body shape when assessing a patient’s health risks,” Bao concluded in a university news release.
One expert who reviewed the new study agreed.
“How does measuring waist circumference help us understand body composition? A higher waist circumference assumes an accumulation of fat in the abdominal region,” explained Ashley Baumohl, a clinical dietitian at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City.
“So for those that have a normal BMI but a larger waist circumference, we can assume that a higher percentage of that weight is coming from fat rather than muscle,” she added. And all that fat can take a toll on health.
In the new study, Bao’s group tracked data from more than 156,000 U.S. women, aged 50 to
