Paediatric obesity rates are increasing and finding simple and feasible screening tools to identify children and adolescents with a higher risk of obesity-related comorbidities is challenging. The triponderal mass index (TMI, calculated as weight in kilograms divided by height in meters cubed) has been suggested as a better predictor of total body adiposity than the body mass index (BMI) (1). Others argue that BMI predicts the incidence of long-term paediatric obesity-related comorbidities better than the TMI (2). In addition, the waist-to-height ratio (WHR) predicted metabolic syndrome in obese children and adolescents (3). This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.