Am I overweight? The new simple way to tell if you need to lose weight

The public body that makes recommendations for health and care in England, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), has updated its guideline on “identification and classification of overweight and obesity”. This included a recommendation about a new way to identify if your weight could be affecting your health risk.

Should your waist be half your height?

Yes, new NICE guidance encourages you to keep your waist size to less than half your height.

So, if you are 170cm tall (5ft 7inches) then your waist circumference should be less than 85cm (around 33 inches). Your waist is the mid-point between the bottom of your ribs and the top of your hips - not necessarily where the waistband on your clothes is.

• Find out how to measure your waist

Is BMI still used?

This guidance doesn’t mean other methods, like body mass index (BMI) and waist size, won’t be used any more. There are pros and cons to all methods of measuring whether your weight is likely to put your health at risk, and BMI is likely to still be used by healthcare professionals.

• Download or print our BMI chart to work out your BMI.

What are the benefits of this new weight measure?

The good thing about the “waist size less than half your height” guide is that it’s easy to understand and easier to work out than your BMI. It works as a guide because having fat stored around your middle is linked to greater risk of heart and circulatory diseases than compared with fat stored in other places, such as around the hips and thighs.

It’s also easier to remember than the standard waist circumference guidance, where the sizes that put you at increased risk are different for men and women, and in some cases may even be different for people from different ethnic backgrounds.

A quick and easy measure like this can help us all to monitor our health at home. This also means that you can be pro-active about deciding whether you want to seek further help or support to address your weight, if that would be helpful.

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