No cost way to measure your health risks....

Today's post: Tuesday, 11-18-2008

1. As our regular readers know, there are a number of blood tests of key health factors that it can pay incredible dividends to get done and either move to safer levels if they are in the danger zone or improve if they are out of the desirable zone.

But they do cost some money and some time to get done.

It’s recently been in the news that there is a health risk measure that is almost as valuable that can be done in a couple of minutes. No doctor visit or lab visit is necessary. And once you own the very inexpensive measuring device, it costs NO money at all to do each time.

It seems that even more than total weight on the scale or the BMI index reading, your waist size and its relationship to your hip size is quite important and a very good measurement of your health risks.

There are two ways to measure this: the number of inches total and the ratio to your hip size.

If you are of close to average height, you waist size in inches alone is reasonably accurate. If you are shorter or taller than average, the waist hip ratio is better.

Because abdominal fat is more metabolically active and indicative of future health problems if it’s in too much supply than fat elsewhere on your body, it’s the important measure.

It’s much safer if, as a man, your waist size is less than 40 inches and less than 35 inches if you are a woman.

Similarly, it’s better if your waist size is smaller than your hip size if you are a man. And, if you are a woman, it’s better if your waist is less than 90 percent of your hip size.

Even better is less than 95 percent of your hip size if you are a man. And, less than 80 percent of your hip size if you are a woman is better.

The desirable level is less than 90 percent of your hip size if you are a man. And it’s less than 70 percent of your hip size if you are a woman.

2. The bad news is that it can be challenging to improve this measure.

However, here are some things that DO work.:

It helps very much to eat right and exercise. Eat a high nutrition low carb diet; and get LOTS of exercise. Then you’ll get the best results.

Most of the strategies that we posted a few days ago which lower your CRP levels and protect your heart also tend to lower your waist size.:

“1. Get regular exercise, ideally some strength training and some interval cardio every week.

2. Eat nonfat and very lowfat dairy foods; eat nuts if you aren’t allergic to them; eat beans and lentils; eat wild caught fish; eat beef fed only grass; & if and when you do eat poultry or other meat from animals fed grains, trim as much fat from it as you can and avoid eating it often.

3. Use only extra virgin olive oil. Only rarely eat small amounts of unheated butter as an occasional food flavoring. And completely stop, to the best of your ability, eating corn, soy, safflower, and canola oil or foods containing them.

4. Take DHA supplements & purified fish oil supplements daily. And, if you can, eat wild caught fish NOT known to be high in mercury at least once or twice every week (NEVER eat farmed fish for other reasons.)* The supplements and fish intake ensures you get enough omega 3 oils as the grain fed meat and poultry now sold has virtually none. *(Farmed fish are higher in omega 6 oils and have several kinds of health damaging pollutants.)

5. Stop eating all refined grain foods; stop eating or drinking any food or drink that has high fructose corn syrup; and eat sugar less often and in smaller amounts. Instead eat some high nutrition fruits such as kiwi fruit or blueberries; eat plentiful amounts of a variety of vegetables; and eat some whole grain foods also if you have little or no excess fat on your body and get plenty of exercise.”

For lowering your waist size or keeping it from getting larger, getting more exercise, the first step here and NOT ingesting the worst high glycemic, carbohydrate foods, the fifth step here do the most for you.

So, if your waist reading is quite bad and you do no regular exercise now, begin to do some strength training, some interval cardio, and look for safe ways to do more walking each week.

If you eat bad carbs, or drink soft drinks, your waist measure will be much higher than you can easily achieve by upgrading your food and drink to more health supporting choices & ONLY those choices.

The third way to lower your waist size is to manage your stress well and fit in some kind of physical stress relief several times a week. (Unrelieved stress tends to increase cortisol levels and high cortisol levels tend to cause fat to deposit around your waist.) Tai Chi is ideal because it both burns as many calories per minute as walking and relieves stress better than most meditators achieve. But watching videos you find funny enough to laugh at; progressive relaxation; and meditation also work. Regular exercise also helps some, particularly walking.

Taking other steps to lose excess fat without losing muscle also helps.

Prevention magazine has published a book saying that eating much or most of your fat intake as monosatured fats such as those found in extra virgin olive oil, nuts, and avocados and limiting other kinds of fats, see steps 2,3, & 4 above, also helps keep down your waist size and abdominal fat.

See The Flat Belly Diet
(Official Site - Lowest Price Online Only $16.52 Plus Free Shipping.)
www.Prevention.com/flatbellydiet

Also, we are now working on an eBook on how to successfully lose excess fat and keep it off. Watch this blog because when that’s ready, there is yet another secret to losing abdominal fat that we will include in that eBook.