It's Three-Dimensional

To create their new model, researchers treated the human body as a cylinder.

While the human body is obviously more complex than a simple cylinder, this geometric model allowed them to build a mathematical relationship between three important measurements:

  • Body weight

  • Height

  • Waist circumference

This approach gives a better representation of the body's actual proportions compared to BMI.

Since waist circumference reflects how fat is distributed around the abdomen, including it makes the model much more realistic.

Testing the New Formula

A mathematical model alone isn't enough—it needs to work with real people.

To test CBMI, researchers studied 400 participants living in Istanbul.

The participants covered nearly every stage of life, ranging from newborn babies just one day old to adults aged 75 years.

To keep the study balanced, researchers divided participants into four equal groups of 100 people:

  • Adult men

  • Adult women

  • Boys

  • Girls

For every participant, researchers recorded three basic measurements:

  • Weight

  • Height

  • Waist circumference

These measurements were then compared using three different methods:

  • Traditional BMI

  • Tri-Ponderal Mass Index (TMI)

  • The newly developed CBMI

CBMI Outperformed BMI

The results showed that CBMI matched real body measurements far better than the traditional BMI.

Researchers measured how closely each formula reflected actual body characteristics using a statistical value called the correlation coefficient (r).

Across all 400 participants, CBMI achieved a strong correlation value of 0.837, indicating a close relationship between the formula and actual body proportions.

The strongest results were seen among children, while adult men showed slightly weaker—but still meaningful—correlations.

Overall, CBMI performed more consistently across different ages and body types than BMI.

Earlier Attempts to Improve BMI

Scientists have tried improving BMI before.

One alternative is the Tri-Ponderal Mass Index (TMI).

Instead of dividing weight by height squared, TMI uses height cubed, making it somewhat more accurate, especially in children and teenagers.

However, TMI also has limitations.

It doesn't work equally well for every age group and still cannot fully account for differences in body shape.

Researchers wanted to go one step further.

Why Waist Circumference Matters

One of the strongest indicators of health is where body fat is stored.

Fat around the waist is closely linked to serious health conditions such as:

  • Heart disease

  • High blood pressure

  • Type 2 diabetes

  • Several forms of cancer

Health experts have long used waist circumference and waist-to-hip ratio as indicators of metabolic health.

However, waist circumference alone also has limitations.

For example, a waist measurement of 90 centimeters may mean something completely different for someone who is 5 feet tall compared to someone who is 6 feet 4 inches tall.

Researchers therefore focused on the waist-to-height ratio, which compares waist size relative to overall height.

This provides a more meaningful picture of body shape.

Adding a New "Form Factor"

Because the human body isn't a perfect cylinder, researchers introduced an additional mathematical adjustment called the form factor (α*).

This factor helps account for differences in body shape between individuals.

By including this adjustment, the researchers believe CBMI becomes more realistic and flexible than previous methods.

The result is a formula that better reflects how real human bodies vary in size and shape.

Developing New Weight Categories

After confirming that CBMI worked consistently across various ages, researchers created new classification charts.

These charts include cutoff values for:

  • Normal weight

  • Overweight

  • Obesity

The goal is to eventually replace or improve current BMI classifications with categories that better represent actual body health.

However, researchers stress that these new cutoff values are still preliminary and require additional testing before they can be widely adopted.

More Research Is Still Needed

Although the findings are promising, scientists caution that CBMI is not yet ready to replace BMI worldwide.

The current study involved only 400 participants from one region.

Larger studies involving people from different countries, ethnic backgrounds, and lifestyles will be necessary to confirm whether the formula works equally well across global populations.

Researchers also note that when body density is included in the mathematical calculation, CBMI becomes independent of measurement units, making it a more universal measure of body size.

Even so, additional research is essential before doctors and healthcare organizations begin using CBMI in everyday clinical practice.

A Step Toward Smarter Health Assessment

The new Consistent Body Mass Index represents an exciting step forward in understanding human health. By combining mathematics, geometry, and waist measurements, researchers have created a tool that appears to describe body size more accurately than the traditional BMI.

While BMI will likely remain in use for now because of its simplicity, CBMI could eventually provide doctors with a better way to identify obesity, assess health risks, and recommend personalized treatments.

As future studies continue to validate this new approach, CBMI may become an important part of the next generation of health assessment—offering a more complete picture of the human body than the nearly 200-year-old BMI formula ever could.

Reference: Beji, S., Kizilkaya Beji, N. & Mutlu, Ü. Development of a consistent body mass index. Sci Rep (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-61284-1

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