Dr. Oz, - Waist Size for Optimum Health

I was reading an article by Dr. Oz titled, "7 Best Tips for Dieting", or some such.   I was going to post them here, but they are mostly common sense stuff, such as, "don't bring/keep it in the house if you're not supposed to eat it".      Stuff we should already know, as post-ops.

  However,  he mentioned something in the article that WAS news to me, and I found very interesting.

  Dr. Oz was talking about viscercal fat (i.e. the abdominal fat that crowds and stresses our internal vital organs).   According to him, studies show that to avoid the serious negative health effects of visceral fat one should aim to keep their waist measurement to no more than half their height in inches.  

  So, if you're 6' (72") tall, your waist measurement should not be over 36".    Otherwise, regardless of your other postiive health attributes, you are still at increased risk for heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, etc.  
  
   That seems to mean that, in addition to poundage and/or BMI, a post-op should take their desired waist size into consideration when deciding on their "goal weight".   


 

Here is a link to a bmi calculator that takes age into account. Has some info too.

home.fuse.net/clymer/bmi/

 Very interesting stuff there, Herc ..   Thanks for posting ...

 Actually, I think the body fat % calculator on there must be a bit off, as it shows me @ only about 24% (which is barely within acceptable M limits, btw), whereas my Omitron hand-held electronic "zapper" body fat % analyzer shows my actual % at more like 33%-35%. 

  The "Willoughby waist" for me, as shown by the calculator, sucks, being 33.5", which is exactly 3" less even than the Dr. Oz formula I mentioned originally. 

  The BMI calculator on there does point out my BMI is about 37% now, which "qualifies" me for WLS (again) .   Another bummer ..  

one of my pet peeves is that the medical community relies on stats like BMI and waist size that don't work for everybody.  in other words, according to my age/height/etc my ideal weight should be in the high 160's, there is no way that is possible for me.  i am 230 lbs now with only around 11 or 12% body fat.  BMI does not take into consideration lean muscle mass and bone density, it is too crude of a measurement based on weight and height only.  same thing for this waist size thing, my waist is around 38 inches, but that is due to loose skin and some ab muscle, again, too crude... just my $0.02... :)

I'm not sure how accurate any of these "guidelines" really are....in my opinion the only way to know  if you're officially "overweight" is to get your body fat tested....anything under 20% is good.   Even so, just because your body fat % may be a bit high doesnt neccessarily mean you're unhealthy...blood tests are way more important.   On a side note, I have a real problem with BMI calculators because they dont take into account muscle weight... For example, my BMI is 24.9 according to the calculators....just barely below being considered overweight, yet I'm not freaking out because I'm at 12% body fat currently...which is pretty darn good.  So take it all for what its worth....