To think a 84cm / 34 inch waist is not "slim"

[apenny4]

Here's a link to the article

I'm very open to being told IABU, in fact I'd be quite relieved to be told I have a warped view. Right now though I don't think a 34 inch waist is slim. To me slim is no larger than a size 10 so around a 27 inch waist max.

Unless you are a much taller than the average woman (average being 5' 4"?) I think a healthy (in the general sense of the word) waist is less than 30 inches.

However I have a small frame and have felt overweight whenever I've needed to wear size 12 bottoms (and that's still not over a 30 inch waist).

The irony is that I still think I'm at high risk of developing diabetes because my father has it and whilst not overweight I have a diet quite high in sugar.

Genuinely interested in people's views on this and whether my own view is out of kilter with the norm.

Thanks green I've always measured there but this thread had me confused.

I find hip bones to be a good guide as to where my hips are, loobrush

I might have flunked medical school, but I did learn that much in my anatomy lessons.

Wow, your bellybutton is high grey!!

Measuring your waist

To measure your waist:
find the bottom of your ribs and the top of your hips
breathe out naturally
wrap a tape measure around your waist midway between these points to find your measurement

TAKEN FROM NHS SITE

Haha! I've just looked. Mines in the same place though gray!

Is it?! I've never noticed, and you'd think I would I see people's stomachs all day ha. Ive just realised that I wish I never had gotten my belly done all those years ago

I think my pants are quite low to be fair

Hurrah I'm not alone

And in most people, the stomach is somewhere above and to the left of their belly button ;)

Grays both I think! I have high hips with long leg/short body (torso so short it caused problems in pregnancy...) so this has utterly confused me as if I measured round my belly button that's my hips

Iwant, I agree with what you are saying - how can one single measurement be applied to everyone . Other guides say that your waist should be less than half your height to be in the healthy range - so 34" would be the cut off for you...age not relevant either way. The NHS guide may say 31" or 32" for women but that must be based on some kind of average height and you would be taller than average? Interestingly, Japan applies criteria that allow for a larger waist size for women than men..

Ha you wouldn't believe I work in healthcare would you, abdomen , however stomach is slang for abdomen where I live so I slip into that when I'm at home!

Thanks everyone for all the views - I'm learning a lot!

I used the measurements from the on-line guides that you see when deciding what size to get (as they vary with manufactures I've read a fair few). Generally 8/10 is slim and 12/14 average (medium).

However my perception of slim is also based on how I have felt about myself at different sizes (and knowing what size waist I had at the time).

After slim comes average - which is what I'd class the lady in the article, a person who is not overweight but is not slim either. I read the article on my phone so her image was quite small - it was her waist size that surprised me.

A poster stated I'd misread the article and have a muddled OP, but as the article is titled "I am slim ..." by a person with a 34 inch waist I disagree, my reading of the article was fine and I just really wanted to know if my view of what equals a slim waist was wrong.

I do agree that waist measurement alone is a blunt tool with respect to health - however this article uses waist size as the diagnostic tool so it seems valid to refer to it and check my own perceptions.

I really need to find out where a waist should be measured however, there seems to be conflicting evidence so I'm off to carry out my own research . Any nurses or GPs welcome to give a steer though!

Ooops X post with green 18 - thank you!

That ideal weight calculator says I need to lose 6 stone
I mean yes I am fat, but I'm also fit and carry a lot of muscle. 6 stone less, I think I would look horrendous

Actual weight, BMI and to a lesser degree waist measurements all have their limitations when we are deciding on if a person is carrying too much fat, which is what we should be concerned about from a health point of view, especially around the middle.

Of the above 3, I prefer waist measurement, but even that wouldn't work for me because I have a bit too much fat now and my waist is well below half my height. I am 5'7" so my waist could be nearly 34" before it is too big by that definition and it is currently more like 28 inches, so I would be very overweight with a 34 inch waist measurement.

Is that at the higher end though? Usually there's a lower end

Like I need to lose 3-6 stone it says.

It's barely OK for me, but I am 70 inches tall. A ratio of height to waist is the best indicator of healthy weight.

5-6 stone. Tbf I AM heavy, a lot of people guess my weight wrong including the doctor who was adamant all his scales were broken

If that is you at six stone overweight hollinhurst84, it is either a very flattering camera angle , or your bones must be made of lead?

So you illustrate how BMI can be a crap way of determining health. Do you know your body fat percentage? I bet it's normal, or not hugely above?

Six stone! No it bloody doesn't. Prove it with numbers, Hollinhurst!

I was approx 15st 10 in that pic, that was after an 8 week PT training programme

I guess the point with waist measurement Barbara is that it tells us a bit more about our health risk so if there are two people with a BMI of 28, the health risk of the one with a 36" waist will be more significant than that of the one with 32", becuase of fat being stored around visceral organs...same as for two people with 'healthy' BMI of 24 and waist measurements more than/less than half their height. For the best idea of our risk profile we really need to look at both indicators and also (trickier), body fat %.

I know where the waist is. The point is that you measure for the 'waist' that should be less than 31.5 inches is NOT your waist.

Which obviously isn't confusing.

I am 5 feet 9 inches and a size 12 - I do have a large, athletic frame and size 12 is slim for me. My ribs are visible (not all of them, but bottom of rib cage) etc, and my hip bones. I have been a size 10 before - but then I stopped menstruating because of too little body fat

The ideal weight calculator says I should weigh slightly over 9.5 stone, or as low as 8.5 on the BMI measure.

If I go below 11 stone I am quite slim and if I got down as far as 10 I would start to look quite thin - at less than 9 stone, I would be immaciated. I am toned and quite muscular due to a job and hobbies that involve carrying a lot of heavy things, but obviously not as much as Hidden.

Agree sleep that it is body fat percentage that we should look at - as you say, hard for people to measure themselves at home.