Health
Ideal Weight Calculator
Estimate a healthy weight range from height and sex using four standard clinical formulas — Hamwi, Devine, Robinson, and Miller — plus the BMI 18.5–25 range. We report a range across them, not a single “perfect” number.
Sex
Units
We compute four well-known “ideal” body weight formulas plus the BMI healthy range, then report a range across them. None of these is a medical target — they were originally designed for medication-dosing or insurance tables.
Range across formulas (men)
155 lb – 165 lb
Height 5′10″ · narrow range; bodies are not formulas
None of these is the “perfect” weight. They were built for clinical drug-dosing and insurance tables, not for personal health goals. Body composition, age, fitness, and individual health context matter much more than any formula.
Examples
Man · 5′10″
≈ 155–165 lb across formulas
Woman · 5′6″
≈ 129–135 lb across formulas
Man · 178 cm
≈ 70–75 kg across formulas
Woman · 165 cm
≈ 56–60 kg across formulas
How it works
Each formula is a base weight at 5 ft plus a per-inch slope above 5 ft. We evaluate all four for your sex and height, then compute the BMI 18.5–25 healthy range as a fifth reference.
men · Devine · 50.0 + 2.3 · (height_in − 60) kg
women · Devine · 45.5 + 2.3 · (height_in − 60) kg
Other formulas use the same shape with different bases and slopes: Hamwi (broader), Robinson (lighter), Miller (lightest).
We report the min and max across all four formulas as the headline range, and list each formula plus the BMI band in the breakdown.
Estimate, not medical advice. These formulas were built for clinical drug-dosing and insurance tables, not personal health goals. Body composition, fitness, age, and individual health context matter much more than any single number. If you have a medical condition, an eating disorder, are pregnant, or have any nutrition concern, talk to a qualified healthcare professional.
Frequently asked questions
No. The four formulas we report were built for different purposes — Hamwi for nutrition tables, Devine for drug dosing, Robinson and Miller as later refinements — and they disagree by several pounds at the same height. We report a range across all four plus the BMI healthy range so you can see the spread, not pretend there's a single right answer.
Hamwi (1964) was published as a quick clinical bedside calculation. Devine (1974) was developed for gentamicin antibiotic dosing — it's the standard in pharmacology. Robinson (1983) and Miller (1983) were modified versions fit on different anthropometric data. None of them was developed for personal health or fitness goals — they were clinical or actuarial tools.
BMI 18.5–25 corresponds to a kg range that depends on your height. We include it in the breakdown because it's the World Health Organization's standard healthy-weight band and lines up well with population mortality data — though it has the same limitations as BMI elsewhere (doesn't distinguish muscle from fat, doesn't apply to pregnancy or kids).
Because the formulas don't. Two people of the same height can land at the same calculated “ideal weight” while one has 12% body fat and the other has 30%. For a number that reflects body composition rather than just height, use the body-fat or BMI calculators alongside this one — and remember that body composition matters more than the bathroom scale.
They were designed at and above 5 ft, and the slope per inch was meant to apply only to inches over 60. We extrapolate downward by subtracting the same slope per inch below 60″, which is the convention most clinical references use, but accuracy degrades for very short heights — treat short-stature outputs as rough estimates only.
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