![]() WAIST-TO-HIP RATIO (WHR)Īnother measure of abdominal obesity is the waist-to-hip ratio (WHR), which is a strong predictor of metabolic risk and heart disease.Ĭombining this measure with the BMI produces strong insights into patterns of body fat storage and health risk.Īccording to an older report from the World Health Organization, an ideal WHR is less than 0.85 for women, and 0.9 for men.īMI relates weight to height and is an estimate of body fat and disease risk, although it’s not an accurate measure of body composition. Traditional recommendations indicate that waist circumference should be less than 35 inches (88 cm) in women and less than 40 inches (102 cm) in men. Waist circumference measures abdominal adiposity-the excess fat around organs-and is an independent predictor of heart disease and type 2 diabetes risks. While the BMI is a good predictor of your risk of developing type 2 diabetes, it’s more accurate when combined with waist circumference measures. Here are two health metrics aside from BMI that may be more accurate for Black women. ALTERNATIVE HEALTH METRICS FOR BLACK WOMEN For people and populations that BMI misclassifies as overweight, there can be social and medical consequences. High BMI bodies have been stigmatized as “diseased bodies” in both scientific literature and media messaging.įurthermore, those with high BMI bodies have been characterized as lacking willpower. Given that the BMI was developed based on studies in white populations, its ability to accurately classify overweight and obesity in other populations has been questioned. ![]() ![]() More recently, BMI has been challenged for its discrepancies because it may misclassify rates of overweight and obesity in historically marginalized ethnic populations, particularly Black women. It may also underestimate the amount of body fat in older adults and other people who have lost muscle mass. BMI may overestimate the amount of body fat in athletes and other people with very muscular bodies. While BMI can be useful in screening children and adults for body weight problems, it does have its limits.
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