How Do You Figure Out Ideal Body Weight

What's My Ideal Body Weight?


       High amounts of body fat can cause weight-related illnesses and other health problems. Being underweight is also a health risk. Body Mass Index and waist circumference are screening tools to estimate weight status in relation to potential risk of disease. However, BMI and waist circumference are not diagnostic tools for disease risk. Trained health care providers should perform other health assessments to evaluate disease risk and diagnose disease status.

What is The Ideal Body Weight?

How much do you have to weigh? The answer is not always as simple as looking at a chart.

Your ideal body weight will depend on a number of different factors, including:

1. Frame size

2. Composition of fat and muscle

3. Height

4. Gender

5. Other factors

Body mass index is one of the most popular ways to calculate your ideal weight range. Getting your current Body Mass Index is as simple as entering your height and weight into a calculator.

A result between 18.5 and 24.9 means that you are within the "normal" weight range for your height. If your score is under 18.5, you are considered underweight. Between 25 and 29.9 means that you're considered overweight. And if your numbers are 30 to 35 or more, you are considered obese.

The Body Mass Index is not always accurate, as it doesn't take into account factors such as skeletal size and muscle composition.

Ideal Body Weight Guidelines

Knowing your ideal weight is the first step to take before you start counting macros or a flexible diet. This helps you to have realistic expectations and to set a healthy goal weight.

Understanding your optimal body weight can help you with the following aspects of the diet:

1. Gives you a base to build muscle on.

2. Lets you set realistic weight loss goals.

3. Prevent the thought that weight loss is necessary when it really isn't.

4. Shows you goals to strive for if you are underweight.

5. It helps maintain a healthy weight for your height.

Why Frame Size is Important

Other ideal weight calculators do not take frame size into account and it is an important factor in determining the ideal weight for someone of your height.

The term frame size refers to the mass of the structure of your frame. Those with more bone mass will weigh more than people with less bone mass of the same height. However, it is not a factor for bone density.

Example:

5'6″ women with large frames should weigh between 139-143 pounds, while 5'6″ women with small frames should weigh 124-128.

This feature is why our ideal weight calculator gives the most accurate results and gives a more realistic picture of your ideal weight.

Why Do People Weigh Over or Under?

You can look great and healthy under all kinds of weights, but it's worth noting that being underweight is associated with poorer health outcomes and higher mortality for some conditions, as is being well above being healthy. Shows you goals to strive for if you're underweight.

If your weight is above the ideal weight for your height on the chart, it can be tempting to think that it's because you are thin but very muscular. This may be true in some cases, but most people usually gain weight because they have more body fat.

People who are very muscular may have a higher body mass index but still have low body fat. Meanwhile, people who lose muscle mass and replace it with fat may appear to have a normal BMI when in fact they have too much body fat and not enough muscle for good health outcomes.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control recommends using your body mass index and waist circumference to determine whether you are a healthy weight. A waist of more than 35 inches for non-pregnant women and more than 40 inches for men indicates a higher risk of obesity-related conditions, according to the CDC.

How To Calculate Ideal Body Weight in Kg

Traditional ideal weight calculations are basically a rule of thumb rather than based on health research or a comprehensive study of the population average.

Female: Ideal body weight = 49 kg + 1.7 kg for each inch over 5 feet

Male: Ideal body weight = 52 + 1.9 kg per inch over 5 feet.

This equation was developed to be used by physicians to calculate drug doses. They tend to overestimate their ideal weight at shorter heights and underestimate them at higher heights

However, a 2016 study found that the results correlate well with body mass indexes of 21 for women and 22.5 for men, which is near the middle of the healthy body mass index range. The study's authors suggested a different equation using body mass index.

The range of healthy BMI is the same for men and women, so the results apply to both. A healthy normal weight range is a BMI between 18.5 and 24.9. Body mass index 22 is in the middle of that range.

Another Method of Knowing Your Ideal Weight

There are a few other methods you can use to hone in on how much you should weigh.

Waist Circumference

One method to estimate your potential risk of disease is to measure your waist circumference. Excessive belly fat may be serious because it puts you at a greater risk for developing obesity-related conditions, such as Type 2 Diabetes, high blood pressure, and coronary artery disease.

Your waist circumference may tell you that you have a higher risk of developing obesity-related conditions if you:

1. A non-pregnant woman whose waist is more than 35 inches.

2. A man whose waist is over 40 inches.

Waist circumference can be used as a screening tool but does not diagnose a person's obesity or health. A trained healthcare provider should carry out appropriate health assessments to evaluate the individual's health status and risks.

Waist-to-hip ratio

Your waist-to-hip ratio creates what's called your waist-to-hip ratio (WHR). This figure shows how much fat is stored in the lower body, which includes the waist, hips, and buttocks. (1)

Your doctor can help you figure out your waist-to-hip ratio. If you want to do it yourself at home, follow these instructions:

Get up and breathe normally. Then exhale and use the tape measure to measure the inches around your natural waist, which is the smallest part above your belly button. This number is the circumference of your waist.

Then take your tape and measure it around the biggest part of your hips and buttocks. This number is the circumference of your hips.

Divide your waist circumference by your hips to get your waist-to-hip ratio

Health ratio for women is 0.85 or less. For males, it is 0.9 or less. Waist-to-hip ratios higher than 1 can indicate an increased risk of heart disease and related conditions for both men and women.

This chart provides further information on how to read your waist-to-hip ratio.

Health risk Females Males
Low 0.80 or lower 0.95 or lower
Moderate 0.81 to 0.85 0.96 to 1.0
High .86 or higher 1.0 or higher

This method also has shortcomings. It is not always easy to record the most accurate measurement, especially if you are measuring yourself.

Body composition varies for a number of reasons too. You might have an oblique reading if you have muscular hips, for example.

Sometimes people don't get accurate results with the waist-to-hip ratio. This includes people who are less than 5 feet in height or who have a body mass index of 35 or higher. This method is not recommended for children either.