Waist – Hip Ratio

Also known as Waist to hip ratio (WHR); is a measurement that compares the size of your waist to the size of your hips. Risk for developing heart disease can be estimated using your waist to hip ratio. WHR is a quick measure of fat distribution that may help indicate a person's overall health and help to estimate your risk for cardiovascular disease and other illnesses.

In addition, if you change WHR to improve your health, you can easily track your progress as you slim down. People who carry more weight around their middle than their hips may be at a higher risk of developing certain health conditions.

What is a healthy ratio?
According to the World Health Organization(WHO), having a WHR of over 1.0 may increase the risk of developing conditions that relate to being overweight, including heart disease and type 2 diabetes.

This may be the case even if other measures of being overweight, such as body mass index (BMI) are in normal range.

The WHO advise that a healthy WHR is:

< 0.85 for women

< 0.9 for men

The following shows how the WHO classify the risk of being affected by weight related health conditions according to WHR:

Health risk = <0.80

Low WHR = Men <0.95 & Women < 0.80

Moderate WHR = Men 0.96-1.0 & Women 0.81-0.85

High WHR = Men > 1.0 & Women > 0.86