Measuring Waistline Helpful for You and Your Doctor
Recently some heart health, diabetes management, and weight loss researchers debated whether measuring a person's waist size in an examination was medically advantageous. More than measuring the success of weight loss, they wanted to know if a shrinking waist indicated a person was improving their heart health.
The panel agreed that waist circumference, compared to measuring BMI, provides a unique indicator of body fat distribution which can identify patients at increased risk for obesity-related cardiometabolic disease. However, measuring a patient's waist is really just a starting point. To accurately estimate a patient's risk of developing diabetes, diabetes-related complications, and heart disease, doctors still need to calculate a patient's BMI and perform other tests.
Source:
Shaping America's Health
Other Contributing Organizations:
The Obesity Society
The American Society for Nutrition
American Diabetes Association
