## 3 Results
The mean values of the anthropometric indices and parameters based on WWI quartiles are presented in Table 3. Again, it was shown that the participants in the higher quartile groups had higher values of the parameters than those in the lower quartile groups, especially in the first quartile. This applies to BMI (\(p\) < 0.001), WHR (\(p\) < 0.001), WHtR (\(p\) < 0.001), VAI (\(p\) < 0.001), BAI (\(p\) < 0.001) and ABSI (\(p\) < 0.001), as well as FFM (\(p\) < 0.001), SMM (\(p\) < 0.001), FM (\(p\) < 0.001), VFA (\(p\) < 0.001), FMI (\(p\) < 0.001), FMI (\(p\) < 0.001) and FM/FFM (\(p\) < 0.001), indicating an increasing risk of obesity and metabolic syndrome. We found an inverse relationship between WWI quartiles and the proportion of FFM in body weight (\(p\) < 0.001) and SMM (\(p\) < 0.001), which again confirms the increasing risk of obesity, increasing the proportion of fat mass at the expense of fat-free and muscle mass. The results are also graphically expressed through scatterplots in Supplementary Material Figures S1-S5. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{l c c c c c c c} \hline \multirow{2}{*}{**Variables**} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**Q1 (\(n\) = 60)**} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**Q2 (\(n\) = 59)**} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**Q3 (\(n\) = 60)**} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**Q4 (\(n\) = 60)**} \\  & \(\boldsymbol{\mathcal{O}}\) & SD & \(\boldsymbol{\mathcal{O}}\) & SD & \(\boldsymbol{\mathcal{O}}\) & SD & \(\boldsymbol{\mathcal{O}}\) & SD \\ \hline Weight-adjusted Waist Index & 10.01 \({}^{\text{a}}\) & \(\pm\)0.24 & 10.61 \({}^{\text{b}}\) & \(\pm\)0.13 & 11.02 \({}^{\text{c}}\) & \(\pm\)0.15 & 11.74 \({}^{\text{d}}\) & \(\pm\)0.28 \\
[WWI, cm/\(\surd\)kg] & 34.95 \({}^{\text{a}}\) & \(\pm\)12.06 & 41.12 \({}^{\text{b}}\) & \(\pm\)12.58 & 49.57 \({}^{\text{c}}\) & \(\pm\)8.47 & 54.43 \({}^{\text{d}}\) & \(\pm\)6.95 \\ Basal Metabolic Rate [BMR, kcal] & 1341 \({}^{\text{a}}\) & \(\pm\)89 & 1357 \({}^{\text{ab}}\) & \(\pm\)94 & 1391 \({}^{\text{bc}}\) & \(\pm\)119 & 1431 \({}^{\text{c}}\) & \(\pm\)115 \\ Height [H, cm] & 168.24 \({}^{\text{a}}\) & \(\pm\)5.99 & 166.74 & \(\pm\)5.54 & 165.70 & \(\pm\)5.62 & 164.88 \({}^{\text{b}}\) & \(\pm\)5.33 \\ Body Weight [BW, kg] & 58.49 \({}^{\text{a}}\) & \(\pm\)6.27 & 66.34 \({}^{\text{b}}\) & \(\pm\)8.06 & 75.66 \({}^{\text{c}}\) & \(\pm\)10.70 & 87.17 \({}^{\text{d}}\) & \(\pm\)11.90 \\ Waist Circumference [WC, cm] & 76.47 \({}^{\text{a}}\) & \(\pm\)4.61 & 86.30 \({}^{\text{b}}\) & \(\pm\)5.74 & 95.67 \({}^{\text{c}}\) & \(\pm\)7.66 & 109.45 \({}^{\text{d}}\) & \(\pm\)8.88 \\ Hip Circumference [HC, cm] & 91.15 \({}^{\text{a}}\) & \(\pm\)3.32 & 95.75 \({}^{\text{b}}\) & \(\pm\)4.88 & 101.06 \({}^{\text{c}}\) & \(\pm\)6.12 & 106.76 \({}^{\text{d}}\) & \(\pm\)6.32 \\ Chest Circumference [CHC, cm] & 86.78 \({}^{\text{a}}\) & \(\pm\)3.71 & 92.21 \({}^{\text{b}}\) & \(\pm\)4.49 & 97.83 \({}^{\text{c}}\) & \(\pm\)6.01 & 105.12 \({}^{\text{d}}\) & \(\pm\)6.22 \\ Arm Muscle Circumference & 23.37 \({}^{\text{a}}\) & \(\pm\)2.29 & 25.02 \({}^{\text{b}}\) & \(\pm\)2.97 & 26.28 \({}^{\text{bc}}\) & \(\pm\)2.97 & 27.48 \({}^{\text{c}}\) & \(\pm\)2.76 \\ \hline \end{tabular} Data are presented as mean (\(\mathcal{O}\)) \(\pm\) standard deviation. Q1–Q4, weight-adjusted waist index quartiles. Symbols \({}^{\text{a}}\), \({}^{\text{b}}\), \({}^{\text{c}}\), \({}^{\text{d}}\), \({}^{\text{a}}\): different symbols in the row mean significant differences between quartiles, post-hoc analysis.  
\end{table} 
Table 2: Baseline characteristics according to weight-adjusted waist index quartiles.