Watch your waist and avoid heart disease

When it comes to weight management and staying healthy, aiming for a relatively slim waist that’s in proportion to your height is an excellent start.

New research presented at the 19th European Congress on Obesity in Lyon shows that keeping your waist circumference to less than half your height will increase your life expectancy.

While keeping an eye on your body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference is still a good way to track your weight and health, the latest research indicates that waist-to-height ratio is actually a better indicator of being overweight and obesity.

However, Dr Robert Grenfell, clinical issues director at the Heart Foundation suggests that all three measurements provide a useful guide as to whether you’re at a healthy weight. “The differences between the three measures are rarely clinically significant so the Heart Foundation suggests that you do at least one of the calculations on a regular basis,” he said.

Being overweight puts you at higher risk of heart disease, especially if you are carrying weight around the middle.

 

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