Waist-to-Height Ratio Outperforms Bmi in Predicting Heart Disease Risk

Posted2 months agoActiveabout 2 months ago

bikenaga

39 points

13 comments

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Obesity

Cardiovascular Disease

A new study suggests that waist-to-height ratio is a better predictor of heart disease risk than BMI, sparking discussion on the limitations of BMI and the importance of considering body fat distribution.

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Nov 3, 2025 at 1:56 PM EST
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Discussion (13 comments)

Showing 13 comments

Graziano_M

2 months ago

2 replies

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

snthpy

about 2 months ago

1 reply

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

about 2 months ago

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

andreareina

about 2 months ago

2 replies

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

about 2 months ago

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

kelipso

about 2 months ago

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.

BugsJustFindMe

2 months ago

1 reply

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

_aavaa_

2 months ago

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

tekla

2 months ago

1 reply

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

m463

2 months ago

1 reply

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

about 2 months ago

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

about 2 months ago

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.”

bikenagaAuthor

2 months ago

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...

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