What Is Your Body Shape Saying About Your Health

In my home country those days, anyone with extra body fat (overweight or obese), having access to eat as much as they like with varieties of assorted meats and different fatty foods is seen to be healthy and wealthy, but in developed world this is a different story entirely, obesity and overweight is seen as a medical problem which poses greater risk to health, longevity and health care system. Fat is stored in different parts of our body mostly around the vital organs in the abdomen and under the skin, depending on where the fat is stored the higher its risk to health . Visceral fats also known as belly/abdominal fat increase our risk to heart diseases and type 2 diabetes when compared to fats around our hips or bottom. Find below the ideal waist measurement for good health

	Men in cm ( Inch)	Women in cm ( Inch)
Ideal	≤ 94cm (37)	≤ 80cm (31.5)
High	94 – 102cm ( 37 – 40)	80 - 88cm (32 – 35)
Very High	≥ 103 (40)	≥ 89cm (35)

There are basically 2 types of body shapes described scientifically in relation to health; these are pear (fat is stored around the hips) and apple (fat is stored around the waist/middle) body shapes, anyone who is overweight with apple-shaped body has a higher risk of health problems when compared to pear-shaped overweight individual.

We can determine our health status by calculating our body mass index (BMI). BMI is an appropriate way of knowing if one is overweight or obese. It is calculated using our weight and height ratio (weight/height²). BMI provides us with an assessment of our body fat and predict our risk to diseases that come with extra body fat.

	BMI
Underweight	Below 18.5
Normal	18.5 -24.9
Overweight	25 – 29.9
Obese	Above 30

Although BMI has been recognised globally to be accurate but it has some limitations such as:

·         Overestimating the body fat of athletes and others who have a muscular build.

·         Underestimating the body fat of older people and others who have lost muscle.

As our BMI increases from the normal range, our risk for certain diseases such as heart disease, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, gallstones, breathing problems, and certain cancers also increases.

The good news is that every small effort counts, we can change our lifestyle by being mindful of what we eat and doing regular physical exercise, this will help lower our risk to developing this disease.