No more measuring my waist at the wrong spot; New progress photo.
Monday, February 23, 2015 by John Stone
Filed under Daily Blog
In yesterday’s weekly progress report, I wrote that for the first time in my 13 year JSF history my waist measurement was below 30″. That measurement is actually a bit misleading (my waist size is actually lower), and this morning I’d like to explain why my waist measurement has always been wrong…
When I decided to get my shit together back in 2003, I was very new to fitness and proper fat loss techniques. Obviously. Anyway, back when I was a fitness greenhorn I did my best with soft tape measurements, but I was measuring my waist at the wrong spot. To be fair, there was quite a lot of real estate from which to choose. By the time I realized I was measuring too low (and including some hip bone and love handle), it’d been quite some time. So, in order to keep my measurements consistent, I decided to keep measuring my waist as I always had even once I knew the location was incorrect.
For those who don’t know, the proper place to measure your waist is find the fleshy area between the base of your ribs and the top of your hips. This will always be the narrowest part of your torso.
Yesterday I decided to measure my waist at the proper location, and the result was just a little over 29 inches. In fact, I’m still measuring slightly low here. Old habits die hard, I guess:
With two weeks left to go on my 2015 cut, my waist measurement is just a hair over 29 inches.
I just measured my waist again, this time slightly higher and at the correct location between my hip bone and ribs (pretty much right across my belly button). The result was 29″ on the nose.
I know this has been a long time coming and I should have done this, oh, a decade ago, but I’ve decided to finally make the switch and start measuring my waist correctly from here on out.
Nice! I’ll try this.. Might put me closer to my goal waist size.
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When taking a waist measurement should you inhale deeply? I never know when exactly is the “correct” time to take the measurement.
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No, you should never suck in when measuring your waist. I tighten my abs and press out.
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So kinda mid breath, flex, then measure?
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When I was in the Air Force, this is how an official waist or abdominal circumference measurement was performed. The fitness guru would poke for the top of the hip bone or iliac crest for tape placement and would take 3 measurements before recording it on paper…
To measure abdominal circumference, locate the upper hip bone and the top of the right iliac crest. Place a measuring tape in a horizontal
plane around the abdomen at the level of the iliac crest. Before reading the tape measure, ensure that the tape is snug, but does not compress the skin, and is parallel to the floor. The measurement is made at the end of a normal expiration.
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Unfortunately (like most things that have anything to do with fitness) there’s conflicting information on this subject. The most widely accepted waist measurement method is to go around the narrowest part of the torso as described in my blog.
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Damn dude, that is seriously lean! I’m amazed you are still finding fat to cut. Are you still holding visible fat in any problem areas?
I just tried my own myotape on the smallest area, and then on the iliac crest. I measured a 1,5 inch difference between the two.
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There’s a little fat still remaining here and there, but it’s slim pickings at this point. Good thing, because I’m tired of cutting! 🙂
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I know how you feel. I’ve been cutting since august, and looking at you, I guess I still have 3-4 months more to go 🙁
The calipers say I’m at 10% bf, but I see now that that can’t possibly be right.
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Now I understand where the confusion stems from – we buy pants based on where the waist band wraps around typically across the tops of the hip bones (this goes higher the older you get 😉 ). Never occurred to me to measure at the area you’ve listed.
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almost 50 years old and you not only still haven’t lost your touch, you look more athletic and shredded than ever. i love the direction of your blog now that your not doing bodybuilding john. keep up the amazing work!!!!!
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ALMOST 50?!?! I’m just 46 years old, let’s not push it! 😉
Seriously, thanks, Barbell. Very glad you still enjoy the blog!
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As long as you are consistently measuring in the same spot, why does it matter whether it is technically “correct” or not? The goal is to measure relative changes as you drop fat.
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True, and in that sense it probably doesn’t matter one way or the other. However, I run a public health and fitness web site, and if I can correct something I’ve been doing wrong and bring it to light, why not do it?
To keep my cut data consistent I am going to wait until this cut is over to change the measurement location.
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