Belly fat might be linked to feeling sad or anxious
Abdominal Obesity Indices as Predictors of Psychiatric Morbidity in a Large-Scale Taiwanese Cohort
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Surprising Findings
BMI was not significantly associated with depression in men — despite being the most common obesity metric used globally.
Everyone from doctors to fitness apps uses BMI to assess health risk — but this massive study shows it’s useless for predicting depression in men, making it a misleading public health tool.
Practical Takeaways
Measure your waist-to-height ratio: if your waist is more than half your height, you may be at higher risk for depression or anxiety — even if your BMI is normal.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Surprising Findings
BMI was not significantly associated with depression in men — despite being the most common obesity metric used globally.
Everyone from doctors to fitness apps uses BMI to assess health risk — but this massive study shows it’s useless for predicting depression in men, making it a misleading public health tool.
Practical Takeaways
Measure your waist-to-height ratio: if your waist is more than half your height, you may be at higher risk for depression or anxiety — even if your BMI is normal.
Publication
Journal
Nutrients
Year
2025
Authors
Jia-In Lee, J. Geng, Yi-Ching Lo, Szu-Chia Chen, Yi-Ya Fang, Cheng-Sheng Chen
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Claims (10)
Instead of just saying ‘obese’ or ‘not obese,’ the study looked at how even small increases in belly fat measures were linked to higher depression risk — giving a more detailed picture.
If your waist is a large part of your height or wider than your hips, you’re more likely to have depression or anxiety — and this holds true for both men and women in this study.
Even though belly fat seems to link more strongly to depression in men than women, the overall pattern is the same for both — meaning the connection isn’t unique to one sex.
We can’t tell if belly fat leads to depression, depression leads to weight gain, or if both happen together — because this study only looked at people at one point in time.
In this big study of Taiwanese adults, 5 out of every 100 people had signs of depression or anxiety — and more women than men reported these symptoms.