Large waist linked to poor health, even among those in healthy body mass index ranges. Summary: Having a big belly has consequences beyond trouble squeezing into your pants. It's detrimental to your health, even if you have a healthy body mass index (BMI), a new international collaborative study has found.
Waist circumference is a good measure of fat around your middle. This type of fat builds up around your organs, and is linked to high blood fat levels, high blood pressure and diabetes. A larger waist usually also means there is excess fat inside your organs.
"Elevated waist circumference or waistline measurement is an indication of abdominal obesity and increased risk for heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, dyslipidemia (elevation of blood cholesterol, triglycerides or both) and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease."
Reducing your waist size can give you more energy and lessen your risk of certain health conditions, including heart disease and diabetes. Carrying weight around your midsection is also linked to higher mortality rates.
Most people may think that a wide waist is a fat waist, but that's not always the case. Genetics like wide hip bones or thick abdominal muscles can play a role and are mostly unavoidable.
Waist Circumference
If most of your fat is around your waist rather than at your hips, you're at a higher risk for heart disease and type 2 diabetes. This risk goes up with a waist size that is greater than 35 inches for women or greater than 40 inches for men.
Waist to hip ratios
Healthy women have ratios of 0.67 to 0.80 while healthy men have 0.80 to 0.95. For attractiveness, ideal for men is 0.90 and female ideal is 0.7 (for Western populations only).
In a landmark research conducted by the late Devendra Singh, she found that men rate women as most attractive when they have a waist size that's 60 to 70 percent of their hip size.
If your waist is bigger than your hips, than you may have too much fat concentrated around the middle part of your body - something known as "intra-abdominal obesity". This type of fat location is related to a higher chance of getting heart disease and type 2 diabetes.
In both men and women, waist and waist-to- hip ratio increase with aging. A large portion of this increase is driven by gains in body weight, but the increases observed are larger than those would be predicted from increases in BMI alone, and increases in WC are seen with aging in the absence of weight gain.
The smallest waist of a person with normal stature was 33 cm (13 in) and was recorded on Ethel Granger (UK) (1905–82). She reduced from a natural 56 cm (22 in) to 33 cm (13 in) over the period 1929–39.
What age does your waist get smaller? Your body shape begins to change around age 30. 5 These changes occur because of a decline in muscle mass and an increase in body fat. But, getting regular exercise and eating a nutritious diet may help delay some of these age-related body changes.
There are many reasons why people gain belly fat, including poor diet, lack of exercise, and stress. Improving nutrition, increasing activity, and making other lifestyle changes can all help. Belly fat refers to fat around the abdomen.
Ideal waistline measurement
According to the Heart Foundation, a healthy waistline size is: 37 inches or less for men. 31.5 inches or less for women.
We tend to lose muscle mass, so our abdominal muscles aren't as tight as they once were, and the loss of elastin and collagen in our skin allows gravity to have its way so skin starts to sag. Both can cause the waistline to expand.
The bottom line
The average American woman's waist size is 38.7 inches. Also, the average American woman is 63.6 inches tall and weigh 170 pounds. All of these numbers are indicators of health, but not predictors.
Common reasons for someone to have belly fat even when they're skinny is: Being too sedentary (inactive), which builds visceral fat around the organs and abdominal fat. Eating too many processed foods, which stores at the belly.
The researchers stressed that waist circumference was a more important marker than overall obesity and advised doctors to measure their patient's waists to identify those at risk.
For your best health, your waist should be less than 40 inches around for men, and less than 35 inches for women, although it may vary depending on race or ethnicity. If it's larger than that, you may want to talk with your doctor about what your next steps are, including losing weight.
If you eat too much and exercise too little, you're likely to carry excess weight — including belly fat. Also, your muscle mass might diminish slightly with age, while fat increases.
28-Inch Waist for Women
The average waist size for American women is 35.6 inches. That means a 28-inch waist would put you between the 5th and 10th percentiles, which is considerably smaller than average. However, it's important to remember that 3 out of 4 adult women in the US are overweight or obese.
For women, a 27-inch waist is roughly 9″ smaller than the average female's. And even among fit women, a 27-inch waist is on the small side. So it's a good target for overall health and fitness. However, your ideal waist size depends on your body type and height.
You need to be eating enough to fuel your workouts but not too much that you go over your daily energy requirements for your body and goal. Another common reason your waist might not be getting smaller is water retention.