Transcripts

Mike Carruthers:
Your body weight, what the scale says, is not necessarily the best way to determine whether you're overweight.

Mehmet Oz, M.D.:
Your waist size, which takes into account the fat inside your belly, around your stomach - that's actually much more important.

Dr. Mehmet Oz, co-author of the book You on a Diet…

The reason that's critical is because fat around your belly is the fat that actually goes right to your liver, influences how the liver functions. And the liver, remember, controls your cholesterol - it has a huge influence on how insulin works, so it causes diabetes. It also can push on the kidneys and by pushing on the kidneys it can cause high blood pressure.

So, what should your waist size be?

The average person's waist should be one half their height. So let's say you're five foot eight inches tall - so, five feet is sixty inches, eight more inches on top of that is sixty-eight inches divided in half is thirty-four inches. For the average woman, their waist size should be about thirty-two and a half inches. For the average male, it should be about thirty-five inches. When the waist size gets above thirty-seven inches for women and forty inches for men, you get into a danger zone - with a forty percent increase in major risk factors including high blood pressure, high blood sugar and high cholesterol.

But how long you live is not just determined by your body weight.

What really is more important, there is your physical activity. If you're able to walk a quarter-mile in less than five minutes, which should not be difficult for most listeners, then the overwhelming odds are you're not going to have a health problem. And especially as you get older you should keep that metric in mind.

Tomorrow, ways to lose fat without dieting - I'm Mike Carruthers and that's Something You Should Know.