subject: Understanding The Distribution Of Body Fat And Working Your Waist Hip Ratio [print this page] Often people do not find the Body Mass Index calculation to be sufficient and they want to calculate their waist hip ratio.
Waist hip ratio is a good indicator of body shape for men and women. A high Waist Hip Ratio (i.e. Greater than 0,85 for women and greater than 1,0 for men) indicates an apple- or barrel-shaped figure. Generally if you do fall into this category and you do not watch your health, you could have a higher risk for heart disease.
Your health is not only affected by how much body fat you have, you need to be aware that it is very important where most of the fat is located on your body.
People who tend to gain weight mostly in their hips and buttocks have roughly a pear body shape, while people who tend to gain weight mostly in the abdomen have more of an apple body shape.
If you have an apple shaped body rather than a pear shaped body, you are at increased risk for the health problems associated with obesity, such as diabetes, coronary heart disease and high blood pressure. You must therefore take special care to keep your weight at a healthy level. You need to eat nutritiously, exercise and maintain other general healthy lifestyle habits.
As long as you avoid excess weight, being an apple shaped body or a pear shaped body does not put you at special risk it is just one of those things to keep in mind. And even pear shaped people should take particular care to keep their weight within normal limits, to avoid the health problems associated with obesity. So how do you work out your Waist Hip Ratio?
Take Your Waist measurement in cm/inches, and take your Hip measurement in cm/inches. Divide your hip measurement into your waist measurement example:
Waist 76cm Hip 90cm: Take 76 and divide 90 into it= 0.84
Waist 29.92in Hip 35.433in: Take 29.92 and divide 35.433 into it = 0.84
A healthy waist to hip ratio for women is to be below 0.8. Borderline cases are seen to be between 0.8 and 0.85. It is considered to be unhealthy to be above 0.85.
Remember the most important thing in life is to be happy with yourself, if you decide to make changes then make sure you do it for yourself. Your body is your castle and if you do not look after it, it will not support you.
