The UK’s health body called the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has updated its draft guidelines, which advises adults to keep a check on their waist measurement so that they are not prone to developing certain diseases. 🗞️ Subscribe Now: Get Express Premium to access the best Election reporting and analysis 🗞️ What do the guidelines say? The guidelines emphasise that adults should measure their own waist to height ratio. Ideally, an adult’s waist should be less than half their height if they want to reduce the risk of some health problems. Further, the guidelines say that in line with international guidance, lower BMI thresholds for overweight and obesity for people from South Asian, Chinese, other Asian, Middle Eastern, Black African, or African-Caribbean backgrounds should be used. Some research has shown that people from some Black, Asian and minority ethnic groups are more prone to gaining weight around their waists and have an increased risk of developing heart diseases even at lower BMI thresholds. Even young children with increased fat in the abdomen may be at increased risk of developing some diseases, the guidelines say. What is the idea behind these guidelines? The World Health Organization guidelines define a normal BMI range as 18.5 to 24.9, overweight as 25 or higher, and obesity as 30 or higher. According to WHO, 1 billion people, including children are obese today and by 2025, approximately 167 million people will become less healthy because they are overweight or obese. The idea is that while the Body Mass Index (BMI) calculates if a person is a healthy weight, is underweight or overweight using that individual’s height and weight, it is still not an accurate measurement to assess a person’s overall health. This is because BMI fails to take into account the amount of fat and muscle in the body. In other words, BMI can tell if a person is carrying too much weight, but it cannot tell if they are carrying too much fat. For instance, the NHS website notes that BMI can classify very muscular adults and athletes as "overweight" or "obese" even though their body fat is low. Similarly, it can classify adults who lose muscle as they get older may fall into the "healthy weight" range even though they may be carrying excess fat. Because of this, a person may be declared as having a healthy weight, even though he or she has excess fat around the waist, which can raise their risk of developing heart disease, type 2 diabetes, stroke and certain types of cancer. Therefore, the guidelines suggest that a person’s waist to height ratio should be used in tandem with the BMI. Measuring the waist The NHS website says that to measure your waist, the person should find the bottom of their ribs and the top of their hips. The measuring tape should be wrapped midway between these two points and the person should breathe out naturally before taking the measurement. Even so, regardless of the height or BMI, people should lose weight if their waist is: 37 inches or more for men and 31.5 inches or more for women. Newsletter | Click to get the day's best explainers in your inbox
