How to measure your waist for this ratio
Find the bottom of your ribs and the top of your hips. Wrap the tape around your waist midway between them, which is usually just above the belly button. Breathe out naturally and read the tape at the end of the breath. Measure your height without shoes, back to a wall.
What the bands mean
| Ratio | NICE classification | What it indicates |
|---|---|---|
| Under 0.4 | Outside the NICE bands | Not classified by NICE |
| 0.4 to 0.49 | Healthy central adiposity | No increased health risks |
| 0.5 to 0.59 | Increased central adiposity | Increased health risks |
| 0.6 or more | High central adiposity | Further increased health risks |
Who these bands are for
NICE uses them for adults with a BMI under 35, of both sexes and all ethnicities, including adults with high muscle mass. The guideline does not cover pregnancy, and children and young people are assessed differently. If you are unsure what your result means for you, ask a doctor or nurse.
Why waist-to-height
BMI cannot see where weight sits. Fat around the middle carries more health risk than the same weight elsewhere, and the waist-to-height ratio picks that up with one tape and one easy boundary: keep your waist to less than half your height. Ashwell and Gibson, using UK national survey data from 1,453 adults, found that the 0.5 boundary identifies more people at early health risk than a matrix of BMI and waist circumference.
Sources
- NICE guideline NG246, Overweight and obesity management (2025): identifying and assessing overweight, obesity and central adiposity.
- Ashwell M, Gibson S. Waist-to-height ratio as an indicator of early health risk: simpler and more predictive than using a matrix based on BMI and waist circumference. BMJ Open 2016;6:e010159.
Track it from week to week
Leano works out your waist-to-height ratio from every session you measure and shows how it changes, next to the waist-to-hip ratio, a US Navy body-fat estimate and BMI, each with its source.
This calculator is for information. It is not a diagnosis or medical advice.