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Ideal Weight Calculator

With height 70 inch, ideal weight comes to 73.0 kg — devine reference weight. It is reached in 6 steps, the last of which is (50 * 1 + 45.5 * 0) + 2.3 * 10, and each one is printed on the page with its numbers filled in. The formula is the one published by NHLBI, not an approximation fitted to it.

Reference weight from height by four standard clinical formulas, and the BMI-healthy range they sit inside.

Formula and sources checked · How we check

Sex at birth Male, Height 5' 10"

73.0 kg

Devine reference weight for the example below. Editing a field recomputes the calculator below; this figure holds the answer the page was loaded with.

It is written into the HTML rather than drawn by a script, so a search engine reading this page without running JavaScript still finds an answer.

Devine reference weight
73.0 kg
160.9 pounds
Devine (1974)
(50 * 1 + 45.5 * 0) + 2.3 * 1073 kg
Robinson (1983)
(52 * 1 + 49 * 0) + (1.9 * 1 + 1.7 * 0) * 1071 kg
Miller (1983)
(56.2 * 1 + 53.1 * 0) + (1.41 * 1 + 1.36 * 0) * 1070.3 kg
Hamwi (1964)
(48 * 1 + 45.5 * 0) + (2.7 * 1 + 2.2 * 0) * 1075 kg
BMI 18.5 weight
18.5 * pow(1.778, 2)58.484 kg
BMI 24.9 weight
24.9 * pow(1.778, 2)78.716 kg

Clinical reference formulas, not a personal weight goal. Discuss targets with a clinician.

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Worked example

At 5'10", the four formulas give 73.0, 71.0, 70.3 and 75.0 kg — a 4.7 kg spread for the same person. The BMI-healthy band at that height runs 58–79 kg, which is wider than all of them and a more honest answer.

How to work it out yourself

  1. 1.Enter height and sex. None of these formulas uses age, frame or body composition, which is most of why they disagree.
  2. 2.Read all four figures rather than the first. The spread between them at a given height is the honest measure of how precise the idea is.
  3. 3.Compare that spread against the BMI band beside it. The band is wider than every formula and is the one derived from health outcomes rather than from drug dosing.

The formula

  1. Devine (1974)(50 * 1 + 45.5 * 0) + 2.3 * 10
  2. Robinson (1983)(52 * 1 + 49 * 0) + (1.9 * 1 + 1.7 * 0) * 10
  3. Miller (1983)(56.2 * 1 + 53.1 * 0) + (1.41 * 1 + 1.36 * 0) * 10
  4. Hamwi (1964)(48 * 1 + 45.5 * 0) + (2.7 * 1 + 2.2 * 0) * 10
  5. BMI 18.5 weight18.5 * pow(1.778, 2)
  6. BMI 24.9 weight24.9 * pow(1.778, 2)

Source: NHLBI — body mass index and healthy weight ranges, CDC — assessing your weight

Questions people actually ask

Which formula should I use?
None of them as a personal goal. Devine was written in 1974 to size drug doses, not to set targets, and Robinson, Miller and Hamwi are variations on the same clinical purpose. Use the BMI band as the health range and body composition as the goal.
Why do they disagree?
Each was fitted to a different population and purpose, and all four assume a single "correct" weight per height with no allowance for frame size or muscle. The spread between them is the honest measure of how precise this concept can be.
What about frame size?
The classic adjustment is ±10% for small and large frames, judged by wrist circumference relative to height. That alone widens a 73 kg figure to 66–80 kg, which is most of the BMI band already.

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