What is body shape?
Body shape describes how your bust, waist and hips compare. Researchers grouped women's figures into shapes such as hourglass, triangle (pear), inverted triangle and rectangle to help design clothes that fit.
This calculator classifies your shape from four measurements and also gives your waist-hip ratio, a simple indicator of how fat is distributed on your body.
How it is calculated
Worked example
Bust 92, waist 74, high hip 88, hip 98 cm
- Waist-hip ratio
- 0.76
- Waist
- 74 cm — below the 80 cm Asian cut-off for women
- Shape
- Bottom hourglass
Waist and health
- Waist-hip ratio of 0.85 or more (women) or 0.90 or more (men) signals higher health risk (WHO).
- For Asian Indians, waist ≥ 80 cm (women) or ≥ 90 cm (men) suggests abdominal obesity.
- Belly fat is linked with diabetes, heart disease and fatty liver.
- Waist matters more than the shape category for health.
Body shape categories come from clothing research and are not a medical diagnosis or a measure of beauty.

