Abdominal Fat and BMI Both Linked to Risk of Death

I am a fan of the BMI. It is the most reproducible indicator of overfatness available to us and the least likely to get fudged from improper technique.

Measuring waist circumference cannot boast such an advantage. Further, BMI helps create a road map for weight loss which waist circumference cannot do.

"Abdominal adiposity and body mass index (BMI) were independently related to the risk of death, a European cohort study found.

The data support the use of waist circumference or waist-to-hip ratio measurements in addition to BMI in assessing the risk of death, particularly among patients with a low BMI, Tobias Pischon, M.D., of the German Institute of Human Nutrition here, and colleagues reported in the Nov. 13 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine."

For home use, my recommendation is to stick with the BMI.

Using waist circumference or waist-to-hip ratio measurements is fraught with opportunities for mistakes, i.e, it is more unreliable outside the clinical setting. These mistakes can mislead you.

And the study had significant limitations:

"Among the study's limitations was the fact that although individuals with a history of cancer, heart disease, or stroke were excluded, participants with other serious diseases may have been included.

Also, they said, the overall mortality and broad categories of cause-specific mortality may have limited the interpretations of the causes of the associations. Therefore the analyses according to the cause of death have to be interpreted cautiously.

In addition, they said, imperfect follow-up may have incorrectly classified some participants as alive.

They also pointed out that, despite adjusting for several variables, the observational nature of the study made it impossible to exclude the possibility of residual confounding."

Stick with what works and is easy if you want to succeed.

The harder you make things on yourself, the more likely it is you will fail.

Go with the BMI.