Ideal Weight Calculator

The idea of a single "ideal" body weight is older than most people realise. It comes from the 1950s and 60s, when life-insurance actuaries and physicians needed a quick, arithmetic way to set drug doses and estimate risk. Four formulas from that era survive: Devine, Robinson, Miller and Hamwi. Each starts from a base weight at five feet and adds a fixed number of kilograms for every additional inch of height.

They differ only in their constants, which is why they disagree. For a 5-foot-10 man the four land within a few kilograms of each other, but the spread widens at the extremes of height. The Devine formula is the most widely used in clinical dosing; Robinson and Miller were attempts to refine it against larger data sets; Hamwi is the oldest and tends to run a little higher. When they disagree, the average of the four is a fair single number.

It is worth being clear about what these formulas are not. They were derived from insured, largely sedentary, largely male populations decades ago, and they define a weight that is "expected" for a height rather than one that is optimal for you. They say nothing about muscle, waist circumference, fitness or how you actually feel. A lean, trained person can sit above every one of these numbers while being metabolically healthier than someone who matches them exactly.

The row most people find useful is the healthy BMI range, because it is far wider than the classic formulas suggest. For a 175 cm adult that band runs from roughly 57 to 76 kg. Where you sit inside that range matters far less than your body composition, your blood pressure, your blood sugar and your habits. Use these figures as landmarks, not as targets to chase.

This calculator returns estimates for general information only. It is not medical advice, diagnosis or treatment, and it cannot replace an assessment by a qualified health professional. Individual results vary, and figures such as calorie needs, body-fat percentage and heart-rate zones are approximations based on population averages rather than measurements of you.