Waist-to-hip ratio
Waist and hip circumferences, ratio, and optional chart-style notes
Waist, hip, and ratio
Measure waist at the narrowest spot between ribs and hip bone, usually after a normal breath out. Measure hips at the widest part of the buttocks. Keep the tape snug but not digging in; stand with feet together.
Definitions used here
Waist-to-hip ratio compares two tape measurements. Researchers like it because it tracks upper-body fat pattern a little better than BMI alone, though it still misses muscle vs fat inside the abdomen.
WHR = waist ÷ hip (same unit top and bottom)
Example: 80 cm waist and 100 cm hip → WHR = 0.800. The same ratio appears if you type 31.5 in and 39.37 in, because both numbers scale by the same inch-to-cm factor.
WHR lines in the calculator
The colour chip compares your ratio to above 0.90 for men and above 0.85 for women—the pair most often named alongside WHO waist-circumference guidance. At or on the line counts as the lower-risk side of that split in this tool.
| Sex | WHR threshold (this page) | How we phrase it |
|---|---|---|
| Male | > 0.90 | Above counts as the higher-pattern side; equal or below is the other chip colour. |
| Female | > 0.85 | Same logic: on the number or lower is treated as the lower side of that WHO-style split. |
Waist-only bands (extra text)
When sex is set, the calculator converts your waist to centimetres (if needed) and compares it to 94 / 102 cm for men and 80 / 88 cm for women—again the Europid-oriented pair that shows up beside WHO metabolic risk material. South Asian and Japanese guidelines sometimes start at lower centimetre cut-offs; follow your local sheet if it disagrees.
Worth keeping in mind
- Pregnancy, bloating, or fluid retention can widen the waist tape without changing long-term fat stores much.
- Very wide hips mechanically lower WHR even when waist fat is not low—another reason the ratio is only one window.
- For height-and-weight screening, the BMI calculator and the skeletal muscle index tool answer different questions; none of them replace labs or a physical exam.
Quick guide
1. How do I measure and type the numbers?
- Stand relaxed, feet together, clothing light. Run the tape horizontally around the waist at the narrowest point and around the hips at the widest point.
- Type both numbers in centimetres or both in inches—mixing units on purpose is not supported, but the ratio would be the same if you did the conversion yourself.
- Pick male or female if you want the WHR colour band and the extra waist-only sentence that lines up with common chart values.
2. What is being calculated?
WHR is simply waist circumference divided by hip circumference. The value has no units because inches cancel inches (or cm cancel cm).
Waist-only sentences on this page use the 94 / 102 cm (men) and 80 / 88 cm (women) bands that show up a lot in Europid-oriented metabolic risk summaries—not the tighter Asian thresholds some countries publish separately.
3. How far can I trust a single reading?
WHR tells you something about fat pattern—more around the trunk versus more around the hips. It does not read liver fat, blood sugar, or fitness.
A single home measurement can be off by a centimetre or two depending on posture; trend your own numbers the same way each week if you are tracking.
4. Why run it in the browser?
- No upload, no account: the arithmetic stays in your browser.
- You get WHR plus a plain-language waist note when sex is set, so you are not flipping between two different tabs.
- Copy button pastes waist, hip, ratio, and the headline label in one block of text.
5. Who tends to open a page like this?
- Nurses, trainers, or students checking homework against textbook examples.
- Anyone comparing their tape numbers with what a GP or dietitian already wrote down.
- Quick what-if when clothing size changed but weight on the scale barely moved.