What is a healthy waist-to-hip ratio for women?

Below 0.85. WHO lists a ratio of 0.85 or more in women as a substantially increased risk of metabolic complications such as type 2 diabetes. For example, an 80 cm waist with a 100 cm hip gives 0.80, which is under the line.

What is a healthy waist-to-hip ratio for men?

Below 0.90. WHO treats 0.90 or more in men as substantially increased risk. A 90 cm waist with a 100 cm hip is exactly 0.90, so it already counts as high.

Can I measure waist-to-hip ratio in inches?

Yes. It's a ratio, so any unit works as long as you use the same one for both. A 32 inch waist and 38 inch hip give 32 ÷ 38 = 0.84, the same answer you'd get in centimetres.

Is there a separate waist-to-hip ratio cut-off for Indians?

No official one. Indian obesity guidelines use waist size (90 cm or more for men, 80 cm or more for women) as the main belly-fat test and say waist-to-height ratio should be preferred over waist-to-hip ratio. Most Indian doctors still read WHR against the WHO 0.90 and 0.85 cut-offs.

Do squats or hip exercises improve waist-to-hip ratio?

Only a little, and only through the hip side. Building glute muscle can add a bit to hip size, but the main way the ratio improves is by losing fat from the waist, and that happens with overall fat loss, not targeted exercises.

Waist-to-Hip Ratio: How to Measure It and What's Healthy

Your waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) is your waist measurement divided by your hip measurement. The World Health Organization treats a ratio of 0.90 or more in men and 0.85 or more in women as a substantially increased risk of metabolic problems such as type 2 diabetes. So an 80 cm waist on 100 cm hips gives 0.80, which is fine for anyone, while 92 cm on 100 cm gives 0.92, which is high for both men and women.

You need a soft tape and five minutes. Or put your two numbers into the waist-to-hip ratio calculator and it does the division and tells you which band you're in.

What is waist-to-hip ratio?

It's a measure of where you carry fat. Two people with the same BMI can store it differently: one around the belly (the "apple" shape), the other around the hips and thighs (the "pear" shape). Belly fat, especially visceral fat around the organs, is the type linked with diabetes and heart disease.

WHR = waist ÷ hip

Say your waist is 84 cm and your hips are 98 cm: 84 ÷ 98 = 0.86. Under the line for a man, just over it for a woman.

What are the WHO cut-offs?

The WHR cut-offs first appeared in a 1999 WHO report on diabetes and are set out in the appendix of the WHO expert consultation on waist circumference and waist-hip ratio, held in Geneva in December 2008 and published in 2011:

Measure	Men	Women	WHO risk level
Waist-to-hip ratio	0.90 or more	0.85 or more	Substantially increased
Waist circumference	over 94 cm	over 80 cm	Increased
Waist circumference	over 102 cm	over 88 cm	Substantially increased

Two caveats from the same report. The waist cut-offs came from Dutch data, and the experts noted that South Asians carry more visceral fat at a given waist size than Europeans. And because waist alone is easier to measure, the report favoured it over the ratio.

How is WHR different from waist-to-height ratio and BMI?

All three are quick checks, but they answer slightly different questions.

Measure	How to work it out	Healthy line	Good at	Weak spot
BMI	weight (kg) ÷ height (m)²	18.5 to 22.9 on Indian cut-offs	Overall weight for height	Can't tell muscle from fat, or belly fat from hip fat
Waist-to-height ratio	waist ÷ height	under 0.5	Belly fat relative to your frame	Needs a careful waist measurement
Waist-to-hip ratio	waist ÷ hip	under 0.90 (men), under 0.85 (women)	Fat distribution, apple vs pear	Two tape measurements, so twice the room for error

When should you use which?

Use BMI as the starting point for weight.
Use waist-to-height ratio as your main belly-fat check. It needs one tape measurement and works the same for men and women. The waist-to-height ratio guide covers it in detail, and the waist-to-height ratio calculator does the maths.
Use WHR to see your shape, or when a doctor asks for it.

The Indian guidelines lean the same way. The 2025 revised definition of obesity in Asian Indians by Dr Anoop Misra and the India Obesity Commission says waist circumference is the best measure of abdominal obesity, and that waist-to-height ratio should be preferred over WHR. It still lists WHR as part of a doctor's physical check-up.

What does the research say about WHR and heart attacks?

The best-known study is INTERHEART, published by Yusuf and colleagues in The Lancet in 2005. They compared 12,461 people who'd had a first heart attack with 14,637 who hadn't, across 52 countries. What they found:

WHR showed a steady, graded link. Each step up in WHR (split into five equal groups) carried more risk than the one before. The top fifth had 2.52 times the odds of the bottom fifth, after adjusting for age, sex, region and smoking.
BMI's link largely faded. BMI had a modest link (1.44 for top vs bottom fifth) that dropped to 1.12 once WHR was taken into account, and disappeared after adjusting for other risk factors.
Bigger hips looked protective. After adjusting for BMI, a larger waist went with higher odds, but larger hips went with lower odds.
More heart attacks were tied to WHR. The top two-fifths of WHR accounted for 24.3% of heart attacks, against 7.7% for the top two-fifths of BMI.

It was a case-control study, so it shows a strong association, not proof of cause. Still, it's a big reason doctors care about where fat sits, not just your weight.

Why does this matter more for Indians?

A 2007 INTERHEART analysis in JAMA found that people in South Asian countries had their first heart attack at an average age of 53.0, against 58.8 elsewhere. The usual risk factors, including WHR, had similar effects in South Asians, but they showed up more often at younger ages.

The 2009 Indian consensus statement led by Dr Misra describes Asian Indians as having excess body fat, more abdominal fat and more fat inside the abdomen, with a lower healthy BMI range than white Europeans. India's waist cut-offs of 90 cm for men and 80 cm for women come from that work and were kept in the 2025 update.

It's common, too. The ICMR-INDIAB study of over 1.1 lakh adults found 39.5% had abdominal obesity, more than the 28.6% with generalised obesity.

There's no official Indian WHR cut-off, so use the WHO numbers and check your waist against 90 cm or 80 cm too.

How do you measure waist and hip at home?

This follows the WHO protocol.

Pick the right time. Morning, before breakfast. A big meal or bloating adds centimetres.
Wear little or nothing. Bare skin or a thin vest. Not over jeans, a kurta or saree pleats.
Stand straight, feet close together, arms relaxed at your sides, weight spread evenly.
Find your waist. Feel for your lowest rib and the top of your hip bone at the side. The waist is midway between them.
Wrap the tape level all the way round, snug but not digging in. Breathe normally and read it at the end of a normal breath out.
Find your hips. Look side-on in a mirror and wrap the tape around the widest part of your buttocks, parallel to the floor.
Measure each twice. WHO says if the two readings are within 1 cm, take the average. If they're more than 1 cm apart, measure both again.
Divide waist by hip. Same units for both.

Common mistakes

Measuring the waist where your trousers sit, which is usually lower and smaller.
Sucking in your stomach or holding your breath.
Pulling the tape tight, or letting it slip lower at the back.
Measuring the hips at the hip bones instead of the widest part of the buttocks.

What do different waist and hip pairs work out to?

These are hypothetical examples to show the maths. Ratios are rounded to two decimals.

Waist (cm)	Hip (cm)	WHR	Men (0.90 line)	Women (0.85 line)
70	94	0.74	Below	Below
76	96	0.79	Below	Below
80	100	0.80	Below	Below
84	98	0.86	Below	At or above
85	100	0.85	Below	At or above
90	100	0.90	At or above	At or above
92	104	0.88	Below	At or above
96	100	0.96	At or above	At or above
104	106	0.98	At or above	At or above

Notice row 7. A 92 cm waist stays under 0.90 because the hips are big, yet a man with that waist is already over India's 90 cm cut-off. The Indian guidelines flag this: a ratio can hide a large waist, and very different bodies can share one WHR (80 on 100 and 120 on 150 are both 0.80). Check your waist number on its own too.

What actually brings your WHR down?

Fat loss from the waist. Since you can't choose where fat comes off, that means overall fat loss.

Spot reduction doesn't work

In a 2011 trial, people did seven ab exercises, five days a week for six weeks. Their ab endurance improved, but their belly fat and waist size didn't change any more than in the group that did nothing. Crunches build strength. They won't shrink your waist.

Cardio helps with the deep fat

A 2013 meta-analysis of 15 studies found exercise reduced visceral fat in overweight adults even without a diet, with moderate- or high-intensity aerobic training working best. Brisk walking, cycling or jogging all count.

Eat a little less than you burn

A modest calorie deficit does most of the work. Find your maintenance calories and a sensible deficit, then make easy swaps: less sugar in chai, fewer fried snacks, measured oil, and protein at every meal. Don't go below about 1,200 kcal a day for women or 1,500 for men without medical supervision.

Strength training for the hip side

Squats, lunges and hip thrusts build glute muscle and help you keep muscle while losing fat. The effect on hip size is small; the waist is where the real change happens.

Track it properly

Re-measure every two to four weeks, same time, same spots. The body fat calculator uses your waist (and hip, for women) to estimate body fat, and the body fat percentage chart for Indians shows where that number sits.

When should you see a doctor?

A high WHR isn't a diagnosis, but it's a reason to ask your doctor about blood pressure, fasting sugar or HbA1c and a lipid profile, especially if:

your WHR is 0.90 or more (men) or 0.85 or more (women), or your waist is over 90 cm (men) or 80 cm (women)
diabetes, heart disease or an early heart attack runs in your family
you notice chest discomfort, breathlessness on mild effort, excess thirst or frequent urination (chest pain needs urgent care, not an appointment next week)

WHR isn't meaningful during pregnancy, and the 2025 Indian guidelines note it's hard to measure accurately at a BMI of 35 or more. Talk to a doctor before changing your diet if you're pregnant or breastfeeding, have diabetes on medication or kidney disease, are under 18, or have a history of an eating disorder.

The short version

WHR = waist ÷ hip, in the same units
WHO high-risk line: 0.90 or more for men, 0.85 or more for women
Waist midway between lowest rib and hip bone; hips at the widest part of the buttocks
Measure twice, morning, bare skin, end of a normal breath out
For Indians, also keep your waist under 90 cm (men) or 80 cm (women), and check your ideal weight for your height
Waist-to-height ratio is the simpler daily check; WHR shows your shape
To bring it down: overall fat loss through a modest deficit plus regular cardio. Crunches alone won't do it.

This is general information, not medical advice.

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Cover photo: Fashion Waist by Matt Moloney, CC0, via stocksnap.