Waist circumference and not body mass index explains obesity-related health risk

Wow, it's been a while since I last posted. Been very busy getting things rolling with Nunn's Performance Training. Good things are coming! Anyways, ran across this study from the American Society for Clinical Nutrition that states that waist circumference (WC) is a more valid tool for determining obesity-related health risk than body mass index (BMI). For those of you who don't know, BMI is a measurement of a person's height and weight. It does not account for the amount of adipose tissue (fat) a person may have. Here's the results:

Results: With few exceptions, overweight and obese subjects were more likely to have hypertension, dyslipidemia, and the metabolic syndrome than were normal-weight subjects. After adjustment for WC category (normal or high), the odds of comorbidity, although attenuated, remained higher in overweight and obese subjects than in normal-weight subjects. However, after adjustment for WC as a continuous variable, the likelihood of hypertension, dyslipidemia, and the metabolic syndrome was similar in all groups.When WC and BMI were used as continuous variables in the same regression model, WC alone was a significant predictor of comorbidity. Conclusions: WC, and not BMI, explains obesity-related health risk. Thus, for a given WC value, overweight and obese persons and normal-weight persons have comparable health risks. However when WC is dichotomized as normal or high, BMI remains a significant predictor of health risk.

Am J Clin Nutr 2004;79:
379–84.

So, obesity related health problems are better explained by WC than BMI. For the entire study, click here: http://www.nunnstronger.com/General%20fitness.htm