Waist Measure May Not Be Major Predictor of Heart Disease

As we have claimed all along and as Fitness Watch readers should know, the BMI is a darned good metric.

"Obesity puts people at risk for a variety of diseases such as diabetes, high cholesterol, hypertension, arthritis, sleep apnea, and pulmonary emboli," she wrote. "Therefore, it should always be assessed and recommendations should be made on weight loss."

The study findings do, however, contradict previous studies that found abdominal obesity -- indicated by an "apple-shaped" body type with the weight concentrated around the middle -- to be a much stronger indicator of cardiovascular risk than BMI...

"Furthermore, results from our study indicate that the long-term reproducibility of BMI is superior to that of waist-to-hip ratio (or waist circumference)."...

"...BMI continues to be useful as an indicator of adiposity, despite its obvious and occasional misrepresentation of muscular people and lack of sensitivity to body shape and composition," they wrote. "BMI used with good clinical judgment is highly appropriate in adults because it is so strongly associated with chronic disease risk...

Yep.