BMI, ABSI, WHR, what are they????

Most people have heard of BMI (body mass index), a few months ago Dr Mercola mentioned WHR (waist to hip ratio), and now from this month's Oprah Magazine, page 88, ABSI (a body shape index)

Mercola stated that the WHR is a better indicator than BMI of healthy weight and potential heart disease. He just stated the easiest way is the make sure your waist is less than half your height, but the chart below is helpful.

The Mayo Clinic used the following waist-to-hip ratio designations:

Here is his article
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/11/14/waist-size-matters.aspx

Below is from Oprah's magazine (thanks Donna for the article from Oprah) Here is a link as well (not the article) http://www.oprah.com/health/ABSI-Body-Shape-Index

"For more than 40 years, scientists have searched for a simple formula for determining who's healthy and who's not.  First there was the body mass index (BMI)... but it doesn't indicate where you carry your weight, an important factor in understanding your overall health.  As a result, doctors began embracing waist circumference (WC)...  But WC, too, can fall short - for failing to fact height into the equation:  A 5'10'' woman with a 35-inch waist may have a very different health profile from a 5'2" woman with the same girth.

Given rising rates of chronic disease associated with obesity, it's no wonder that the medical community has been laboring to come up with a better metric.  Now a father-and-son team - Jesse Krakauer, MD, an endocrinologist, and Nir Krakauer, PhD, an assistant professor at City College of NY have developed A Body Shape Index (ABSI)... This takes into account weight, height, and waist circumference.

In an initial study, team Krauker calculated the ABSI and BMI of more than 14,000 Americans of all shapes and sizes (pregnant women excluded) and found that high ABSI is more accurate than BMI at predicting mortality.  Those with the highest ABSI numbers had more than twice the risk of dying from any cause than those with the lowest."

It's better, "Because ABSI accounts for height, it likely depicts body roundness in a more precise way than waist circumference can."

"Plug your measurements into the calculator the Krakauers have developed at
www-ce.ccny.cuny.edu/nir/sw/absi-calculator.html or http://www.absicalculator.eu/.  The number you want to note is the relative risk from ABSI.  A 1 means you're at average risk of death for your age.  Below 1 means a below-average risk.  above 1 means a greater risk."