Body Shape Calculator

Worked example

A 94–76–102 figure at 168 cm has a waist-to-hip ratio of 0.745, comfortably below the WHO threshold of 0.85 for women, and a waist under half the height. The hips exceed the bust by more than 5%, so the retail answer is a pear — but the ratios are the health answer, and they are the ones with a published threshold behind them.

How to work it out yourself

1. 1.Measure the waist at its narrowest point, standing relaxed and breathing out — not at the trouser line and not held in. This is the measurement people get wrong, and it moves the answer more than any other.
2. 2.Measure the hips at the widest point around the seat, with the tape level all the way round.
3. 3.Read the ratios rather than the shape name. The shape is a clothing convention; the waist-to-hip and waist-to-height figures are what the epidemiology is about.

The formula

1. Waist-to-hip ratio76 / 102
2. Waist-to-height ratio76 / 168
3. Bust-to-hip ratio94 / 102
4. Waist as a share of bust76 / 94
5. Shape, 1 hourglass 2 pear 3 apple 4 rectangle
6. WHO waist-to-hip threshold
7. WHO waist threshold
8. Above the waist-to-hip threshold
9. Above the waist threshold
10. Centimeters to reach half your heightmax(0, 76 - 168 / 2)

Source: WHO — Waist circumference and waist–hip ratio: report of a WHO expert consultation, National Academies — Dietary Reference Intakes: The Essential Guide to Nutrient Requirements

Questions people actually ask

Is waist-to-hip ratio better than BMI?

For cardiovascular risk, generally yes. BMI cannot tell muscle from fat or say where the fat sits, and abdominal fat is the part associated with metabolic risk. The WHO expert consultation found waist circumference and waist-to-hip ratio predicted risk at least as well as BMI, and often better, which is why both are measured in clinical practice.

What is a healthy waist-to-hip ratio?

The WHO puts substantially increased risk at 0.90 or above for men and 0.85 or above for women, with waist circumference thresholds of 102 cm and 88 cm. Those are population cut-offs from a consultation report rather than individual diagnoses, and they differ by ethnicity — the thresholds for South Asian and Chinese populations are lower.

What is the waist-to-height rule?

Keep your waist under half your height. It needs no tables, works across ages and populations better than most single measures, and it is arithmetic anyone can do with a tape measure. On a 168 cm person that means a waist under 84 cm.

Does body shape actually mean anything?

For clothes, yes — the terms are a retail vocabulary for where a garment needs room. For health, the fruit names are a crude proxy for something real: fat carried around the middle behaves differently from fat carried on the hips, and that is what the ratios measure directly rather than by category.

Related

• BMI CalculatorBody mass index from height and weight in either metric or US units, with the CDC category cut-offs.
• Body Fat CalculatorBody fat percentage from tape measurements using the US Navy circumference method, plus lean mass.
• Ideal Weight CalculatorReference weight from height by four standard clinical formulas, and the BMI-healthy range they sit inside.
• Army Body Fat CalculatorThe Army’s waist-to-height assessment that replaced the tape test in July 2026, with the waist measurement the 0.55 standard allows at your height.
• Pounds and Ounces ConverterA weight in grams or kilograms as pounds and ounces — the two-unit reading a hospital chart and a kitchen scale actually give.
• Stones and Pounds ConverterA body weight in kilograms as stones and pounds, the way a British scale reads it — with the remainder shown rather than folded into a decimal.

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