For over a century, doctors have been improving on the body mass index (BMI), their go-to method for determining whether a person has an unhealthy amount of body fat. Instead of using BMI, a group of researchers from the UK say string will do just fine.
You read that right. String. And it’s not as far-fetched as it sounds, either. BMI is a calculation of a person’s weight status based on their weight and height, which then categorizes a person as either underweight, normal weight, overweight, or obese. However, such a basic measurement fails to account for where in the body the fat is located, and that’s important when we consider that there are two kinds of fat: brown, the good fat that insulates us, and white, which stores energy and contributes to obesity. With BMI, all of this fat is considered equal.
In their new study, researchers from Oxford Brookes University suggested a new method that’s been gaining acceptance of late: waist-to-height ratio (WHtR). They found that measuring a person’s height with string, then folding the string in half and seeing if it’ll fit around a person’s waist comfortably could be a better indicator of whether a person is overweight, Yahoo Health reported. This is because white fat tends to preside mostly in the abdomen, whereas brown fat hangs out elsewhere in the body. Having too much white fat around the abdomen has been linked to heart disease, diabetes, and other metabolic disorders.
I – Word Understanding
go-to method – reliable method
far-fetched – unbelievable
insulates – protects
II – Have Your Say
Did you know?
1 in 3 Americans is obese
-Mexico is the fattest country
-chicken contains 266% more fat than it did 40 years ago
-lack of sleep can cause weight gain of 2 lbs (0.9 kg) in 2 weeks
-poor women in the US have higher rate of obesity than wealthier women
2. . Your body constantly gives you signs and clues of possible health problems. How do you determine your health condition?
337 String May Work Better Than BMI In Determining Body Fat, Health Risks
