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Waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) looks at the differences in the measurements of your waist and hips. Most people store their body fat in two distinct ways: 1) Around your middle (the apple shape) 2) around your hips (pear shape).

For most people, the apple shape or carrying extra weight around the middle increases health risks more than carrying extra weight around their hips or thighs or the pear shape.

You should keep in mind that this is just one assessment that is used in measuring overall health risk. A more important measurement is percentage of body fat.

Where to Measure

1. Measure waist at the navel in men, and midway between the bottom of the ribs and the top of the hip bone in women.

2. Measure hips at the tip of the hip bone in men and at the widest point between the hips and buttocks in women.

Divide your waist size at its smallest by your hip size at its largest and you get a hip to waist ratio. The lowest healthy ratio is not yet known. But many experts agree that  women with ratios of 0.8 or lower and
men with ratios of 1 or lower are in good shape.