The Importance of Waist Management and Weight Loss

Monday, 11 February 2008 10:01

I seem to hear a lot about waist circumference lately. My daily exercise DVD promotes waist management, and it's hard to read about weight loss without the mention of managing the size of our waists. I think it's very important to know what it means when you hear these words, probably more so than worrying about what the scale is telling us. Here's why.

We may not like the fat pouches and hanging skin that dot our body on the outside. While they may be unsightly to us, they tend to be rather benign for the most part. Some people have what’s called a panis. A foreign word for some of you, I know. Panis is a medical term for fat that hangs over the waist line "like a separate entity.” A panis is a bulge which folds over ones belt and or genitalia. A panis is typically derived from extreme obesity or childbirth. People that have flat stomachs don’t have a panis, but they could have a thick waist and people with a panis may not necessarily have a thick waist. A thick waist means that there is fat on the inside of our bodies and too much of this is not benign and is certainly not healthy for us. We are talking about abdominal obesity.
Take a tape measure and measure your waist. Do this without any barriers such as clothing or belts. Suck in your stomach to minimize the amount of outside body fat while measuring. Write down this number. There is a sheet of fat inside your body called the omentum and this is what we are measuring. Normal omentum is lacey looking, not thick and heavy.

For women, the waist should be 35 inches or less and for men, 40 inches or less. Also, another way to determine a normal and healthy waist size is to take your height and divide it by two, thus the size your waist should be—less is good as well. In recent studies, it is found that waist size contributes to heart disease and diabetes much more than obesity. If you are pear shaped (carrying your weight in your legs, thighs and hips), then your risk may be lower than if you are apple shaped (carrying your weight in your stomach). A beer belly is considered to be apple shaped.

Exercise alone will not get rid of belly fat inside or outside of our bodies. Losing weight is the answer. In addition, if you haven’t calculated your Body Mass Index (BMI), do so as well. You will want to keep track of your waist size and BMI because both will provide you with guidance as to how your weight loss program is going.

Questions to ask at this point:

1. Is your waist circumference bigger than what it should be?
2. Have you talked to your doctor about your weight problem? Does your doctor know what your waist circumference is? If not, bring that information with you because medical intervention is required for success.
3. Have you had a thorough medical check up to see if you have diabetes or heart disease? If your waist size and/or BMI are high, then it’s a good idea to get this done!
4. What are you doing to lose weight? Exercise, diet, medical weight management? Is the program(s) working for you?
5. If medical weight loss programs don’t work for you, have you considered a surgical intervention such as gastric banding?

Whatever you decide to do to lose weight to get your waist size down, do it soon because your health depends on having a normal waist size!

Share your thoughts on waist management with me. I would love to hear from you.

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