Before you continue to read this column, whip out a tape measure and wrap it around your abdomen across your belly button. Women should measure less than 35 inches and men less than 40 inches. Why should you care what these numbers are? Because keeping them under control will save your life.

In the past, doctors only paid attention to overall body weight. The new and best way to promote self care is to optimize your body composition, not your weight. Now, it’s important to know both how much body fat you have and where the fat is at!

Inner belly fat (under your abdominal muscle) is what you’re watching out for. You need some, but too much is lethal. Why? This inner belly fat is unique. It’s particularly adept at producing certain proteins that increase inflammation in the body and contribute to narrowing of the arteries and the formation of blood clots. So many people are totally unaware that too much abdominal fat and a large waist circumference contribute to heart disease that kills nearly 1 million Americans and 17 million people worldwide each year. Measuring waist circumference is an easy, low cost indicator that should be added to measurements of other heart risk factors such as high blood pressure, unhealthy ratio of blood lipids (high triglycerides and LDL cholesterol; low HDL cholesterol), and elevated blood glucose. (When at least three of these values are high, it is defined as metabolic syndrome. )  So if you are a woman with a waist measuring over 35 inches, or a man with a waist measuring over 40 inches, consider yourself in the high risk category for heart disease. So, take this to heart everyone!

If you are an adolescent, or the parent of one, consider this. A recently published study on teens, showed that a large waist circumference central and high triglyceride (blood fat) levels increased the risk of getting the metabolic syndrome as an adult. These findings are consistent with earlier reports that waist circumference is the primary predictor of the metabolic consequences of obesity and that what happens in childhood central obesity is critical. The lesson? Start right now to reverse the lifestyle that is contributing to an increased girth.

Metabolic syndrome could also be called the lack-of-exercise syndrome. Did you know that blood sugar and insulin levels change very rapidly with the addition and exclusion of physical activity?  In fact all of the medical symptoms of metabolic syndrome are improved with exercise, and exacerbated with its absence. Thus promoting higher levels of cardio respiratory fitness through greater physical activity could be one of the most valuable and cost-effective public health strategies for the prevention of metabolic syndrome. But you don’t have to wait for the government to tell you what you now know. Get moving and don’t delay. Hey, take a hike!

Are you one of those people who think that being overweight or obese is not a big health concern as long as you have normal blood pressure and cholesterol?  You could be making a deadly assumption. The results of a long-term (30 year) study recently published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that people who were obese when they were middle-aged, but who had no known heart disease risk factors, were much more likely to die or be hospitalized for heart disease or diabetes than people of normal weight. Thus obesity itself is an independent risk factor for developing heart disease. Obesity affects all of the body’s organs and systems negatively.

So what has been learned from people who successfully drop and pounds and keep it off?   Those listed in the University of Colorado’s famous National Weight Control Registry:

1) Exercise at least one hour a day - with vigor. Don’t be a slouch potato.

2) Eat a moderate to low fat diet. Ditch the fried foods, cut back on cheese, beef,  take-out.

3) Eat breakfast every day. Just like your mother told you. Match a lean protein with a smart carb.

4) Check your body comp every week. Get a scale that tells you your body composition (body fat) as well as your weight. Men try to hit a body fat of 18-25 percent range most of your life. Women it would be great to stick to a range of 20-25 percent if you’re under 40, and over 40, you can extend the range to 28 percent.  

Put it all together and you’ll achieve girth control, and that long and healthy life you so richly deserve.

Dr. Pamela Peeke is a scientist, physician, and nutrition and fitness expert based in Maryland. She has authored a number of books, including Fight Fat After Forty and Body for Life for Women.