Waist To Hip Ratio A Measurement Of Obesity
December 24, 2008
Obesity! a haunting word, that has become an epidemic in the modern society, is not only a health problem, but is also a major cause of psychological distress. Obesity leaves the suffering person with an untoward feeling towards his own personality.
How obese you actually are?
This is a very important questions that is asked most commonly by people who suspect being obese. Although, the answer may not be very specific, still the problem can be digitalized or evaluated by determination of various physically observable and measurable parameters like waist to hip ratio. This parameter is also useful to know the exact position of fat deposition and thus, may also be a useful measure to know the body part needing further attention during exercising.
What is waist to hip ratio?
Fat when localized around and above the waist, may pose some serious health problems, these problems may include higher susceptibility to diabetes, cardiovascular problems, and interestingly certain cancerous growths as well. Similarly, if the fat deposition is more in the upper part of the body, there are chances that the health problems would be less complicated.
It is also prove that the obese people having higher upper body fat distribution are more affected by exercising and therefore loses fat more quickly than the person with lower body fat distribution. In terms of health dangers, fat above waist even in small quantity is more hazardous than the fat below waist.
How to calculate waist to hip ratio?
In order to measure the waist to hip ratio, measure your waist at its narrowest circumference and your hips at their widest using a measuring tape. Further, the ratio is decided upon by dividing the former with the later. Therefore, if you have a waist of 32 inches and a hip measurement of 40 inches, your hip-to-waist ratio is 0.8. While a ratio below 0.8 up to 0.6 is acceptable in case of lower or higher ratios ranging below 0.5 or above 0.9, you need to get cautious and assess the situation appropriately, taking medical advice would not be a bad option either.
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