The final nail in the coffin for BMI?

BMI? It's been around for a while now as the go-to standard for determining healthy weight.

If you have not have heard about it, Body Mass Index (BMI) is used by everyone from insurers to health professionals to determine whether someone is at a healthy weight. According to the index, which is calculated by dividing a person’s weight by the square of the person’s height, someone with a BMI of 18.5 to 24.9 is “healthy,” whereas a BMI of 25 to 29.9 is classed as “overweight” and a BMI of 30 or higher is categorized as “obese.”

But these numbers do not directly correlate with physical health, according to a study of 40,420 people published this week in the International Journal of Obesity.

As reported in Quartz in an article by Olivia Goldhill the research determined that many, many people had been misdiagnosed as un-healthy, adversely impacting them both in their approach to their health and determination of health insurance classification.

UCLA psychologist Janet Tomiyama said that that "employers, policy makers, and insurance companies should focus on 'actual health markers'."