Millions more Brits could be offered ‘miracle’ weight loss jabs for free on the NHS – would you qualify?

MILLIONS more Brits could be offered weight loss jabs for free on the NHS under proposals to overhaul the BMI system.

Currently, the “miracle” fat loss treatments – which work by making you feel fuller and less hungry – are offered to people with a BMI of 30 or above.

But experts have said those who aren’t technically classified as obese might still need drugs like Wegovy or Mounjaro.

They argued that factors such as the accumulation of tummy fat should also be a component for identifying obesity and prescribing fat loss jabs.

Abdominal or visceral fat, as it’s known, is different to the soft layer of blubber that lies just a layer beneath your skin.

Instead, it sits beneath the abdominal wall and wraps around the liver, intestines, and other organs.

Although visceral fat makes up only a small proportion of body fat, it’s a key player in a variety of health problems – linked to a higher risk of heart disease, dementia and even certain cancers.

But as a result of current BMI index guidelines, people with excess tummy fat might still not be deemed obese – thus missing out on treatments they could benefit from.

Writing in the journal Nature Medicine, a coalition of experts from the European Association for the Study of Obesity (EASO) said: “In many settings, the diagnosis of obesity is still based solely on body mass index (BMI) cut-off values, and does not reflect the role of adipose tissue distribution and function in the severity of the disease.

“Moreover, the indications for using the different therapeutic approaches now available for obesity management remain mostly based on anthropometric measurements, rather than on a more complete clinical evaluation of the individual.”

Anthropometrics is the practice of taking measurements of the human body.

The study authors called for the way we diagnose obesity – and thus the requirement of reaching a BMI of 30 or more to be given obesity drugs – to be overhauled.

“In current practice, the strict application of these evidence-based criteria precludes the use of obesity medications or metabolic and bariatric procedures in patients with a substantial burden of obesity disease, but low BMI values,” they explained.

Experts proposed that people should be offered weight loss medications if they have a BMI of over 25 and a waist-to-height ratio (WHtR) of above 0.5, as well as a weight-related health complication like high blood pressure or diabetes.

Abdominal fat is most accurately measured with an MRI, but WHtR is often used. This is your waist measurement divided by your height.

The larger your waist, the higher your waist to height ratio, and a ratio above 0.5 suggests that you have excess fat around your belly and are at an increased risk of health problems.

CALL FOR CHANGE

“The basis for this change is the recognition that BMI alone is insufficient as a diagnostic criterion, and that body fat distribution has a substantial effect on health,” the obesity experts wrote. 

“More specifically, the accumulation of abdominal fat is associated with an increased risk of developing cardiometabolic complications and is a stronger determinant of disease development than BMI, even in individuals with a BMI level below the standard cut-off values for obesity diagnosis (BMI of 30).”

Were this criteria to be implemented in the UK for diagnosing obesity, it would mean that millions more Brits would be eligible for weight loss injections.

The 29 EASO experts behind the new obesity framework included specialists in endocrinology, nutrition, internal medicine, bariatric surgery and primary care.

In total, 79 per cent of the experts agreed that obesity medications should be considered in patients with a BMI of over 25, a WHtR of 0.5 or more.

Authors also called on pharmaceutical companies to use their new BMI diagnostic framework in clinical trials of obesity treatments.

“This statement may also be seen as a call to pharmacological companies and regulatory authorities to use inclusion criteria that are more adherent to the clinical staging of obesity and less to traditional BMI cut-offs when designing future clinical trials with obesity medications,” they wrote.

It’s not the first time the BMI system for diagnosing obesity has been called into question.

Italian scientists have found scaling back the BMI threshold for obesity to 27  could paint a more accurate picture of who is affected.

Meanwhile, researchers found that a simple ‘string test’ was more accurate in detecting excess fat in kids and teens than BMI.

In other skinny jab news, drugs like Wegovy may reduce a person’s risk of 10 types of cancer, a new study suggested.