If your BMI is above 23, you are obese

The India Obesity Commission has revised obesity guidelines for Indians, lowering the BMI threshold for obesity from 25 to 23 and making waist circumference a compulsory diagnostic tool. The updated norms also recognise mental health conditions as obesity-related co-morbidities.

Hyderabad: If your Body Mass Index (BMI) is 23 or higher, you should now consider yourself clinically obese. In a move that could reclassify millions of Indians as obese overnight, the India Obesity Commission has released its revised 2025 guidelines, lowering the diagnostic threshold for obesity to a BMI of 23 from the earlier limit of 25.

The Commission, comprising leading endocrinologists and metabolic researchers from across the country, released the new guidelines after specially considering the unique physiology of the Indian body.

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Unlike Western populations, Indians tend to accumulate ‘visceral fat’, which is fat around internal organs, even at lower weights. Global standards, however, have often set the obesity bar at a BMI of 30, largely based on Caucasian data, thus misleading the Indian population.

A key part of the 2025 update is the transition of waist circumference (WC) from a secondary observation to a mandatory diagnostic criterion. Because BMI alone cannot distinguish between muscle and harmful abdominal fat, the Commission has set strict new benchmarks.

For Indian men, a waistline of 90 cm (approximately 35.5 inches) or more should be considered clinically obese, while for women, the threshold is even lower at 80 cm (approximately 31.5 inches). Individuals meeting either of these criteria are now being urged to seek medical consultation to assess their metabolic risk.

The guidelines introduce a two-stage classification system wherein stage I consists of ‘at-risk’ individuals exceeding the BMI mark of 23 but lacking immediate complications.

Stage II is reserved for clinically obese individuals whose weight is accompanied by co-morbidities such as Type 2 diabetes, fatty liver disease (NAFLD), sleep apnea or PCOS.

Notably, the 2025 revision explicitly lists mental health disorders, including depression and anxiety, as associated co-morbidities, signalling a major shift in Indian medical policy by recognising the psychological toll of metabolic syndromes and the cyclic nature of weight management and mental well-being.

The guidelines are expected to be integrated into National Health Mission protocols by the end of the year, potentially changing how health insurance providers and public clinics manage weight-related care across the country.

• BMI threshold for the Indian body has been lowered from 25 to 23.
• If your BMI is 23 or higher, you are now classified as clinically obese.
• Waistline is now a compulsory clinical tool for obesity diagnosis.
• Indian men with a waistline of 35.5 inches or more are now considered obese, regardless of total weight.
• Indian women with a waistline of 31.5 inches or more are now considered obese, irrespective of weight.
• Guidelines specifically target the ‘Indian phenotype’.
• It considers dangerous visceral fat that accumulates around internal organs even in lean-looking individuals.
• The standards now formally recognise mental health struggles, such as depression and anxiety, as direct co-morbidities of obesity.