For years, the body mass index (BMI) has been a widely used measure to determine a person’s health based on their height and weight.

However, a new metric is emerging that offers a more comprehensive picture of health risk: the Body Roundness Index (BRI).

According to the National Institutes of Health, unlike the BMI, which relies only on height and weight, the BRI takes into account both height and waist circumference, providing a more accurate assessment of a person’s body fat distribution and health risks.

“The BRI is a more accurate measure of body fat distribution than the BMI,” said Dr. Vibhu Kawatra, a pulmonologist, pediatrician and allergist in New Delhi. “It provides a better understanding of the distribution of fat around the body, especially around the abdomen, which is a more important indicator of health risks such as diabetes and heart disease.”

A recent study published in JAMA Network Open supports this, stating that BRI is an evidence-backed tool that better predicts mortality risk than BMI.

BRI vs BMI

A major reason is that BRI takes into account abdominal fat, which is closely linked to metabolic disorders and cardiovascular problems, while BMI takes into account overall body weight without considering fat distribution.

The BRI has its origins in 2013, when it was developed by US researchers as a response to growing concerns over the limitations of the BMI.

While BMI can sometimes inaccurately classify individuals as overweight or healthy, BRI offers a more nuanced approach.

By measuring both waist circumference and height, the BRI produces a value that typically ranges between 1 and 20, with extreme values ​​indicating higher health risk.

The BRI helps place a person into a healthy or unhealthy category by better determining the amount of fat around the belly, which the BMI cannot.

Although more advanced methods such as dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) are available to measure body fat levels, these techniques are resource-intensive.

As Alice Bullas, a senior research fellow at Sheffield Hallam University, wrote in The Conversation, “This may explain why BMI remains the most popular method of measuring health, even though it was first used in the late 20th century.”

Despite these limitations, the BRI provides a more accessible alternative. The online calculator now allows individuals to input their height and waist measurements to quickly determine their BRI score and see whether they fall into the “healthy zone.”

The BRI is calculated using the mathematical formula: 364.2 – 365.5 – √(1 − (waist circumference in centimetres / 2Ï€)2 / (0.5 – height in centimetres)2.

As awareness of the Body Roundness Index grows, it will become a valuable tool for assessing health risks, particularly for those concerned about metabolic health and visceral fat.