How to measure waist

How to Measure Waist Circumference for Health

Malia Frey is a weight loss expert, certified health coach, weight management specialist, personal trainer​, and fitness nutrition specialist.

Jonathan Valdez, RDN, CDCES, CPT is a New York City-based telehealth registered dietitian nutritionist and nutrition communications expert.

Cara Lustik is a fact-checker and copywriter.

Verywell / Madelyn Goodnight

Waist circumference is the measurement taken around the abdomen at the level of the umbilicus (belly button). Health experts commonly use waist measurement to screen patients for possible weight-related health problems. While a helpful tool, waist size is just one indicator that may point to certain health conditions, and it is not used to singularly diagnose any conditions or diseases.

While health experts and physicians may use this method in-office, you can also measure your own waist circumference at home.

What Waist Circumference Tells Us

Measuring the size of your waist can help you understand your risk for certain weight-related health conditions. Waist circumference alone cannot indicate that you have a medical condition or that you’ll develop one in the future, but it can help you and your healthcare provider to determine where fat is located on your body and if that body fat may cause health problems for you in the future.

According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), if more fat is located around your waist rather than around your hips, you are at higher risk for conditions including heart disease and type 2 diabetes. You can use your waist measurement to calculate your waist-hip ratio (WHR), which provides another screening tool for weight-related disease risk.

Your healthcare provider may also use a body mass index (BMI) measurement as a health indicator. However, a 2019 study concluded that both hip-adjusted waist circumference and waist-to-height ratio were stronger indicators of health and potential health conditions than BMI.

Body Mass Index (BMI) is a dated, biased measure that doesn’t account for several factors, such as body composition, ethnicity, race, gender, and age.

Despite being a flawed measure, BMI is widely used today in the medical community because it is an inexpensive and quick method for analyzing potential health status and outcomes.

How to Measure Your Waist

To measure waist circumference correctly, you should use a flexible tape measure that is not elastic (i.e., the tape measure should not stretch when you are taking the measurement). You should also remove any bulky clothing that can add padding around your abdomen.

Follow these steps to measure your waist:

Take the measurement three times to make sure you get a consistent result. Holding the tape too tight so that it digs into your flesh or holding it too loosely so that it droops will cause you to get an incorrect result.

Check Your Health Risk

To find out how your waist circumference measures up, use this chart to see if your waist measurement indicates that you are at an increased risk for disease. Individual circumstances may vary, so seek the advice of a doctor to determine next steps.

If your waist measurement is greater than the numbers indicated below, your risk for weight-related health problems may be increased. For Asians, the waist circumference recommendation may need to be lower. A 2019 study done on 209 chinese men and 318 chinese women found that increased insulin resistance is observed when waist circumferences are greater than 29 inches for women and 32.5 inches for men.

How to Reduce Your Waist Measurement

If your waist circumference is in the high-risk range according to the table above, working with your doctor and a registered dietitian to lose body fat and reduce the fat in your midsection can improve your health and well-being. To get started, consider the following daily habits.

The first step to reducing your waist measurement for your overall health is to evaluate your eating habits. To get started, try observing your portion sizes and comparing your portions to the recommended serving size. If you’re not sure how much to eat, use a calorie calculator to estimate your body’s daily caloric needs. Then count calories to make sure you’re getting the right amount to fuel your body and lose weight safely.

Additionally, consider increasing the nutrient density of your diet by incorporating more nutrient-packed foods into your meal planning, including fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, seeds, lean proteins, and other unprocessed foods.

Nearly a quarter of all Americans skip breakfast. Although more research is needed to solidify the importance of breakfast, a 2019 meta-analysis including eight studies and about 284,000 participants suggests that skipping breakfast increases the risk for heart disease. Skipping breakfast may also increase the risk for diabetes, becoming overweight, high blood pressure, and insulin resistance.

Eliminating sugar-sweetened beverages—soda, especially—can also cut down your sugar and calorie intake. Quitting a sugared beverage habit can offer multiple benefits, including improved sleep, increased energy, and notably, weight loss. This weight loss can then lead to a reduction in your waist measurement and disease risk.

Exercise

Once you’ve implemented a sustainable healthy eating plan, try increasing your activity level to burn more calories throughout the day and support a strong, healthy body. Again, use a calorie estimator to find out how many calories you currently burn each day, then add small habit changes to burn a few more. For example, you can take the stairs instead of the elevator at work or go for a walk every evening after dinner. Every step counts in your path to healthier living. The CDC recommends that you get 150 minutes of moderate-intense aerobic activity or 75 minutes of vigorous aerobic activity with at least 2 days of the week doing muscle-strengthening training.

Lifestyle Changes

Alongside diet and exercise, some lifestyle changes can help in reducing waist circumference and improving overall health. If you consistently get too little sleep or poor sleep, it can be even more difficult to find the motivation to make healthier choices. Improving your sleep and reducing fatigue can have a direct impact on your weight loss. The National Sleep Foundation recommends adults receive 7-9 hours of sleep per night.

Stress, like sleep, is also intricately linked to health. Research has shown that high stress can often lead to overeating, and the foods we choose while stressed tend to be high in calories and low in nutrients.

Finally, reducing alcohol consumption can also slash your calorie intake and help support weight loss. Eliminating or cutting down on these empty calories can aid in reducing your waist circumference measurement.

A Word From Verywell

There are many different ways to evaluate your health and your risk for disease—waist circumference is just one of them. If you find that yours is higher than you’d like it to be, talk to your healthcare provider about your personal health risks and get suggestions for the best ways to improve your overall health.

Often, it’s small, incremental changes to your lifestyle that ultimately make the biggest difference in your health and pave the path toward sustainable weight loss, so it’s important to begin the conversation.

How To Measure Your Waist

Whether you’re ordering clothes online, monitoring your weight, or designing a bespoke bucket chair for your space-shuttle to the moon (look, the world is on fire; it’s OK to have a plan B), you need to be able to measure your body accurately. Here’s how to get the digits for your waist.

Waist circumference measurements

Waist measurements are a bit of a life-saver when it comes to shopping for clothes. Dress sizes differ massively between the US, EU and the UK, and vague descriptors on men’s clothing aren’t much help either (S, M, L. More like FML). Checking the centimetres or inches is the most reliable thing to do to make sure your clothes fit well. If you find yourself needing to convert between cm and inches, by the way, we’ve got your back with our cm to inches converter.

In the world of healthcare, an accurate waist measurement can be used as an indicator of visceral fat, a type of body fat that’s stored within the abdominal cavity and located around vital organs such as the liver and stomach. Visceral fat has been linked to an increased risk of health complications such as heart disease, cancer and type 2 diabetes. In addition, a waist measurement can also be used as the first step towards working out your WHR (waist-to-hip ratio), another indicator of health risks. You can learn more about WHR here, and we have also included a link to the WHR calculator for you at the bottom of this article.

Before you start measuring

Find yourself a fabric tape measure (not a metal DIY one! :D) or a piece of string which you can use to mark and measure. It’s also a good idea to have a piece of paper and pen (or your smartphone) to hand, so that you can jot down the measurement (you don’t want to go to all the effort of measuring your waist and then forget the measurement). Once you have those things ready, we can start measuring.

Here’s how to measure your waist

If you’re still unsure whether you’re measuring your waist circumference correctly, here’s a great video from Dr. Lara.

Waist measurement completed, here’s some ideas to consider:

Let’s take a look at number 3 together now.

Interpreting your waist measurement results

Ideally, you should look at a range of measurements before making an assessment of your personal health, and you’re recommended to consult a qualified health professional before considering radical changes to your lifestyle. With that in mind, several leading health organisations have published the following general information on waist sizes.

The World Cancer Research fund, World Health Organisation and NHS England state that your health may be at risk if your waist is*:

*Excludes those who are pregnant or have a medical condition causing a swollen abdomen. Information may vary for Asian populations. Always talk to a Doctor for medical advice.

In addition, the National Institutes of Health, U.S., states the following when assessing waist size and health risk:

If most of your fat is around your waist rather than at your hips, you’re at a higher risk for heart disease and type 2 diabetes. This risk goes up with a waist size that is greater than 35 inches for women or greater than 40 inches for men.

I do hope this article has proved useful to you. Should you wish to calculate your waist-to-hip ratio, check out our WHR calculator. Or, you can calculate your BMI here.

Written by Alastair Hazell
(with assistance from Becky Kleanthous)

Please rate this article below. If you have any feedback on it, please contact me.

Guide: How to Measure Your Waist at Home – Quick & Easy

Waist size is one of the most important body measurements needed to find the best fitting clothes. It is a basic measurement required for dresses, pants, jeans, shorts, and skirts. Knowing the accurate measurement of your waist is already the first step toward ensuring you buy the right size of clothes that will best suit you.

There are a lot of ways to measure your waist. Some are at-home tricks to get estimates. Others provide a stricter guide to measuring the waist accurately. But how do you know which body part to start measuring? Or what size to put? Is it better to allow some room and choose a larger size, or is it better to follow the precise measurement to the tee?

In this guide, we will provide you with a comprehensive look at everything you need to know about waist measurement. Plus, we’ve compiled different techniques to measure your waist in general and for specific types of clothes. Ready to begin?

Ways to Measure the Waist

1. Using a Measuring Tape

The best way to get the most accurate measurement of your waist is to measure with a fabric tape measure. Before you measure your waist, make sure you also have a pen and paper ready, so you can write down your measurements.

Here’s How to Take it:

2. Check the Label of Existing Bottoms

If you can’t find an actual tape measure, the most convenient alternative is to refer to the label of your existing pants, shorts, skirts, or jeans for your waist measurement.

American pants are normally measured in waist size and inseam length. You will see two numbers on the label inside your pants, e.g., 26/24. The first number is the waist measurement. In the example, your waist size is 26. Be careful in buying your previous sizes because this might not accurately reflect your most updated size, which could be smaller or larger.

3. The “Neck Trick” Technique

Another way to determine if a pair of jeans will fit you is to wrap or hold the waistband of the pants around your neck. It is a very common practice to correlate the size of the neck with the size of the waist. The waist measurement is often equal to twice the circumference of the neck.

Without trying the pants on, this is a quick and easy way to find out if the pants will fit. If both edges of the waistband meet while closely encircling the neck, chances are, the pants will fit. This works for most people, but if in doubt, grab a tape measure to be sure.

4. Measure the Pants That Fit Best

Another easy way to find your waist measurement is to actually measure the size of the pants that fit you perfectly. To do this, measure the waistband of the pants with a cloth or plastic measuring tape. The size of the waistband is also the size of your waist. Make sure to measure it in inches and record. (Don’t merely take the labeled measurement on faith – the garment may have shrunk or stretched.)

How to Measure Children’s Waist Size

Just as in measuring the waist of babies, measuring the waist of children is a bit more difficult than that of adults, since you might have to adjust to the kids’ movements. Try your best to follow these steps to get the measurement from the right areas.

How to Measure Waist for Pants, Suits, and Dresses

The measurement of your waist depends on the style of pants, jeans, suit, or dress which you prefer. It also depends on if you want the clothes to fit tightly or loosely. If you want a tight fit, measure on the dot but if not, give an inch allowance. Below are some waist measurement tips for basic pants/jeans, suits, and dresses.

How to Measure Waist for Pants

Pants in the US use two sizing standards: the American W/L sizing and the US standard letter sizing. In American pants sizes, the W is the waist size, while the L is the length of the inseam. The W always goes before the L.

The US Standard Letter sizing uses labels from XS to 4XL, and so on, which can be found in activewear and other stretchy pants.

To find the right size of your pants, measure both the size of your waist and your hips. Nowadays, the To find your right size in pants, measure both the size of your waist and your hips. Nowadays, the measurement needed will depend on the pants style. For high rise/high waist pants, the waist measurement is needed, but for low rise pants or those types of pants which sit lower on the hips, the hip measurement is usually required. For mid-waist pants, your waist size is also more important.

How to Measure Waist for Suits

To get perfectly fitting pants for a man’s suit, wear your dress shoes while measuring the waist and inseam to find the exact size you need to consider.

The hip circumference is usually more important to measure in the pants for a suit, but getting the size of the waist is often still advisable depending on the style.

To get the measurement, just use the basic measuring tape reading for men. Grasping one end of the tape, loop the other around your waistline, which is slightly above the hip bone, and back to the starting point for an accurate waist measurement.

You may add one to two inches on the waist, depending on if you want a tight or loose size.

Check our suit size guide for more information.

How to Measure Waist for Dress

In sizing for dresses, three major body parts must be measured – bust, waist, and hips. These must all be measured in inches.

To figure out the right size, pick the largest size among the three measurements because that will be your dress size. If you prefer the dress to be custom fitted, just have the other parts tailored to fit the remaining body parts.

To measure your waist for dresses, stand in front of a mirror, then bend to one side at the waist. A crease will form while you are bent to the side, and that is where you will measure your natural waist.

Hip VS. Waist Measurement: How & Where to Measure Correctly

There are various reasons why you should measure your hips and waist. Many people do so to determine clothing size (making online shopping a breeze!), or keeping track of fitness or dieting progress. Most importantly, measuring waist and hip circumferences are very useful indicators of your current health state, therefore measuring your waistline and a hip correctly is very important for accuracy.

How to Measure Waist

According to The National Institute of Health, a high waist circumference can lead to various medical complications such as hypertension, elevated blood lipids, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. To reduce the risk of these conditions, a woman’s waist should measure less than 35 inches, and a man’s should measure less than 40 inches.

Follow the below steps to accurately measure your waist:

Step 1:

Wear tight clothing, or roll your top up. If you’re measuring your waist alone, stand in front of a mirror so you can position the measuring tape correctly. Your waist can be located between the top of your hipbones and the bottom of your rips.

Step 2:

Wrap a cloth tape measure around the narrowest part of your waist. If you don’t have a cloth tape measure, use a piece of string and measure the string afterward. Do not pull the tape measure so hard that it’s compressing the skin; make sure the tape is only lying at the surface of your skin.

Step 3:

Hold the starting point of the tape measure in place on the front side of your body with one hand. With the other hand, wrap the tape measure around your body until it overlaps with the beginning of the tape measure or string. Take note of your measurement, and measure once more for accuracy.

How to Measures Hips

Step 1:

Wear tight clothing, or roll your top up. If you’re measuring your hips alone, stand in front of a mirror so you can position the measuring tape correctly. Your hips can be located at the widest part of your buttocks.

Step 2:

Wrap a cloth tape measure around the widest part of your buttocks. Again, if you don’t have a cloth tape measure, use a piece of string and measure the string afterward. Do not pull the tape measure so hard that it’s compressing the skin; make sure the tape is only placed at the surface of your skin.

Step 3:

Hold the beginning of the tape measure in place on the front side of your body with one hand. With the other hand, wrap the tape measure around your body until it overlaps with your starting point. Take note of your measurement, and measure once more for accuracy.

Hip to Waist Ratio

The Hip to Waist ratio is widely used by individuals to indicate the distribution of fat in the body, and it can also determine if you’re at a higher risk for heart disease and other chronic conditions associated with obesity and being overweight.

To calculate your hip to waist ratio, measure your hips and waist using the detailed instructions given above. You will then divide your waist measurement by your hip measurement. Research has found that people with an “apple-shaped” body (more weight around the waist) face more health risks than individuals with “pear-shaped” bodies, who carry more weight around the hips. Men and women with a hip to waist ratio of 1.0 or higher are considered at high risk for health conditions associated with obesity and being over weight.

How To Measure Waist For Pants

How often have you ordered pants online in your size, only to find them too tight or much too baggy when you try them on? The fact is that American sizing has little consistency from one brand to another, which makes it hard to buy pants that fit unless you use measurements rather than sizes. If you learn how to measure the waist for pants, you can buy only pants that specifically match your own measurements!

One of the best ways to measure the waist for pants is to use a flexible tape measure around the torso at key points. Another popular method involves measuring the waistband on a pair of well-fitting pants and using those measurements as a reference point. Without a tape measure, a piece of knotted string can work as a temporary measurement.

In this article, you will find out how to take a waist measurement for men, women, and children. You will discover how pants sizing works. Finally, you will find tips to help you understand pant sizes, such as a 32-inch waist or a size XL.

What is a Waist Measurement For Pants?

The waist measurement for pants is the full length of the top edge of the waistband. To find this measurement on a pair of pants, you already own, simply lay the pants flat and use a tape measure to measure the front of the waistband, and then double that number.

This sounds quite simple. You would think that clothing manufacturers could put this measurement on the pants they sell, and you could just pick the precise measurement that fits your body. But this is not how things work!

You come up against three common issues when figuring out waist measurement for pants in American clothing brands. First, you face the problem of vanity sizing.

Whether you want to buy a women’s size L or a men’s size 32, the size or number means very little anymore. Manufacturers have learned that shoppers like to think that they fit into a “size 6” or a “34-inch waist” no matter what the shopper’s actual body type of waist measurement is!

You see this a lot in women’s pants and jeans that use numeric sizes like 6, 8, and 12 to describe the size of the garment. Still, even though men’s pants supposedly use inch measurements to describe the waist circumference, you will find some discrepancies here!

For this reason, many brands use generous sizing indicators that don’t reflect any accurate measurements at all. Instead, most brands provide something called a sizing chart online in the product description for a piece of clothing. You can learn more about using a sizing chart to find your perfect fit later in this article!

Second, you face the problem of size fluctuation from one brand to another. You may think that you wear size 8 jeans as a woman or 30-inch waist jeans as a man, but if you try on size 8 jeans from two different brands, each pair of jeans will fit you very differently!

This happens because there is no universally agreed-upon system to regulate sizes, so every brand can pretty much make up whatever sizing system it wants.

Finally, one of the biggest reasons people don’t understand pant waist measurements lies in the difference between the pants rise and waist circumference. You have to understand both of these measurements to find pants or jeans that fit you!

The actual waist measurement of pants or jeans is the circumference of the top edge of the waistband, as you already know. But here is the catch–the waistband on pants or jeans does not always rest at your natural waistline. Instead, it may sit at your hips, navel, or even far above your navel!

The height of the waistband is determined by a measurement called the rise. The front rise on a pair of pants measures the distance from the crotch seam to the center top of the waistband, and this tells you where the waistband will rest on your body. A hip-hugger waistband will have a much larger circumference than the waistband on a pair of high-rise jeans that snugs in at your actual waist!

For this reason, you can’t just measure yourself around the waist and then head to a store thinking that you simply need to find a pair of pants that matches that one measurement.

How To Measure Waist Size For Pants

Learning how to measure your waist size for pants will help you get pants that fit! You can use these measurements and a brand’s sizing chart to order clothing online or measure yourself before you go out shopping at a brick-and-mortar store, so you know what sizes to look for.

For Men

Men’s pants, trousers, and jeans use one of the more simple measurement systems. Most brands offer a variety of sizing points in the product description for each garment, including the waist size, the rise, the inseam, and the outseam of the pants.

The waist measurement almost always comes in terms of inches. This does not mean that you can just whip a tape measure around your waist and then buy pants that match that measurement, though! Most brands add either 1.5 or 2 full inches to the actual waistband. For instance, a brand will market pants with a “32-inch waist,” but the waist circumference will actually measure 34 inches!

Yes, it is ridiculous. But that’s vanity sizing for you! For this reason, you need to measure yourself accurately and then match your measurement to the numbers provided in the sizing chart, rather than going by the inches on the product itself.

To measure your own waist, take a flexible tape measure such as a sewing tape measure and hold one end in place just above your navel. Wrap the measure around your natural waist, keeping it level all the way around. This measurement tells you the circumference of your natural waist.

For Women

The numbers used to describe women’s pants sizes have almost nothing to do with any realistic measurements, so you will want to depend on your own accurate measurements to get well-fitting pants!

For women, you often need two different measurements: your waist measurement and your hip measurement. To measure your waist, use a soft tape measure to measure your natural waist. To do this, stand with your feet flat on the floor and place one end of the tape just above your navel. Keep the tape level, wrap it around your torso, and note the measurement.

To measure your hips, repeat this process, but start with the tape measure at the widest part of one hip bone, and then wrap it around the circle of your hips.

Compare the waist measurement to the sizing chart provided by the clothing manufacturer. In most cases, you can buy pants in the size that corresponds to your actual waist size, but you will also want to check the hip size.

If a size 6 from the brand matches your waist size but has a too-small hip size, the pants will not fit! This is a frequent problem in women’s pants because women tend to have curvier hips than men, and not every clothing brand will fit your body type.

For Children

Depending on the age of your child, children’s pant waist measurements can come in different formats. Baby clothing sizes usually begin with the age, such as 0 to 3 months. Sometimes manufacturers use a weight instead, such as 14 to 18 lbs.

Toddler clothes use the “T” system, such as 2T, 3T, etc., which often roughly correspond with two and three old body types. Boy and girl clothing for kids ages about six through thirteen typically uses an S, M, L metric, which can vary a lot in actual measurement from brand to brand.

And then, of course, teen clothing comes in Juniors sizes, which also vary a lot from brand to brand.

The one thing you can count on across all these different ways to size children’s pants is that you can usually match your child’s actual waist size to a sizing chart. To do this, wrap a tape measure around your child just above their hip bones. Then compare that measurement with the waist size listed in the sizing chart the clothing manufacturer almost always provides online.

If you have a little squirm bug who will not stand still for these measurements, you can also measure a pair of pants that fits your child well. To do this, lay the pair of pants flat on a floor or table. Smooth out the pants, but don’t stretch them out–often, waistbands have a natural curve or dip at the front.

Measure across the top edge of the waistband, and then flip the pants over and measure across the back. Add the two numbers together, and you have the waist measurement for your child’s pants!

Without a Tape

If you do not have access to a tape measure and you’re in a hurry to buy some new pants, you can try using a piece of string for a rough-and-ready measurement.

Hold one end of a piece of string just above your navel. Wrap the loose end of the string around your natural waistline, keeping it level. Do not pull tight, but don’t allow the string to sag.

Bring the loose end all the way around to meet the short end you’re holding above your navel. Tie a knot in the loose end to mark this point.

You can take this piece of string to a store with you to compare it to the pants you want to buy, or you can lie it flat against a yardstick or ruler to figure out a precise measurement!

For Pants, Suits, and Dresses

In general, using a tape measure around your natural waist will give you an accurate measurement for pants, whether they are dress pants, trousers, or suit pants. But you can also find some helpful tips for measuring the waist on pants, suits, and dresses:

For Jeans

You can find your waist size for jeans in a couple of different ways. Jean sizing gets a tad more complicated because denim shrinks so easily in the wash. For this reason, you may find it helpful to buy your jeans one size too big in case they shrink in the wash.

What is My Size in Pants?

The best way to find your size in pants is to learn how to take your own measurements and then match your measurements to the sizing chart provided by clothing manufacturers.

Unfortunately, you will not find one perfect size in pants that you can always select! You will probably need to buy different sizes of pants from different brands to get a good fit.

To use a sizing chart, make sure you have your own measurements written down close at hand. Then orient yourself to the information provided in the chart. Most charts will offer body measurements on one side and the brand’s measurements on the other side. It will look roughly like this:

You then need to find the point where your measurements match the brand’s sizing! In some cases, you may find that one part of your body fits and another does not. For example, the waist measurement might fit your body, but the hip measurement could be too big or small. Unless you want to take your clothes to a tailor for alteration, you need to make sure all the measurements match up!

Waist Size vs Pant Size

Waist size and pant size may seem like the same thing, but they are actually a bit different! This is because clothing manufacturers usually add in an extra two inches beyond the “size” of the pant waist. If your jeans say they have a 32” waist, that actually means that the waistband on the jeans will measure about 34”.

The exception to this rule is many high-end dress pants, trousers, or suit pants. These often have more accurate pant sizes because they do not use vanity sizing.

If you read down far enough in the product description, you will usually find the actual waist size listed in a sizing chart. This will give an accurate measurement that you can match your own body by measuring around your torso with a flexible tape measure.

Popular Pants Sizes Explained

Now that you know how to find your own measurements, you may want to understand how popular pant sizes work.

Once again, men’s pants and jeans usually have sizing presented as two numbers. The first number is the waist size, though this is typically skewed by vanity sizing. The second number is the inseam measurement, from the crotch to the ankle on the inside of the leg.

Women’s pants sizes usually come in either a 0-16 sizing metric or in small, medium, large, and so on.

And of course, you should always check the sizing chart provided by the clothing manufacturer instead of just going by the size listed on the pants or jeans!

What Size is a 30-Inch Waist?

In general, you will find a 30-inch waist in a women’s size 8-10 or M if you go by US sizing metrics. For men, pants with a size of 30 will usually have a waist that actually measures 32 inches.

What Size is a 32-Inch Waist?

A 32-inch waist usually (though not always) means a size 10-14 or size L in women’s pants. For men, a 32-inch waist typically means an actual waist measurement of 34 inches.

What Size is a 34-Inch Waist?

A 34-inch waist usually means size 16 or XL for US women’s clothing. For men’s clothing, a 34-inch waist may actually mean a waistband circumference of up to 36 inches.

What Size is a 36-Inch Waist?

For women’s clothing in the United States, a 36-inch waist usually indicates pants in an Xl or XXL size. For men, a 36-inch waist usually has about 38” in the actual waistband.

How to Convert Waist Size to Jean Size

If the women’s sizing seemed confusing to you, this conversion chart will give you a handy reference for finding just the right jeans size for you!

Conclusion

Finding the right pair of pants or jeans gets a lot easier once you know how to measure your waist to find the right size! The best way to get pants or jeans that fit you just right is to take your own waist measurement and then compare that to the sizing chart provided by the clothing manufacturer.

You can easily take your measurement in two ways. First, you can stand straight, breathe out, and wrap a flexible tape measure around your torso just above your navel. Second, you can spread out a pair of jeans that fits you perfectly and measure the front and back of the waistband to find your waist measurement.