Waist to height ratio is significantly a better method to measure body fat and associated health risks than Body Mass Index (BMI), suggest new findings.
A review of 31 studies including more than 300,000 men and women showed that waist to height ratio predicted diseases such as type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, cancers, stroke and respiratory problems better than BMI.
Body Mass Index is a number calculated from a person's weight and height. It has been considered as the most reliable indicator of body fatness.
But the new report presented at the 19th European Congress on Obesity in Lyon, France says that the BMI doesn't consider muscle mass, so a very muscular person's BMI might incorrectly indicate obesity.
Waist to height ratio was more accurate than BMI and waist circumference alone at predicting certain health risks associated with being overweight or obese, says lead researcher Dr. Margaret Ashwell of the Oxford Brookes University, UK.
However, she argued that the waist to height ratio should totally replace other measurements such as BMI, both in public health applications as well as clinical use.
“Keeping your waist circumference to less than half your height can help increase life expectancy for every person in the world,” suggests Dr. Ashwell as a take home recommendation.
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