1. Your Waist to Height Ratio.
This is delightfully simple – your waist should be LESS THAN than half your height, ie a ratio of less than 50
So if you are 5‘4“, which is 64“, your waist should be LESS THAN 32“
Click here for more information:
2. Your Waist to Hip Ratio
Confusingly some sites recommend your natural waist, and others the measurement at the level of your belly button. Depending on your figure these can give somewhat different results!
I think I would compromise and go for a number halfway between the 2 😊
For women, it should be 0.8 or LESS.
Click here for more information.
3. Your Body Mass Index, or BMI.
This is your height (squared) divided by your weight.
For women, a healthy range is a BMI of 20-25. 25-30 is overweight, and more than 30 is obese.
If you would like a simple online calculation, click here.
How does BMI work?
I LOVE numbers and KNOWING how they work, so – if you would like to follow the calculation and learn how to use it so that you can work out what weight you should be – grab your calculator and a sheet of paper, and read on!
This is easiest done using metric, so you need your weight in kilograms and your height in metres, SQUARED. For example:
- Our 5’4″ friend above – her height is 1.63m, so SQUARED that is 2.6569.
- Her BMI is her current weight in kgs divided by her height SQUARED
- So, if she weighs 80kg, divide this 2.6569 = 30.1 = OBESE
To find out what her maximum weight SHOULD be: her height SQUARED x top-end BMI [25] = top-end weight
For our 1.63m lady, that looks like this:
2.6569 x 25 = 66.4225kg
(or 10 stone 5 in English money – divide the kg by 6.35) – that is the MAXIMUM she should ideally weigh.
If you like this kind of thing, have a play around with your own numbers to get a feel for how these figures relate to you and your height.
For me, working how each BMI (27, 26, 25, 24, 23 etc) equates to the weight I should be – has been really helpful in setting myself Next Goals and tracking my progress.
WHY are these measurements important?
Carrying excess weight around your midriff has been shown to be a clear marker of the risk of diabetes, and potentially heart disease and strokes – and I think having different tools [I know some people prefer not to have bathroom scales at all] for looking at your proportions are useful in having a clearer understanding of what to aim for.
Plus of course carrying weight you don’t want or need adds to the load on your joints – knees in particular are very sensitive to weight gain, which they do not like, and healthy weight loss, which they do.
It’s something I do gently point out to my patients with dodgy knees who are, shall we say, above their ideal weight….
And these extra pounds often add to your stress levels, and vice versa (of which more another time) which doesn’t help.
Some food for thought 😊 – and knowledge is power 😊