RFM is a more accurate indicator than BMI. For example, when using BMI a body builder with low fat could be described as obese with high heart disease risk. It does not happen when using RFM.

"The relative fat mass formula has now been validated in a large data base," says Richard Bergman, PhD, the senior author of the study and director of the Cedars-Sinai Sports Spectacular Diabetes and Obesity Wellness and Research Center. "It is a new index for measuring body fatness that can be easily accessible to health practitioners trying to treat overweight patients who often face serious health consequences like diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease."

Study leader Orison Woolcott, MD, says that RFM has already proven itself "a better measure of body fatness than many indices currently used in medicine and science, including the BMI," but that it will need to be tested in longitudinal studies with large populations to identify what ranges of body fat percentage are considered normal or abnormal in relation to serious obesity-related health problems."

The team's study appears in the journal Scientific Reports.
Paper: https://www.cedars-sinai.org/newsroom/cedars-sinai-investigators-develop-more-accurate-measure-of-body-fat/

Acknowledgements

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