Q: My physician has said that my waist is too large -- it is about 42 inches. I am 5 feet 6 inches and 185 pounds. Is that just a polite way of saying I need to lose weight? Why focus on my waist size -- and will losing weight make it noticeably smaller? -- Jennifer P., Jacksonville, Florida
A: Your doctor is right to ask you to pay attention to your waist size. Your waist-to-height ratio is a good and easy measure of just how much risk you’re at for chronic diseases associated with obesity. This is in part because the fat you accumulate around your waist -- visceral fat -- is much more likely to cause inflammation in your organ systems and lead to heart disease, stroke, dementia, sleep apnea, Type 2 diabetes, arthritis, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, and multiple types of cancer.
You want to aim for a waist-to-height ratio below 0.52 for men and 0.48 for women. You can get your ratio by dividing your waist circumference in inches (suck your belly in when you measure your waist) by your height in inches. Jennifer, your waist-to-height ratio may be around 0.63.
The great news is that if you lose your excess visceral belly fat, you can reverse some or all of your risk for obesity-associated chronic diseases. The best way to do that is to make a long-term commitment to gradual and permanent weight loss by switching to a plant-based diet, dodging all red and processed meats, avoiding added sugars, and making sure to take a multivitamin/mineral daily. You may also benefit from intermittent fasting with a tomato soup diet five days a month. And consider a probiotic supplement -- chances are that your gut biome has been damaged by processed foods. You can also improve your results by having a coaching buddy. (LongevityPlaybook.com is launching a program). For more information on how to reduce your waist size, visit iHerb.com’s blog on “10 Tips to Help with Weight Loss.”
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Dr. Mike Roizen is the founder of www.longevityplaybook.com, and Dr. Mehmet Oz is global advisor to www.iHerb.com, the world’s leading online health store. Roizen and Oz are chief wellness officer emeritus at Cleveland Clinic and professor emeritus at Columbia University, respectively.
Distributed by King Features Syndicate, Inc.
