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Why BMI is flawed
Traditionally BMI is used by fit pros and health pros to assess whether an individual has a healthy body weight. However, as you probably know, it is not always relevant as it does not take into consideration what the body is composed of. For example, muscular individuals such as bodybuilders will be classified as obese even though they have little waists and single-digit body fat.
At Storm Fitness Academy, we prefer to measure the waist. The excess body fat stored around this area is highly correlated with an increased risk of several medical conditions such as heart disease and type 2 diabetes.
You can see in the image below what indicates a healthy waist measurement.
However, those cut-offs are taken from studies carried out in the UK and studies carried out in other parts of the world, such as Asia, have established slightly different cut-offs to the UK.
To avoid having to remember all the cut-offs from every part of the globe, you can convert the waist measurements into a waist-to-height ratio. This ratio can be calculated simply by dividing the waist by the height.
For example, if someone is 180 cm tall and they have a waist circumference of 100 cm, the equation is as follows: 100/180 = 0.55
What is a healthy waist-to-height ratio?
A healthy waist-to-height ratio is below 0.5. So a result of 0.49 or lower is the aim for anyone who wants to optimise their health.
Level 3 Personal Training
If you want to learn more about how to conduct effective and relevant fitness assessments on your clients then check out our level 3 personal training course. If you have more questions then get in touch below.
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