• Posted August 18, 2026

Waist Size Is Accurate Way To Gauge Unhealthy Excess Weight, Study Says

Are you worried that extra pounds might be harming your health?

Check the notches on your belt, a new study suggests.

Waist size might be one of the simplest and most effective measures to detect health risks associated with obesity, researchers reported recently in JAMA Network Open.

“Pay attention to the need to loosen your belt or get bigger pants,” lead researcher Dr. Aayush Visaria said in a news release. He is a faculty member at Rutgers Health-RWJBarnabas Health Center for Climate, Health, and Healthcare in New Jersey. 

“Although clothing size isn’t the same as a proper waist circumference measurement, it can be an early sign of unhealthy amounts of body fat,” Visaria said. “Measuring your waist, along with your weight, can help identify health risks earlier and provide an opportunity to reduce your risk of diabetes, heart disease, stroke and some cancers.”

The study comes as researchers are casting about for a new way to measure obesity and estimate how a person’s excess body fat might harm their health.

Body mass index (BMI) has long been used to estimate excess weight and obesity, but studies have shown that it is a very imprecise measurement. BMI compares a person’s height to their weight. It does not take into account their proportion of fat to muscle.

Another proposed framework recently published in The Lancet called for using other measurements like waist circumference, waist-to-height ratio and waist-to-hip ratio alongside BMI to judge whether a person is overweight or obese.

That more complicated calculation was shown to identify more people with unhealthy body fat, but researchers questioned whether simpler approaches might be as accurate.

For the new study, researchers analyzed data from 1,900 adults ages 20 to 59 who participated in an annual health and nutrition survey conducted by the U.S. federal government.

The team used that data to compare several different approaches to diagnosing obesity.

Results showed that The Lancet's definition of obesity was the most accurate, but waist circumference performed well enough to be a reasonable alternative.

“Our findings show that you don’t necessarily need multiple complex measurements to identify obesity-related health risks,” Visaria said. “A waist measurement provides much of the information needed and is feasible for clinicians and patients alike.”

BMI proved the worst measurement on its own, missing a substantial number of people who carried enough body fat to qualify as obese, researchers said.

More information

The World Health Organization has more information on obesity and excess weight.

SOURCE: Rutgers University, news release, Aug. 14, 2026