BMI is a well accepted measure of a person’s health risk in relation to their weight, however health professionals now consider BMI in conjunction with waist measurements to provide a much clearer picture of an individual’s weight related disease risk.
The reason is that if you carry excess abdominal (belly) fat, you may carry an excess of visceral fat. This is fat stored within the abdominal cavity which is therefore stored around a number of important internal organs such as the liver, pancreas and intestines.
All of us will have a certain amount of visceral fat but those of us with a larger quantity of visceral fat may be exposed to increased risks of health conditions including cardiovascular disease, Type 2 diabetes, colorectal cancer and gallbladder disease. In women, it is also associated with breast cancer.
