Recent studies have shown that measuring your waist size not BMI may be a better indicator of health and risk of diseases like diabetes and heart disease.
This article discusses a recent study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. This study shows that waist measurement may be a more important measure of health and risk of weight related diseases than BMI and body weight.
The most important features of the article are:
- A waist measurement for post menopausal women of over 88cm increases the risk of early death from diseases such as heart disease and obesity related cancers by 31%, even when BMI was normal.
- Centalised visceral fat has been linked many times to preventable diseases. Diseases as insulin resistance, hyperinsulinemia (High insulin production), dyslipidemia (High lipids in the blood) and increased chronic inflammation. These are direct risk factors to heart disease and cancers such as bowel and breast cancer.
We know it is extremely important to maintain and improve muscle mass with ongoing weight bearing exercise, throughout life, but especially after menopause. It is never too early or too late to start, but consistency is very important. Muscle mass is a very metabolically active tissue, which burns fat and regulate insulin sensitivity and reduces resistance. Weight bearing, strength training should be the cornerstone of any exercise program, especially if your aim is to lose weight.
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