Instead of using the controversial body mass index, or BMI, to assess weight, an international group of scientists proposes an approach that looks at how excess body fat affects health

Over one billion people in the world are estimated to have obesity. Some experts believe its treatment and diagnosis need a radical change.

Obesity, long determined by the flawed metric of BMI, should be diagnosed based on other measurements, experts argue.

When the issue is obesity, the questions are many, and the routes to answers anything but straight. What is abundantly clear is a need for consensus on two foundational matters: What is a useful definition for obesity?