How to Measure Your Waist

Co-authored by Laila Ajani

Last Updated: September 26, 2024 Fact Checked

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Your waist size can both help you choose the perfect pair of jeans and keep track of your weight, and it's really easy to measure. Your waist begins at the top of your hip bone and travels up to just below your ribcage, so it’s easily accessible with a tape measure. This article will show you how to quickly take your waist measurements and how to interpret those numbers.

Method 1

Method 1 of 2:

Taking the Measurement

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To get an accurate measurement, you need to ensure that the tape measure is resting against your bare stomach, so you should remove any layers of clothing blocking your waist. Remove your shirt or lift it to just below your chest. If your pants are in the way, undo them and pull them down around your hips.
Find your waist. Use your fingers to find the top of your hips and the base of your rib cage. Your waist is the soft, fleshy section between these two bony parts. It will also be the narrowest part of your torso and it is often located at or above your belly button.

EXPERT TIP

Laila Ajani
Fitness Trainer
Laila Ajani is a Fitness Trainer and founder of Push Personal Fitness, a personal training organization based in the San Francisco Bay Area. With over 13 years as a trainer and exercise specialist, Laila has expertise in competitive athletics (gymnastics, powerlifting, and tennis), personal training, distance running, and Olympic lifting. Laila is certified by the National Strength & Conditioning Association (NSCA), and USA Powerlifting (USAPL), and she is a Corrective Exercise Specialist (CES).

Laila Ajani
Fitness Trainer

Our Expert Agrees: When you're measuring your waist, look for the smallest part of your waist, which is usually a little higher up than most people think. It's usually a little bit above your navel. If you want to measure your hips as well, it's the opposite—you want to measure where your hips and glutes are the widest.

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Wrap the measuring tape around your waist. Stand up straight and breathe normally. Hold the end of the tape measure at your navel and circle it around your back to the front of your waist. The measuring tape should be parallel to the floor and fit snugly around your torso without digging into your skin.^{[1]
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- Make sure that the measuring tape is straight all the way around and is not twisted anywhere, especially in the back.
Read the tape. Exhale and then check the measurement on the tape. Your waist measurement will be at the place on the tape where the zero end meets the slack end of the tape measure. The number indicates your waist measurement in inches and/or centimeters, depending on the type of measuring tape you used.
Repeat the measurement once more to ensure the accuracy of your original measurement. If it is different from the first time, measure for a third time and take the average of the three numbers.

Method 2

Method 2 of 2:

Interpreting the Results

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Check to see if your measurement is healthy. A healthy measurement for a man is less than 37 inches (94 cm) or less than 31.5 inches (80 cm) if you are a woman.^{[2]
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Research source} A measurement that is higher than the number indicated for your sex may predispose you to serious medical problems, such as heart disease and stroke.^{[3]
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Research source} A higher waist measurement may also predispose you to type 2 diabetes and cancer.^{[4]
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- If your measurement is outside of the healthy range, then you may want to talk to your doctor.
In some situations, a waist measurement is not a helpful indication of good health. For example, if you are pregnant or if you have a medical condition that causes your abdomen to appear distended (full or bloated), then waist measurement may be outside of the healthy parameters even if you are in good health. Likewise, some ethnic backgrounds predispose people to a larger waist size, such as people who are of Chinese, Japanese, South Asian, Aboriginal, or Torres Strait Islander descent.^{[5]
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Cleveland Clinic
Educational website from one of the world's leading hospitals

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Check your BMI for more information on your weight. If you are not sure whether or not you are in a healthy weight range after taking your waist measurement, then you may also consider checking your BMI (Body Mass Index).^{[6]
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Cleveland Clinic
Educational website from one of the world's leading hospitals

Go to source} This measurement takes your weight and height into account to determine whether or not you may need to lose weight.^{[7]
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Trustworthy Source

National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
Research and education center within the National Institutes of Health

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- If your BMI result indicates that you are overweight or obese, talk to your doctor about your options for achieving and maintaining a healthy weight.

Expert Q&A

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Question

What is my ideal waist size if I am 5'9 and 86 kg?

Michele Dolan
Certified Fitness Trainer
Michele Dolan is a Fitness Trainer based in Sidney, British Columbia. She has been a personal trainer and fitness instructor since 2002, and was certified as a Personal Trainer by the British Columbia Recreation and Parks Association (BCRPA). Michele is also a Registered Clinical Counselor, and uses her 20+ years of fitness coaching experience to help clients understand their mind-body connection. She is a Registered Clinical Counsellor (RCC) and Certified Clinical Counsellor (CCC), certified by the British Columbia Association of Clinical Counsellors and the Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association. In her work, Michele uses the tools of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Dialectic Behavior Therapy and Cognitive Processing Therapy for Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome. She practices and teaches mindfulness and acceptance in all of her coaching work. She holds a Master’s Degree in Counselling Psychology.

Michele Dolan

Certified Fitness Trainer

Expert Answer

At 5'9" you are 69" tall, and half that amount is the cut off for healthy to normal waist size, so that would be 34.5 inches. More than 34.5 inches indicates a greater predisposition for health risks.

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Question

How do you measure your waist for pants?

Michele Dolan
Certified Fitness Trainer
Michele Dolan is a Fitness Trainer based in Sidney, British Columbia. She has been a personal trainer and fitness instructor since 2002, and was certified as a Personal Trainer by the British Columbia Recreation and Parks Association (BCRPA). Michele is also a Registered Clinical Counselor, and uses her 20+ years of fitness coaching experience to help clients understand their mind-body connection. She is a Registered Clinical Counsellor (RCC) and Certified Clinical Counsellor (CCC), certified by the British Columbia Association of Clinical Counsellors and the Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association. In her work, Michele uses the tools of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Dialectic Behavior Therapy and Cognitive Processing Therapy for Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome. She practices and teaches mindfulness and acceptance in all of her coaching work. She holds a Master’s Degree in Counselling Psychology.

Michele Dolan

Certified Fitness Trainer

Expert Answer

This really depends on the style of the pants. Find out how high the pant waist line rises. Take the measurement from there. Low and medium rise pants have much bigger waistlines, since they fall below your natural waist (the skinniest part of your waist).

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Question

What should the average waist be for 4' 11", weighing 139 lbs?

Michele Dolan
Certified Fitness Trainer
Michele Dolan is a Fitness Trainer based in Sidney, British Columbia. She has been a personal trainer and fitness instructor since 2002, and was certified as a Personal Trainer by the British Columbia Recreation and Parks Association (BCRPA). Michele is also a Registered Clinical Counselor, and uses her 20+ years of fitness coaching experience to help clients understand their mind-body connection. She is a Registered Clinical Counsellor (RCC) and Certified Clinical Counsellor (CCC), certified by the British Columbia Association of Clinical Counsellors and the Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association. In her work, Michele uses the tools of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Dialectic Behavior Therapy and Cognitive Processing Therapy for Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome. She practices and teaches mindfulness and acceptance in all of her coaching work. She holds a Master’s Degree in Counselling Psychology.

Michele Dolan

Certified Fitness Trainer

Expert Answer

People come in all shapes and sizes so average waist size is irrelevant. The important size is half your height. At 59 inches tall, a healthy waist size for you would be under 29.5 inches.

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If you want to track changes, measure your waist monthly. This can be useful for monitoring your health or any changes to weight if you need to wear tailored clothing for a special occasion such as a wedding, a prom, or a play, etc.

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Tips from our Readers

The advice in this section is based on the lived experiences of wikiHow readers like you. If you have a helpful tip you’d like to share on wikiHow, please submit it in the field below.

If you have layers of tank tops on, take each one (including your shirt) off until you reach the last layer and then lift that tank top up so you can measure.
If you have a super thin tank top on, it's fine to measure without taking off your top.

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