What is insulin resistance?
What is he most important role of insulin in your body? To lower your blood sugar. But how does this work? Every time you eat, your body produces insulin and this sends a signal to the cells that they need to absorb the incoming glucose. If your diet consists of excessive carbohydrates at too many times per day, more and more insulin needs to be released.
At a certain point the cells become less sensitive to insulin, which makes it impossible to regulate the glucose in the blood. This insulin resistance is the pre-stage of type 2 diabetes, can cause a multitude of other serious medical conditions including cardiovascular disease and builds up over many years. The insulin resistance symptoms check and your WHtR (waist to height ratio) combined give a good insight specifically into your risk of cardiovascular disease.
How do I calculate my WHtR?
- make sure you stand up straight in front of a mirror
- measure your waist with a tape measure on bare skin just between the lowest rib and the top of your pelvic bone, this is on or just below the belly button.
- don’t pull the tape measure too tight and make sure it runs straight
- now divide your waist circumference (in centimetres) by your height (in centimetres) and round off the result to 2 decimal places, this is your WHtR
What does my WHtR mean?
Indication | Women | Men |
Healthy weight | no risk | < 0.49 | < 0.53 |
Overweight | increased risk | 0.49 – 0.53 | 0.53 – 0.57 |
Very overweight | high risk | 0.54 – 0.57 | 0.58 – 0.62 |
Morbidly obese | very high risk | > 0.58 | > 0.63 |
Is this all I need to know?
No, your WHtR alone does not tell you everything: an insulin resistance symptoms check provides more clarity. Fill it out the form below and I will contact you to make an appointment for the insulin resistance symptoms check.