What does your waistline say about your health?

It may surprise you

It's normal for your weight to fluctuate as you age, and throughout different periods of your life, but experts say the size of your waistline can reveal key information about your health. Here's what you need to know about gaining weight around the middle.

 

There are many different measures that provide insight into our overall health and wellbeing – blood tests are one such measure, as are a range of fitness tests – and then there is body weight, or more specifically, our body composition, the relative amounts of fat and muscle mass that we have.

While weight has traditionally been used as a measure of overall health, what we are now learning is that it is the relative size of our waist that is much more telling when it comes to our metabolic health and disease risk.

This means that while you may weigh a certain amount, if that weight comes in the form of muscle, and your waist remains within a healthy range, from a health perspective you have nothing to worry about. Vice versa, if you are holding weight around your midsection, it can be an indicator that part of your lifestyle isn't quite right. 

Here's everything you need to know about the relationship between your waistline and your health, and why keeping it from creeping up is so important.

Why is our waist measurement important?

For women in particular, where weight is stored on the body can give great insight into hormone function.

Prior to menopause, the hormone oestrogen preferentially directs fat stores to the lower body in preparation for reproduction, protecting the heart and vital organs from the damage that is caused when fat is stored in and around our vital organs. Once menopause is reached, women lose their protective effect of oestrogen, and when weight is gained it tends to be stored centrally, increasing the risk of heart disease.

This means for pre-menopausal women, gaining weight centrally, or having an abnormally high waist measurement can be suggestive of glucose regulation issues, and an increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

Here are some other health concerns a growing waistline can be linked to. 

With focused effort you can avoid belly fat. Image: iStock

#1. It could suggest glucose metabolism issues

The most important thing to be aware of when considering your waist measurement is if it suddenly increases disproportionately, or is abnormally high, or greater than 100cm, especially if you have not yet gone through menopause.

Fat specifically depositing around the waist could be indicative of high insulin levels which are encouraging fat to store around the abdominal area.

Belly gain could be a sign that your exercise isn't working. Image: Unsplash

#2. It could suggest your exercise is not effective

The other interesting thing your waist measurement can tell us is whether your exercise regime is working effectively.

If you train regularly, and are actively trying to lose body fat, and you are losing weight, but not around your abdominal area, you may need to exercise at a higher intensity, with a higher heart rate to successful increase metabolic rate, and effectively burn body fat.

In turn, it may also suggest that you are still eating too many calories to support fat loss, even if exercising.

Is drinking having an impact on your tummy? Image: Unsplash

#3. It could suggest you are drinking too much

The other thing that abdominal weight gain can be suggestive of a high intake of alcohol on a regular basis.

As alcohol is metabolised preferentially to the other nutrients, if you regularly consume several glasses of wine, not only will you be ingesting plenty of extra calories from energy dense alcohol, but any food you eat is more likely to be stored.

This is one of the reasons that big drinkers can also have a big belly to match.

What waist measurement should we be aiming for? Image: iStock

What measures should we be aiming for?

While everyone has a different frame, and as such, larger framed individuals will have a larger waist, a general reference is to aim for a waist measurement that is less than 80cm at the midpoint between your rib cage and your hip bone.

Originally published as What does your waistline say about your health?