Measure Your Waist To Hip Ratio by Jane Thurnell-Read

More and more research confirms that it is vitally important not to be overweight if you want to be healthy, but how the excess weight is distributed is important too. For this you need to know your waist to hip ratio (WHR).

To work this out measure round your waist in centimetres and divide it by your hip circumference. The measurements need to be in centimetres, so if your measuring tape is in inches, multiply each measurement by 2.5 before dividing one by the other. If the figure you end up with is greater than 0.9 for men and 0.8 for women then your fat distribution is likely to be associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease and diabetes. You can get a nifty little program to do the calculation for you. (Have a look round the Global Health & Fitness web site while you're there,as there's lots of other useful information.

Putting it another way: a quick rule of thumb is that men with a waist measurement of more than 100 cms (40 inches) and women with a waist measurement of more than 87.5 cms (35 inches) are at a much greater risk of these illnesses than other people.

The reason for this is that fat cells around the stomach pump out proteins and hormones that can trigger insulin resistance, with the resulting adverse effect on your health.

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