Are height to waist/waist to hip ratios important?

Addictead
Addictead Posts: 66 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
As I saw these ratios on other threads I curiously plugged in my info and I'm on the low end of healthy for waist-height(5'2, 25" waist) and 0.67 for waist-hip(25-37) which is also well into healthy. Color me confused, I'm not overweight anymore I'm just on the high end of "healthy" bmi at 24, So I would think being lower would be beneficial but...Maybe not if these calculations are accuate.

Replies

  • HollyPFlax
    HollyPFlax Posts: 79 Member
    Waist to height ratio has been linked to heart health. The lower the number the better. It's much more strict than BMI and a lot more people are in the unhealthy range. The unhealthy range being that your waist circumference multiplied by two is larger than your height. I'm not sure how accurate it is, or what the limits are. But it is interesting to relate to the concept of skinny fat. People who are in the healthy BMI range, but are still over fat are still at risk of developing obesity related health issues.

    Waist to hip ratio is a similar concept, but I think it's less accurate. Since both your hips and your waist can have fat and everyone stores fat differently, someone could easily be obese with a great ratio, or thin with an unhealthy one. I personally know a few women who are in the healthy BMI range, workout a lot, and have narrow hips and shoulders. They just weren't built with curves. I bet their ratios are "unhealthy"! I put my own waist to hip data into a "health" calculator and the screen was full of red text telling me that I'm a pear shape and I'm in extreme danger of having a heart attack. My BMI is 20 and I'm an hourglass shape...
  • Addictead
    Addictead Posts: 66 Member
    HollyPFlax wrote: »
    Waist to height ratio has been linked to heart health. The lower the number the better. It's much more strict than BMI and a lot more people are in the unhealthy range. The unhealthy range being that your waist circumference multiplied by two is larger than your height. I'm not sure how accurate it is, or what the limits are. But it is interesting to relate to the concept of skinny fat. People who are in the healthy BMI range, but are still over fat are still at risk of developing obesity related health issues

    I guess the opposite can be true too, Under/healthy fat at higher BMIs! I'm actually really curious what my bf% is I just don't have a opportunity to measure it right now
  • hixa30
    hixa30 Posts: 274 Member
    There are photos where you can guesstimate your body fat percentage, use Google Images and search for body fat percentage.
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 13,585 Member
    Your data points are not showing a discrepancy.

    BMI says that the population of people with your height and weight do not exhibit extra health risks.

    Your waist to height and waist to hip, according to what you say, are also such that the population with these characteristics does not demonstrate extra health risks.

    That's closer to expected than surprising since all three describe a population without increased risk!!!

    In other words you've reached the limit of insight offered by the tools!!!

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