Healthy Weight Range
The BMI range for your height, plus four classic formulas.
About Healthy Weight Range
Healthy Weight Range gives the BMI-based range for your height alongside four classic formulas — Devine, Hamwi, Miller and Robinson. Worth knowing where those came from: they were devised for calculating drug dosages, not for judging bodies, and they date from the 1960s to 80s. The BMI range at the top is the more useful number.
How to use it
- Enter your sex and height.
- Read the healthy weight range — that is the figure clinicians use.
- The four formula estimates are shown below for comparison.
Questions
Why do the formulas disagree with each other?
They were derived from different populations for different purposes, decades apart. The spread between them is a fair indication of how imprecise the whole idea is.
Is there one ideal weight?
No. There is a range, and where you sit healthily within it depends on build, muscle and genetics. A single target number is not a meaningful goal.
Do these work for athletes?
Poorly. Muscle is dense, so muscular people routinely exceed these figures while being perfectly healthy. Body fat percentage is the better measure.
Healthy Weight Range is free and runs entirely in your browser. No account, no upload, no watermark, no limit on use.