If new rules adopted, more Americans would be 'fat'

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Your BMI should fall within the healthy range of 19 to 25. If you're at the upper end of this range or score more than 25, consider losing enough weight to lower your BMI at least one or two numbers. A BMI of more than 27 is considered overweight.
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A 5-foot-9 man who weighs 175 pounds would have an index of 26, which some experts would say is overweight. At 200 pounds, he would have a BMI of 30 and be considered obese.

The average American woman has a BMI of 26; fashion models typically have BMIs of 18.

Heart disease, diabetes and high blood pressure are all linked to being overweight.

Some say proposed guidelines unfair

To determine BMI values, body weight in kilograms is divided by height in meters, squared. A kilogram equals 2.2 pounds, and a meter is 3.28 feet, or about 39 inches.

Under the proposed guidelines, which are to be announced later this month by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), 25 million more Americans would be considered overweight -- including two baseball third-basemen: Chipper Jones of the Atlanta Braves and Cal Ripken Jr. of the Baltimore Orioles.

One NIH panel member disagrees with the new rules.

"A lot of people who have increased muscle mass will be called overweight, and they certainly are not at risk," said Judith Stern of the University of California-Davis.

"Chipper Jones is not at risk for being overweight. Cal Ripken Jr. is not at risk for being overweight. Why would these NIH guidelines call them overweight?"

CNN obtained a draft copy of the NIH report on the proposed guidelines. According to it, people considered overweight under the proposed guidelines would have a greater chance of dying earlier.

Stern and other some critics worry that if the draft guidelines are adopted, doctors might prescribe diet pills for patients considered overweight -- when a little exercise might be all that's needed.

"My bottom line is, 'Why needlessly stigmatize 25 million more American adults by calling them overweight?'" Stern asked. "It doesn't help in the treatment and it's not justified."