The Biggest WARNING SIGN You're Going to Die Prematurely

when it comes to living longer and being healthier, then there obviously isn't just one thing that is going to give you those results. Longevity is about the combination of all the beneficial lifestyle factors, such as following a good diet, exercising regularly, sleeping well and maintaining good relationships. But after thinking about it a little bit, then I do believe that there is one most powerful predictor of your overall mortality and longevity. And in this video, I'm going to tell you what it is and how you can avoid it. But do you want to slow down aging and live longer? If yes, then I'm looking for more people who want to reverse their biological clock. If you're interested, then email me the word health to infoatzeenone.com and I'll send you the details. It's showtime. So first, let's take a look at what are the leading causes of death worldwide. What is the biggest reason why people die prematurely in the modern world? And if you look at the statistics from the World Health Organization, then by far the number one and the top four or top three leading causes of death in the world are cardiovascular diseases such as ischemic heart disease, stroke or atherosclerosis. Cardiovascular disease is very complicated. It's multifaceted. There are many things that cause cardiovascular disease and many things that contribute to it. But the number one risk factor for cardiovascular disease is obesity and being overweight. Obesity is linked to a higher risk of overall mortality. A severely obese person can expect to live anywhere from 5 to 20 years less. So if you think about it, the top leading causes of death, which would be cardiovascular diseases and diabetes and neurodegeneration and cancer and all those things, then the underlying cause for those top causes of death is obesity and being with poor metabolic health. Generally obesity is defined as having a BMI or body mass index above 30. An analysis among 900,000 people found that the overall mortality was the lowest with a BMI of 22.5 to 25. With a BMI of 30 to 35, your survival is reduced by 2 to 4 years. And if your BMI is 40 to 45, your survival is reduced by 8 to 10 years. So for overall health and longevity, then you certainly want to make sure that your BMI stays below 30 at minimum. But BMI can be a little bit misleading. That is true. If you do have some muscle, then your BMI will be at least 1 to 2 points higher than is normal. For example, my BMI is around 25.5 to 26, which does put me technically into the overweight category. At the same time, my body fat percentage is low, usually around 8 to 10% year round. And I also have plenty of muscle tissue, which does increase my BMI. But even if you are very muscular, you have actually elite level muscle tissue and you're like an athlete. But in order to get to a BMI of 30 would mean that you just have too much fat. But it goes even more deeper than that. There is one particular marker that is the point of this entire video and that marker is your waist circumference. People with more weight around the midsection are at a higher risk of heart disease, diabetes and premature death than those who carry their weight around their hips and thighs. And the best thing about waist circumference is that you could even be at a normal BMI but still have a very big waist circumference which means that you're not fat on the outside, your body weight is relatively normal, but you're fat on the inside which is actually much more dangerous to your health. These people who are normal weight but with a high waist circumference are called skinny fat. They're normal weight individuals who develop type 2 diabetes because of this internal obesity. Being obese on the inside means that you have a high amount of visceral adipose tissue which is the fat stored around the organs. Visceral fat is very dangerous to your health because it starts to inhibit organ function and secrete pro-inflammatory cytokines that contribute to metabolic syndrome, diabetes and just inflammation. Visceral fat accumulation, not total fat mass, is strongly linked with metabolic disorders, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes. So if you have a high waist circumference, so you probably have seen these people, they have a pop belly, they have skinny arms but big guts, so that's a sign that you have internal obesity with a lot of visceral fat around the organs, especially the liver. And non-alcoholic fatty liver disease which reflects that you just have fatty liver, not caused by alcohol consumption but by poor diet, then that is one of the biggest predictors of developing metabolic syndrome which then doubles your risk of cardiovascular disease. According to the World Health Organization, obesity is characterized as a waist to hip ratio above 0.90 for males and 0.85 for females. So basically what you want to do is take a measuring tape, you first measure it around the waist which is slightly below the belly button. It's not on the belly button but it's like 1-2 mm below the belly button and you measure it. For me right now it's 80 cm. My waist circumference is 80 cm and then you measure the hip circumference which is obviously just around the hips where your bones are, the hip bones. 95 cm is my hip circumference. Then you just calculate, you divide your waist circumference with the hip circumference and for me it's 0.84. And this is a chart that describes the health risk associated with the waist to hip ratio. So for me as a man, mine was 0.84. If you're a man, you want to have below 0.95. So that's very low risk for me, it's very low risk 0.84. And for a woman, you want to have 0.80. So women generally have much wider hips naturally and they have more smaller waist as well naturally. Whereas for men, they have narrower hips which makes sense. So for women, the lowest risk for overall health issues and chronic diseases is 0.80 and for men it's 0.95. Moderate risk for women is 0.81 to 0.85 and for men it's 0.96 and 1. If your waist to hip ratio is 0.86 or higher then as a woman, that's high risk, then that's bad and it means that you just have a little bit more visceral fat and you have some weight that you need to lose. And for men, it's 1.0 or higher. A waist circumference over 40 inches for men or 35 inches for women is problematic and it does increase the risk of heart disease, diabetes and premature death. So the waist circumference and the waist to hip ratio is a very good indicator of your overall health and your overall body composition. It's almost like a proxy of the things that you are doing in your overall health routines and whether or not you're heading in the right direction and whether or not things are in the right spot. If your waist to hip ratio is too high, you're in the high risk category then that's a sign that you need to lose some visceral fat, especially around the organs or you just might need to just lose overall fat because yes, if you are with a BMI, let's say of 30 then your waist to hip ratio is going to be also higher and it means that you just have a little bit of fat that you need to lose. Fat. Whereas if you have an optimal waist to hip ratio of, you know, at least in the moderate category or ideally in the low category, you want to have it at least for men 0.95 and lower and for women 0.80 and lower. If you are in the low category, then it means that you're just following the healthy lifestyle routines and you're heading in the right direction and you are in a healthy spot with your health. So if there was just one particular marker that you pay attention to and to assess your overall health then it would be the waist to hip ratio. Everything else you do, like the exercise, the good diet, the stress management, everything else they just help you to achieve a better waist to hip ratio and a lower waist circumference. Of course, there are many other benefits to exercise and many other benefits to eating a good diet besides lowering your waist circumference. But if you are just exercising and eating a clean diet, but your waist circumference doesn't go down you still have a high risk waist to hip ratio, then it means that you just need to lose some fat and a lot of the times, most of the health effects, most of the transformational ill health benefits will come from losing your visceral fat and losing the waist circumference. Fortunately, no one is born obese and losing weight can be easier than you think. Weight loss can be a long process with many trials and tribulations but it doesn't have to be miserable and it definitely isn't permanent. One of the biggest things for reducing the visceral fat and reducing the waist circumference is to go on a diet, plain and simple. You need to eat a little bit less calories, you need to exercise to increase the burning of the visceral fat and you also need to stay consistent with your diet. If you do want to learn how to lose weight and achieve an optimal body composition then check out my book with Dr. James DeNicol Antonio called The Obesity Fix. But other than that, thanks for watching this video. Make sure to click the like, subscribe, notification bell as well. My name is Cim, stay optimized, stay empowered.