About the Ideal Weight Calculator
See your ideal body weight according to the four classic medical formulas — Devine, Robinson, Miller, and Hamwi — plus their average. A useful reference point, not a verdict: healthy bodies come in many shapes.
Your height and frame details never leave the browser. Nothing is stored, so nothing can later be sold or leaked.
Results are estimates for general information only and are not medical advice. Talk to a healthcare professional before making significant changes to your diet or exercise.
How to use it
- Enter your height and sex.
- Compare the figures produced by the different established formulas.
- Read the range rather than fixating on any single number.
Four formulas, four answers — and that is the point
Devine, Robinson, Miller and Hamwi were each developed decades ago, mostly for medical dosing rather than for aesthetics or fitness. They routinely disagree by several kilograms.
That disagreement is genuinely useful information. It says there is no single correct weight for a given height, only a broad range within which most healthy people fall.
A worked example
Male, 5'10" (70 in) by the Devine formula: 50 + (2.3 × 10) = 73.0 kg, about 161 lb.
Female, 5'5" (65 in): 45.5 + (2.3 × 5) = 57.0 kg, about 126 lb.
Run the same heights through Robinson or Miller and the answers shift by two to four kilograms in either direction. None of them is wrong; they were simply calibrated against different populations.
Common mistakes
- Treating the output as a goal weight. These formulas ignore muscle mass, frame size and age entirely.
- Comparing your figure to someone else's without accounting for height, which is the only input the formula uses.
- Using it for children or adolescents, for whom growth charts are the appropriate tool.
Questions people ask
Which formula should I trust?
None of them individually. Read the spread as a range. If you need a target, body composition and waist measurement tell you far more than height alone can.
Does frame size matter?
It does in reality, though most of these formulas ignore it. Some practitioners adjust by roughly 10% for small or large frames.
Is this suitable for athletes?
Generally not. Muscular athletes commonly sit well above these figures while being extremely healthy.