Waist To Hip Ratio & Body Mass Index

Your scale and tape measure can tell you so much more than how your clothes fit. Waist-to-hip ratio and Body Mass Index, also known as BMI, can take simple measurement tools such as these and arm you and your doctor with powerful information about your body composition and disease risk. Understanding your waist-to-hip ratio and BMI numbers gives you insight and information that can propel you on a healthier path.

Function

Waist-to-hip ratio assesses the fat distribution between your upper and lower body. It is a measure of your waist size divided by your hip size, or waist circumference divided by hip circumference. BMI is a measure of your weight in relation to your height. It is directly related to your overall body composition or body fat percentage. However, BMI does not take into consideration where the overall fat in your body is distributed.

Identification

For waist-to-hip ratio, take your waist circumference and divide it by your hip circumference. Wrap a tape measure lightly around your waist, just above the pelvis or hip bone for your waist circumference and around the largest portion of your buttocks for your hip circumference. For BMI take your weight in pounds and multiply that by 703. Now, divide that number by your height in inches and then by your height in inches again.

Significance

Healthy waist-to-hip ratio numbers equate to low disease risk and range from 0.71 to 0.91, depending on your age and whether you are male or female. Healthy BMI numbers range from 18.5 to 24.9, regardless of your age or gender. The higher your waist-to-hip ratio and BMI numbers are, the greater your risk of high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, stroke, heart disease, gall bladder disease, osteoarthritis and some forms of cancer.

Warnings

If your BMI number is above 30, you fall into one of the three classes of obesity and have a drastically increased risk of many health conditions and disease. Additionally, you might have a normal or healthy BMI number but your waist-to-hip ratio puts you in the moderate or high disease risk classifications. This could happen if you have a larger proportion of body fat in your upper body or midsection.

Considerations

Your BMI number alone is not enough to adequately address your health status and disease risk. A higher percentage of fat in your abdominal region is associated with a significantly increased risk of chronic disease and health conditions, according to the American College of Sports Medicine and the Regional Health Forum. Arm yourself with both your waist-to-hip ratio and BMI numbers and talk to you doctor about your path forward to a healthier you.