In the subtitle of this blog, I indicated that I wanted to find my waist again. Vanity tells me I could buy cuter clothes and look cuter in them (well, at my age cute is not my goal, but I'd look better..), but my awareness of health issues has given me a real dedication to getting my numbers down.Find a handy tool from the University of Maryland Medical System to calculate your waist to hip ratio HERE. According to this tool, my shape puts me at reduced risk of coronary heart disease, diabetes and stroke. I'm a 'pear' so I tend to keep fat off my midsection and more on my hips. I knew that, of course. The good news is that a body does not convert this lower body fat as readily as midsection fat, which keeps cholesterol down.
If you’re a woman, the waist-to-hip ratio should come out as no more than 0.8. A healthy waist-to-hip ratio for men is 0.95. If your belly has caught up to the size of your hips, you should start worrying about your heart, experts say.
Get that tape measurement out. What's your risk?
Oh joy! I'd forgotten I knew that. I think I purposefully determined not to remember! But, like you, if we work on lowering cholesterol, eating healthier and exercising more to be our healthiest, the pounds will decrease. Cholesterol, blood pressure and glucose levels should be healthier, too. It's never too early to decide to have a healthier heart and body.
ReplyDeleteWhen I started reading about all this, I was surprised at how many experts had decided to replace Body Mass Index for the hip to waist ratio in determining the body's suceptibility to certain diseases. Of course - too much weight still has its own risks, so just because heart health didn't seem to be an issue as much for me as for my husband, there are still a lot of things to consider - like my knees!
ReplyDeleteI have dropped about ten pounds and at least two inches off my waist since I started blogging my way back to health. Thanks for the continual encouragement!