Waist to Hip ratio.

I was watching an interesting documentary called the Statue diaries. It was looking at female image and ideas of beauty. The venus de milo, fertillity statues and the like.

An interesting fact that came out during the the docu, was that throughout history women with a hip to waist ratio of 0.7 are considered beautiful.

Obviously, we can't all meet a ratio, but a ratio has a freedom that strict hip or waist measurements don't have.

It is OK if one is bigger as long as the other remains in proportion. So if you are carrying a bit more round your waist, as long as you are carrying even more on your hips then you will be considered beautiful.

The reason given to why this ratio is considered beautiful, is that most women who have a ratio close to it are healthy and will be a good fertile mother.

Women need to stop worrying about whether their hips are bigger than the woman next to them or what size jeans they fit into, but look at the whole package.

For instance, I am short, with shorter legs and a longer body, have small breasts and wide hips. No amount of exercise or diet will change these things. I also seem to weigh less than a lot of women of a similar size. I would attribute this to either little muscle or possibly low bone density.

While I won't be judging my sucess by a ratio, it certainly will be interesting to monitor that ratio, which for me is closer to 0.8 than 0.7 at the moment. So, if I my waist thickens while getting fitter, because my primary objective is strength and fitness and not beauty, this hopefully will be matched by my hips also becoming bigger.

I am expecting to build muscle and possible become a less feminine shape, which is fine by me. On the other hand if I can do 10 chin ups, run 2.4 km in 12 minutes and do 60 pushups and still look feminine I won't be complaining.