Are you at risk?

There are a few ways of telling if you need to lose weight or waist:

1. Measuring waist size

The medical risks from being overweight are increased if excess fat is abdominally distributed. In other words, a beer belly is very bad for your health! Measuring your waist circumference is a quick and simple way to estimate the risk that abdominal fat poses to your health and is widely recognised by doctors as the gold standard in the measurement of overweight.

Heart disease risk increases when your waist size is greater than 94cm/37". You should seriously consider losing waist if your belly exceeds 37"as doctors now actively encourage waist loss if a your waist size is greater than 94cm/37".

Click here to see the correct way to measure your waist.

Use the chart below to see if your waist size is putting your health is at risk and if you need to reduce the size of your waist.

2. Measuring weight

A common measurement used by doctors is Body Mass Index (BMI), calculated by dividing weight (in kilograms) by height (in metres) squared. BMI helps classify overweight and describes the degree of risk to health. The table below shows the ranges of BMI and the corresponding levels of health risk.

Click here to use the fatmanslim BMI calculator to work out your BMI.

3. Measuring "fatness"

Measuring the fat content of your body is an excellent way to measure your health risk. Simple monitors are now available that will measure your body fat content for you and the fatmanslim shop has several types for you to buy.

The table below shows the range of body fat levels and the corresponding levels of overweight and health risk.

Click for more information on why diets dont work.