

Waist-to-Tallness Ratio May Measure Risk Better Than Body Mass Index (2005) - dredmorbius
http://www.webmd.com/heart-disease/news/20050606/waist-height-ratio-may-show-heart-disease-risk

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dredmorbius
Clarifying my posting this item: there's been some occasional discussion of
the relative merits of BMI (I'm not convinced there are any).

One counterargument is "BMI is cheap, easy, and roughly accurate".

Height-waist ratios are equally cheap, easy, and _more_ accurate, particularly
in assessing populations of varying _lean_ body mass (not readily accounted
for in BMI), as adipose tissue tends to aggregate prominently at the waist,
while muscle hypertrophy in the same region tends to be somewhat less
pronounced.

Use understatement is hereby noted.

Link-bait sites are hereby notified that posting a waist-to-tallness
calculator is strongly preferred to propagating the BMI myth.

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acangiano
This makes a heap of sense. BMI would consider a 200+ lb body builder obese,
as much as an equally heavy 30+% body fat untrained man. This measure is much
more accurate because it focuses on what really matters: how big your gut is
in relation to your overall body structure.

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isaachawley
Keep in mind that the size pant you wear is not a real measure of your
waistline in inches. Pant sizes have changed over time just like women's dress
sizes.

Use a piece of string and a ruler.

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SlipperySlope
Essentially for men - for lowest risk of heart disease your waistline should
be less than .55 x your height.

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jaredsohn
...and .53 x height for women.

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barking
Statistically, shorter men suffer more from heart disease, I believe. Food
servings aren't generally adjusted to the diner's size. Maybe smaller people
just get used to being relatively overfed.

~~~
dredmorbius
Both heart disease and stroke according to two studies I pulled up. The first
speculates on causal relationships, including possible malnutrition as a
precursor to both conditions.

[http://www.savantmd.com/2012/02/13/there-may-be-a-
relationsh...](http://www.savantmd.com/2012/02/13/there-may-be-a-relationship-
between-height-and-heart-failure-in-men-health-wellness-tip/)

<http://stroke.ahajournals.org/content/38/1/22.full>

