By Hafizatul Salma Harif Fathilah
Body Mass Index (BMI) alone is not sufficient to measure our body fat mass or distribution because it could be distorted with your high muscle mass. Researchers from Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania found that BMI œdoes not take into account muscle mass, bone density, overall body composition, and racial and sex differences (as cited in Medical News Today, 2013). Instead, there are various ways to measure either you are obese, normal, or underweight such as skin fold thickness, waist circumference, waist to hip ratio and bio-impedance measure.
However, waist circumference and waist to hip ratio are among the easiest way to find out whether your weight is more on fat or muscle.
- Waist Circumference (Distance around the waist)
Place a tape measure around your waist (at the level of your belly button). If you have more than 35 inch (88 cm) for women and more than 40 inch (102 cm) for men, you currently have a higher risk of heart disease and diabetes.
- Waist to Hip Ratio (WHR)
 
The above methods have been used as a basic indicator to measure the health of a person, and the risk that a person may encounter as people with more weight around the waist are to face more health risks than those with smaller waist. This is because waist size provides accurate way to predict a heart patients chances of dying an early age from a heart attack or other causes, an analysis in the Journal of American College of Cardiology stated.
In order for you to be fully aware of your health monitoring, you should be taking care of your body, through food and exercises as well as a regular check up with the doctor. To know which food and exercise is recommended for you, you need to know the basic information about your body, such as which type of body you fall into. It will be much easier then to do a new and fresh routine that your health may encounter in future.***
Source:Â Waist Measurement , Fitday , Obesity Prevention & Heart Disease