Most of us have heard about or used Body Mass Index (BMI). Despite the many research studies which found that BMI is related to the risk of many diseases, in some cases, BMI is only very weakly or not related at all. Please review the discussion in my book, Carbohydrates Can Kill.
In many recent research studies, the waist circumference (or waistline) is closely related to the risk of diseases. For convenience, I developed the following formula on August 22, 2007. The Height Waist Index (HWI) is:
Waist Circumference X 200
HWI = –––––––––––––––––––– -80
Height
Where the circumference is measured, in inches, at the navel while flat on one’s back and height is measured in the usual way, in inches.
I made a table for your reference. The unit for this table is “inches” for both height and waist circumference. The top row of the table is HWI. The left first column is the height in “inches.” The value at the crossing point between the HWI and the height is the waist circumference in “inches.”
If you use centimeters, you simply place your height and waistline in centimeters in the above formula and get your HWI.
Tentatively, the values of HWI between 10.1 and 20 are within the healthy range. However, the lower the value is, the closer the weight is toward underweight. A HWI at 10.0 and below is likely unhealthy. On the other hand, the values between 20.1 and 30.0 are overweight. At the same time, the higher the HWI is, the closer the weight is toward obesity. A value at 30.1 and over is obese and likely unhealthy.
After using HWI in many more studies, we should be able to test if HWI is a good predictor for diseases. Most importantly, all of us should watch closely our growing waistline.
August 22, 2007
Robert K. Su, M.D.
Height Waist Index
Height: Inch or Centimeter
Waist: Inch or Centimeter at the navel in supine.
Ideal Index: 10.1-20.0
Overweight: 20.1-30.0
Underweight: 10.0 and below
Obesity: 30.1 and over
Waist Circumference X 200
HWI = –––––––––––––––––––– -80
Height
A Request to Clinical Researchers
If you are interested, please try the HWI with the tentative ranges to define normal, underweight, overweight, and obesity in your researches and test them for their relevancy to the risk of diseases. I would appreciate your input if you try HWI. Thank you very much.
Robert Su, M.D.
Watch Your Waistline!
