YIKES!!

This article backs up a post that I made earlier noting that some of the traditional metrics to measure obesity and life expectancy, such as a person's BMI or their weight, are not accurate in reflecting a person's true health.

In this article from the Wall Street Journal, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122654375324823447.html , it reports on a large study of 360,000 men and women in Europe, tracked for over a decade, and measured the potential factors contributing to premature death.

Normal-weight male participants with waists measuring 102.7 centimeters (about 40 inches) or more were twice as likely to die as those with waists measuring 86 centimeters (34 inches) or less. Women who weighed in the normal BMI range but had waists that were 89 centimeters (35 inches) or more were 79% more likely to die than those with waists measuring 70.1 centimeters (28 inches) or less.

The researchers also calculated that, for a five-centimeter, or about two-inch, increase in waist size for patients with any given BMI score, the risk of death increased by 17% for men and by 13% for women. The researchers found similar trends when they compared waist-to-hips ratios.

For the study, patients were divided into groups according to their BMI, waist circumference and waist-to-hips ratio. During the course of the research, more than 14,723 of them died from various causes.

Researchers found that even patients who would be considered at normal weight, according to their BMI, faced increased risk of death if they had a large waist.

To me, this says that physicians need to take a closer look at the patients activity and waist size and less on the BMI which has never factored in the distribution of fat or how much someone's weight is based on muscle, which is denser and thus weighs more than fat.

So, all of you active wide-bodies, stay focused on being active, stay with those core exercises, and goal of a healthier and happier could be yours.