Waist-to-height ratio outperforms BMI in predicting heart disease risk

Posted by bikenaga 11/3/2025

Waist-to-height ratio outperforms BMI in predicting heart disease risk(medicalxpress.com)

39 points | 13 comments

Graziano_M 11/3/2025|

No way, a measure of fat around your midsection is a better predictor than height and weight, not accounting at all for composition?

andreareina 11/4/2025||

This is a meme that fails to understand the actual, in practice limitations of BMI. The problem is that it underdiagnoses obesity, not that it overdiagnoses it. The problem isn't the nonexistent horde of lean muscular people with BMI > 25, it's all the clinically obese people with BMI < 30 thinking that yeah they're overweight but it's not that bad, they're not obese.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2877506/#:~:text=BM...

UltraSane 11/4/2025|||

It doesn't take that much muscle for men to get high BMIs

kelipso 11/4/2025|||

It's really easy for a healthy man to get BMI >25 with a few months of weight lifting. Frankly, denial and downplaying of this fact just increases skepticism of BMI and the people who say it's a relevant metric.

snthpy 11/4/2025||

Idk. At one point I was at 11% body fat and still had BMI over 25. (83kg and 1.82m) I don't think I've ever been BMI < 25.

Graziano_M 11/5/2025||

I'm agreeing. I'm rather fit, low bodyfat %, and my BMI is about 27

bikenaga 11/3/2025||

Original article: "Waist-to-height ratio and coronary artery calcium incidence: the Brazilian Longitudinal Study of Adult Health (ELSA-Brasil)" - https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanam/article/PIIS2667-19...

tekla 11/4/2025||

If you're at the point where waist to height ratio vs BMI is something you debate about, you're already too fat

m463 11/4/2025|

the lancet article is hard to just read and says it is a better predictor.

I imagine there are people who think they are ok, who are not, but I can't tell if it goes the other way.

andreareina 11/4/2025||

The problem with BMI in practice is that it underdiagnoses obesity. W:H fixes that. If BMI says you're obese, you're very likely to be obese.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2877506/#:~:text=BM...

BobbyTables2 11/4/2025||

I’ve gained about 15 lbs from my younger days and lost 2” from the waist. Stomach sticks out now, didn’t back then.

So - progress ?!?!

Almost seems saying “floor breaking when stepped on strongly correlated with arterial blockage.”

BugsJustFindMe 11/4/2025|

They should use skeletal length instead of height to account for spine curvature disorders.

_aavaa_ 11/4/2025|

They should account for the difference between the two to control for comorbidities.