Think beyond BMI, think waist-to-height ratio

In this webinar, the importance of preventing obesity will be discussed, not only obesity is a disease in itself, but also because it significantly increases the risk of several other metabolic diseases, including diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease. Over the course of 50 years, there have been various methods to define obesity, starting with weight-for-height tables, then the Body Mass Index (BMI), and more recently, the 2025 NICE guidelines, which recommend using the waist-to-height ratio (WHtR) as a simple marker for harmful central adiposity. According to the 2025 NICE guidelines, the waist-to-height ratio (WHtR) has become a simple and effective way to assess central adiposity, with a threshold of 0.5 indicating increased risk. The simple message for prevention is: “Keep your waist less than half your height.” This makes it easy to measure, as you don’t even need a tape measure — just a piece of string will do. The length of the string? Less than half your height, if you want to stay healthy.  

While these updated 2025 NICE guidelines have been eagerly awaited, the real question remains: How much longer will the full implementation take? 

What will I gain from this webinar? 

• You will be able to understand why it is important to measure central adiposity rather than total obesity   

• You will be able to critically discuss why it is important to have simple anthropometric indices to use in practice, especially in prevention. 

• You will have a good example of how long it takes for research findings to get into NICE guidelines and, furthermore, the problems with implementation of the guidelines.