Over the last decade obesity has exploded to epidemic proportions in America. Obesity-related health risks include coronary heart disease, type 2 diabetes, stroke, dyslipidemia, and certain types of cancers. Traditional anthropomorphic measures of obesity like BMI and waist circumference quantify excess weight or size, not excess fat, and misclassify patients by failing to assess pathogenic visceral fat depots. DXA visceral fat measurements may be superior to traditional measures for evaluating obesity-related disease risk.