BMI for Kids Questioned

A medical panel has urged pediatricians to focus on more than BMI when assessing overweight children:

BMI can be fairly effective at identifying children who likely have weight problems, said task force member Dr. Virginia Moyer. But it can't determine if body mass is mostly fat or lean tissue, and not all children with high BMIs need to lose weight, said Moyer, a pediatrics professor at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston.

Body Mass Index can provide a general indicator of weight to height ratios - but is next to useless in determining body composition.