Why Your Waistline Measurement Matters More Than Your Weight/Scale

From a very young age, we as women are taught that weight equals health. As a result, many women have doctor’s office horror stories, or a toxic relationship with the scale, which has made them feel inadequate and maybe even sent them down a path of restriction. This breaks my heart for a lot of reasons, but the misinformation aspect of the whole “scale equals health” belief especially bothers me. Both the actual scale (the kind you stand on that reports back your weight) and the BMI number leave a lot of factors out—factors that need to be taken into account when assessing your health as a whole. 

In this blog post, I’ll explain why your waistline measurement is a better barometer of health, and teach you how to take your own measurement, should you want to! 

Why your waistline measurement is a better indicator of health

When you step on a scale, you’re given one number: your weight. All it tells you is what your gravitational pull to the center of the Earth is… literally no other factors are taken into consideration. So really, this gives you no sense of how your body is functioning or whether or not you’re in good health. As for BMI, it’s been shown that this measurement is absolutely, positively flawed. Not only was BMI developed in the 1830s, so it’s outdated, but it’s also incredibly oversimplified. BMI is solely based on your height and weight. It does not account for muscle mass, bone density, overall body composition, and racial and sex differences. It ignores important health markers, like your body fat percentage, your lean muscle mass, and more. Plus, our bodies are constantly changing, especially as we age, and BMI doesn’t change to reflect that. For example, you could be the same height and weight at 50 years old as you are at 60, but it’s likely that your body composition has changed… and based on your BMI alone, you’d have no idea.

Instead, if you’re going to take any measurements,  I recommend measuring your waistline. This can give you a much better indication of your overall health and your risk of disease, because it measures your abdominal fat (aka visceral fat). Visceral fat is the fat that surrounds your internal organs that releases fatty acids, inflammatory agents, and hormones that contribute to higher LDL cholesterol, triglycerides, blood glucose, and blood pressure. According to Harvard University’s School of Public Health, people with larger waists have been shown to have a higher risk of type 2 diabetes and premature cardiovascular disease and death than people who have trimmer waists or carry more of their weight in their hips and thighs. In other words, this measurement will give you more insights into your longevity.

Now I’ll discuss how to take your measurements. 

How to measure step-by-step 

There are two kinds of measurements that mean more than the scale and BMI: your actual waistline number and your waist-to-hip ratio. There’s a debate in the medical world about which is more helpful, but both do a good job of predicting your overall health risks. It’s easier to measure your waist and that’s the method that works best for me, so here’s how to do it: 

1. Clear your abdominal area of any clothing, belts or accessories. Stand upright facing a mirror with your feet shoulder-width apart and your stomach relaxed. Wrap the measuring tape around your waist.

2. Use the borders of your hands and index fingers—not your fingertips— to find the uppermost edge of your hip bones by pressing upwards and inwards along your hip bones.

3. Tip: Many people mistake an easily felt part of the hip bone located toward the front of their body as the top of their hips. This part of the bone is in fact not the top of the hip bones, but by following this spot upward and back toward the sides of your body, you should be able to locate the true top of your hip bones.

4. Using the mirror, align the bottom edge of the measuring tape with the top of the hip bones on both sides of your body.

5. Tip: Once located, it may help to mark the top of your hip bones with a pen or felt-tip marker in order to aid you in correctly placing the tape.

6. Make sure the tape is parallel to the floor and is not twisted.

7. Relax and take two normal breaths. After the second breath out, tighten the tape around your waist. The tape should fit comfortably snug around the waist without depressing the skin.

8. Tip: Remember to keep your stomach relaxed at this point.

9. Still breathing normally, take the reading on the tape.

Source: Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada

Once you have your measurements, compare them to the following numbers, from the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada: 

For a female: more than 80 cm (31.5 inches) is an increased risk of disease; more than 88 cm (35 inches) is substantially increased risk of disease.

For a male: more than 94 cm (37 inches) is an increased risk of disease; more than 102 cm (40 inches) is substantially increased risk of disease.

It’s important to remember that this number is a high-level indicator, and if you are concerned about your health, you should visit a doctor for a routine checkup and probably get bloodwork done. Also, it’s worth noting that waist circumference isn’t the only factor at play in determining your disease risk—ethnicity, individual risk factors, pregnancy, medical history and family history can affect your risk too. If you are above these numbers, the good news is that reducing your circumference even by 4 centimeters can seriously decrease your risk of developing diabetes, heart disease, and stroke. 

To be clear: The purpose of taking this measurement isn’t to scare you—it’s to get you in touch with your body and to give you an idea of where your health is. I’m a big proponent of tossing the scale out in favor of waist measurements, but you do you! If weighing yourself helps you stay on track without feeling negatively about yourself, then you can still do that. But just remember that your BMI, weight, and even your waistline measurement does NOT dictate who you are or your value as a person. You are perfect the way you are now, and you deserve nothing but love and happiness. 

Xo, 

Renata