What is the ideal thigh circumference?
When talking about a perfect or harmonious body, we often talk about the waist circumference or the hip circumference .
But, while many women. dream of having perfect thighs, we rarely talk about the ideal thigh circumference.
Does it really exist? Have formulas for calculating the perfect thigh circumference been developed? How to properly measure your thigh circumference?
A beauty objective more than health
Unlike the waist circumference, which is also used as an indicator of the risk of health problems, the perfect thigh circumference, like the hip circumference , responds more to aesthetic criteria.
Because even if excess fat in the lower body is a sign of overweight, or even obesity , it is not really dangerous for your health.
The only risks that excess fat in the thighs can cause are problems with blood circulation or painful cellulite.
The perfect thigh circumference is therefore not a medical objective to be achieved in order to preserve one’s health, but rather an ideal of beauty corresponding to our vision of a harmonious body.
Women who have a gynoid (pear-shaped) figure will naturally tend to store fat in the hips, buttocks and thighs.
Genetics therefore means that some people will have to make a lot more effort than others to achieve the thigh circumference they consider ideal.
This dreamed thigh circumference is not a medical measure, so it is subject to fashions and necessarily variable.
Indeed, according to the times and the tastes of each, the canons of beauty have changed enormously.
From the chubby muses of the Renaissance to the willowy models of today, tastes in beauty have seen many fluctuations.
Calculation of the ideal thigh circumference
Far from the thigh gap challenge that had its heyday among teenage girls a few years ago, or the image of skinny models, the only calculations of the perfect thigh circumference that exist have been developed by athletes.
These were based on rules of symmetry and proportion to develop formulas to obtain a harmonious body, according to our basic morphology .
Steve Reeves is a renowned bodybuilder of the 40s. He implemented a system of calculations based on the proportions of his own body in order to obtain the ideal measurements of a harmonious body.
Thus, we can calculate the size that each part of our body should be by establishing a relationship with another part of the body.
According to Steve Reeves, the thigh circumference should be proportional to the knee circumference. Once the knee circumference has been measured, it must therefore be multiplied by 1.75 to obtain the perfect thigh circumference.
John McCallum, also a bodybuilder, established the method of calculating the ideal measurements most used today to set goals in terms of physical appearance.
He based himself on the measurements of the body parts of several Misters America to establish his calculation formulas to obtain a perfect body.
John McCallum chose to use wrist circumference as a base index. The bone density of the wrist indeed correctly reflects the general morphology .
According to McCallum, to get your perfect thigh circumference, multiply your wrist circumference by 0.53.
Other methods of calculating the ideal thigh circumference exist. Thus, some have analyzed the measurements of many beauty queens to arrive at stable formulas.
The thigh circumference of the Misses is indeed, in general, 40 cm less than their pelvis circumference.
How to properly measure your thigh circumference?
You now know which calculations allow you to obtain your perfect thigh circumference, but to be able to situate yourself, you still need to know how to take your measurements correctly.
This is because thigh sizes can vary wildly depending on what position you are in and where on the thigh you take your measurements.
To obtain a correct result, you must therefore stand up and take your measurements using a tape measure at the widest part of your thighs.
If you don’t have a tape measure, take a piece of string and wrap it around your thigh, then measure it with a ruler.
Stephen Paul is the lead author and founder of My Health Sponsor. Holder of a diploma in health and well-being coaching with more than 200 articles in the field of health, he makes it a point of honor to offer advice based on reliable information, based on scientific research, and verified by health professionals.