309. How to Test Your Waist-to-Height Ratio

You might think being "skinny fat" is just about looking soft under your clothes, but a 2023 study found 26% of normal-weight men and 38% of normal-weight women actually had excess body fat their BMI never showed. The real name for it is normal weight obesity, and your scale, your mirror, and your last physical all miss it. This episode covers the four numbers that actually catch it, and the three things that fix it. Click here to join Gary’s VIP Community: https://bit.ly/4ai0Xwg Thank you to our partners A-GAME: “ULTIMATE15” FOR 15% OFF: http://bit.ly/4kek1ij AION: “ULTIMATE10” FOR 10% OFF: https://bit.ly/4h6KHAD AIRES: “ULTIMATE20” FOR 20% OFF: https://bit.ly/4a3Duze BAJA GOLD: “ULTIMATE10” FOR 10% OFF: https://bit.ly/3WSBqUa BODYHEALTH: “ULTIMATE20” FOR 20% OFF: http://bit.ly/4e5IjsV COLD LIFE: THE ULTIMATE HUMAN PLUNGE: https://bit.ly/4eULUKp CYMBIOTIKA: “BRECKACYM30” FOR 30% OFF: https://bit.ly/4tjyluP GENETIC METHYLATION TEST (UK ONLY): https://bit.ly/48QJJrk GENETIC TEST (USA ONLY): https://bit.ly/3Yg1Uk9 GOPUFF: GET YOUR FAVORITE SNACK!: https://bit.ly/4obIFDC H2TABS: “ULTIMATE10” FOR 10% OFF: https://bit.ly/4hMNdgg HEALF: 10% OFF YOUR ORDER: https://bit.ly/41HJg6S PEPTUAL: “TUH10” FOR 10% OFF: https://bit.ly/4mKxgcn SNOOZE: LET’S GET TO SLEEP!: https://bit.ly/4pt1T6V WHOOP: JOIN & GET 1 FREE MONTH!: https://bit.ly/3VQ0nzW Watch the “Ultimate Human Podcast” every Tuesday & Thursday at 9AM EST: YouTube: https://bit.ly/3RPQYX8 Podcasts: https://bit.ly/3RQftU0 Connect with Gary Brecka Instagram: https://bit.ly/3RPpnFs TikTok: https://bit.ly/4coJ8fo X: https://bit.ly/3Opc8tf Facebook: https://bit.ly/464VA1H LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/4hH7Ri2 Website: https://bit.ly/4eLDbdU Merch: https://bit.ly/4aBpOM1 Newsletter: https://bit.ly/47ejrws Ask Gary: https://bit.ly/3PEAJuG Timestamps 00:00 – Intro of Show 01:05 – The "eat more or eat less?" thread 01:50 – What is "skinny fat"? (Normal weight obesity) 01:58 – The research: 1 in 3 women affected 02:31 – Why the scale & mirror can't see it 02:52 – Metric 1: Waist-to-height ratio 03:15 – Metric 2: Grip strength 03:30 – Metric 3: Triglyceride-to-HDL ratio 03:48 – Metric 4: DEXA scan 04:16 – Weight vs. body composition 04:40 – Fix 1: Protein 05:07 – Fix 2: Resistance training 05:23 – Fix 3: Slow the weight loss 06:01 – Muscle loss with age Disclaimer: This podcast is for informational purposes only and does not provide medical advice. It is not intended for diagnosing or treating any health condition. Always consult a licensed healthcare professional before making health or wellness decisions. Gary Brecka is the owner of Ultimate Human, LLC which operates The Ultimate Human podcast and promotes certain third-party products used by Gary Brecka in his personal health and wellness protocols and daily life and for which Ultimate Human LLC and / or Gary Brecka directly or indirectly holds an economic interest or receives compensation. Accordingly, statements made by Gary Brecka and others (including on The Ultimate Human podcast) may be considered promotional in nature. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

• 0:00Speaker 00

  There's a new term taking over the internet and it's called skinny fat. In research, this has a name, normal weight obesity, a BMI that would still sail through any physical, sitting on top of a body fat percentage that wouldn't. And here's the number I want you to hear. 26% of the men and 38% of the women had excess body fat. More than a third of women who have never once been told they had a weight problem. The thresholds are above 25% body fat in men and above 35% in women. Which brings me to the part nobody wants to hear. You cannot detect this yourself, not with the two instruments you're using right now. The scale can't see it, it has one number, and the number can't tell you what the pounds are made of. Two people, same height, same weight, same age. One is fine, one is in trouble, and the scale reports them as identical.

• 0:44Speaker 00

  Skinny fat is not a body you're stuck with, it's a measurement you have never taken. So here's what I want you to track instead. Four things. Three of them are nearly free. Number one.

• 1:05Speaker 00

  I read a thread this week where a kid asked a simple question. Should I eat more or should I eat less? Three people answered him. The first one said bulk, the second one said cut. The third one told him if he cuts, he'll turn into a 50-pound skeleton. So now he's afraid to eat, and he's afraid not to eat, and he does neither. I'm biohacker and human biologist Gary Brecka, and you're listening to the Ultimate Human Podcast, where we dig into the real science behind longevity and disease prevention. There's a new term taking over the internet, built around the body they're running from, and it's called skinny fat. So here's why I'm doing this episode. That world is wrong about almost every fix, but they're not wrong about something that's there. They found something real and then buried it under the worst advice on the internet.

• 1:46Speaker 00

  In research, this has a name, normal weight obesity, a BMI that would still sail through any physical, sitting on top of a body fat percentage that wouldn't. And here's the number I want you to hear, because this is not a niche problem for teenagers on a forum. A 2023 analysis in Frontiers of Nutrition took adults with completely normal BMI and actually scanned them. They did not use a bathroom scale. 26% of the men and 38% of the women had excess body fat. More than a third of women who have never once been told they had a weight problem. The thresholds are above 25% body fat in men and above 35% in women. And I'll be honest, the published cutoffs vary quite a bit, because this is a young field, but the direction is not in dispute. Which brings me to the part nobody wants to hear.

• 2:31Speaker 00

  You cannot detect this yourself, not with the two instruments you're using right now. The scale can't see it, it has one number, and the number can't tell you what the pounds are made of. Two people, same height, same weight, same age. One is fine, one is in trouble, and the scale reports them as identical. And the mirror is even worse, because your eyes are not a reliable testing instrument. So here's what I want you to track instead. Four things. Three of them are nearly free. Waist to height. Measure your waist, divide it by your height, and you want it under 0.5. Nice. The UK clinical body put 0.6 and above at your high risk. So keep your waist under half your height. That's the test, and you can run it right now with a tape measure. Grip strength, a dynamometer.

• 3:14Speaker 00

  It costs 30 bucks, and 16 in women flags probable sarcopenia under the European consensus criteria. This one matters most, because it's the only measurement here that tells you whether you're losing function, and the function is the whole point. Next, triglyceride to HDL. This is already sitting on a blood panel you've had. Divide your triglycerides by your HDL, and you want that under three. Under two if you're black. If we use this ratio instead of fasting insulin for a simple reason, insulin assays are not standardized between labs, the ratio is. Then there's something that does cost a little bit. It's a DEXA scan. Scan once, you know exactly where you stand, then follow up every six months, not for the weight, but for the split.

• 3:58Speaker 00

  Four numbers, that's the whole dashboard, and not one of them is a photograph. And if this part interests you, go watch the episode I filmed with Dr. Josh Axe on why your normal blood work is lying to you and what to test for instead. Same problem as this one, one layer deeper. I highly recommend it. Now, back to the kid from the beginning of the episode, asking if he should eat more or eat less. The actual answer has little to do with how much he's eating, because the question is wrong. He's asking about weight, and his problem is body composition. You can't solve a composition problem by moving weight in either direction. He needs to change what his body is made of while the scale barely moves at all. So three things will actually get the job done here. Number one, protein.

• 4:38Speaker 00

  Your goal is 0.7 to 1 gram per pound of body weight daily, spread across your meals, not all at dinner. 30 to 40 grams per meal, prioritizing leucine-rich sources, meat, eggs, dairy. And this is not a rounding error. A 2016 trial in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition put people in a 40% caloric deficit with real resistance training. The high protein group gained lean muscle mass while losing fat. The low protein group did not. The second, resistance training. Two to three sessions a week, major muscle groups, eight to 12 reps, compound movements, squats, deadlifts, rows, presses. This is a non-negotiable, because it's the only input that tells your body which tissue to keep. And slow down.

• 5:22Speaker 00

  Your body composition changes, and weight loss should not happen quickly. If you're losing weight, try to keep it under 1% of your body weight per week. In a 2011 trial, athletes cutting at 0.7% a week gained a kilogram of lean mass. Cutting it faster, they started to lose it. Faster is not better, faster is more expensive. Now, what I just walked you through has a name. It's called body recomposition, and I did a whole episode on it. I recommend you check it out here. The episode takes a deep dive into these three things, including how to prioritize your training, so your results actually hold past September instead of falling apart every year. And here's why none of this is optional. You're already losing muscle. About half a percent a year just by being alive.

• 6:06Speaker 00

  4% to 5% a decade, and your strength falls two to five times faster as your mass does. That's not a consequence of aging, that's a consequence of inputs. Changing the input, you change the outcome. The answer is still protein in a barbell. I'm sorry, it's not sexy, and you can certainly add supplements like creatine, which will help, but it cannot replace these habits. That kid that got three answers from three strangers, and what he actually needed was just one person who knew the right inputs. So if that's what you're looking for, I want to invite you to join my VIP community. When you join, you'll get access to monthly live Q&A calls with me, where you can ask me any question you want, instead of posting a photo for strangers to see and hoping for the best. And as always, I'm not a physician, I'm not licensed to practice medicine, so take this to your doctor.

• 6:49Speaker 00

  But as we close up here today, remember what those kids on the forum got right and what they got wrong. They were right that the scale can't see them. Wrong that a photograph can. Wrong that a stranger in a comment section can. And wrong that the answer is somewhere in the argument between eating more and eating less. Skinny fat is not a body you're stuck with, it's a measurement you have never taken. So take it. Waist under half your height, squeeze a dynamometer, eat the protein, lift the weight, and that's just science.