Research
Energy balance
Waist circumference is a superior and necessary clinical metric for assessing cardiometabolic risk compared to BMI alone, as it identifies visceral adiposity and high-risk phenotypes that BMI misses.
Stop relying solely on your weight or BMI. Measure your waist circumference. If it is high (≥88 cm for women, ≥102 cm for men), you are at higher risk for heart disease and diabetes, even if your weight is 'normal'. Use this measurement to guide lifestyle changes.
StrongSupportsVERY_HIGH confidence
BMI alone is not sufficient to properly assess or manage the cardiometabolic risk associated with increased adiposity in adults... waist circumference enables a further refinement of the adverse health risk characterized by BMI and this measurement should be included when stratifying obesity-related health risk.
Why this rating
Consensus statement based on extensive epidemiological data and meta-analyses.
Source
Waist circumference as a vital sign in clinical practice: a Consensus Statement from the IAS and ICCR Working Group on Visceral Obesity
Robert Ross et al. · Nature Reviews Endocrinology · 2020
DOI 10.1038/s41574-019-0310-7
clinical_guidelineCited 1,857×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
More from this paper
- Reducing waist circumference through lifestyle interventions (diet and/or exercise) is a critical and effective strategy for reducing cardiometabolic risk and mortality, independent of total body weight loss.Strong
- For a given waist circumference, a higher BMI is associated with lower mortality risk, likely due to greater protective subcutaneous fat storage in the lower body.Good
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