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You're listening to Life Kit from

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NPR. Hey,

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what's up everyone? Andrew Limbaugh here in for

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Mariel Seguera. 27.4. That is my

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current body mass index or BMI.

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This is the number that for

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decades health experts have used to

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classify people as underweight, normal weight,

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overweight, or obese. Like, right now

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you can hop onto the NIH

0:37

website and find out your BMI.

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Or maybe don't, because a growing

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number of researchers and physicians think

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it's time for a new metric,

0:46

because that number doesn't actually

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tell you all that much. But

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if not BMI, then what? What numbers can we

0:55

use to help us track our health to make

0:57

sure we're achieving whatever health goals we might have

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in mind? In this

1:01

episode of Life Kit, I talk with

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NPR health correspondent Allison Aubrey about the

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history and shortcomings of BMI, and also

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this relatively new way of getting a

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fuller picture about your own body. This

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