Women in this study were more likely than men to have high BMI and large waist size, and both of these were linked to higher heart risk markers—even if they didn’t have diabetes or high blood pressure.

Measuring your waist compared to your height, your weight relative to your height, or just your waist size can all tell you something about your risk for heart problems—even if you don’t have diabetes or high blood pressure.

Measuring your waist compared to your height isn’t any better than just using your BMI or waist size to guess your heart risk—all three are about equally useful in this group.

Having a larger waist circumference is the main indicator of metabolic syndrome risk in adults from middle-income countries.

Men with metabolic syndrome who also have a waist size of 94 cm or larger have a 30% chance of silent heart disease, compared to 20% for those without large waists, according to the study. This finding is from the abstract summary - full study details were not available

People with bigger waistlines are much more likely to have multiple health problems like high blood sugar, bad cholesterol, and high blood pressure.