- A group of American Heart Association experts calls for measuring patients’ waist circumference to gauge their risk for cardiovascular disease.
- The need for measuring waist circumference in the clinic stems in part from the limitations of body mass index (BMI).
- BMI doesn’t show where the fat is located — which can affect a person’s health risks.
When trying to reduce your risk of obesity-related diseases such as cardiovascular disease or type 2 diabetes, monitoring changes in your weight seems like a good way to track progress.
But while stepping on a bathroom scale every day is easy, it may not provide the best snapshot of the health risks that come from carrying excess fat, in particular weight around the abdomen.
Instead, a group of experts recommends measuring waist circumference, alongside body mass index (BMI) — a combination of height and weight — as a way to identify people with a higher risk of cardiovascular disease.
“Recent data highlight abdominal obesity, as determined by waist circumference, as a cardiovascular disease risk marker that is independent of body mass index,” they wrote in a new scientific statement from the American Heart Association
The authors also called for doctors to routinely measure patients’ waist circumference, which may be especially helpful for patients trying to lose weight.
”Patients should have their BMI and [waist circumference] measured not only for the initial assessment of the degree of overweight and obesity,” wrote the authors, “but also as a guide to the efficacy of weight loss treatment.”
Source: healthline