Healthy Weight Range Calculator
Find the weight range that corresponds to a BMI of 18.5 to 24.9 at your height, and how far any current weight sits from it.
Result
Enter height to see the result.
https://calcgallery.com/body-composition/healthy-weight-range-calculator/
How to use the Healthy Weight Range Calculator
- Enter your height in feet and inches or in centimetres.
- Read the weight range that corresponds to a BMI of 18.5 to 24.9 at that height.
- Optionally add your current weight to see your BMI and how far it sits from the range.
- Treat the band as a population reference, not as a personal target.
How it is calculated
The range is the BMI formula run backwards. BMI divides weight in kilograms by height in metres squared, so fixing the BMI and the height gives the weight:
lower = 18.5 × height (m)²upper = 24.9 × height (m)²18.5 and 24.9 are the endpoints of the WHO normal-weight band from Technical Report Series 894. Everything on this page follows from those two numbers and your height.
If you enter a current weight, the calculator also reports your BMI and the signed distance to the nearer edge of the band. The sign matters: being four kilograms above the range and four kilograms below it are different situations, so the page says which, in words as well as in the number.
The same limitations that apply to BMI apply here, and they are worth stating on this page rather than linking, because most people arrive here directly. BMI cannot distinguish muscle from fat. It says nothing about where fat is carried, which matters more for metabolic risk than the total. The thresholds were derived mainly from studies of European adult populations. And a muscular athlete and a sedentary person of identical height and weight receive an identical band and an identical verdict against it.
It does not apply to everyone. Children and teenagers are assessed against BMI-for-age percentile charts, not a fixed band, because they are still growing. Pregnancy changes weight for reasons the band does not model. And at the extremes of muscularity the measure stops carrying the meaning the population studies gave it.
Practical tips
The edges are conventions, not cliffs. The cut-offs are round numbers chosen for population reporting. Nothing about your body changes between 24.9 and 25.0.
A waist measurement adds what this cannot. Where fat sits is more strongly associated with cardiovascular and metabolic risk than how much there is in total, and a tape measure around the waist captures some of that. Weight for height captures none of it.
The band is for populations; you are one person. The evidence behind it comes from studying large groups. Applying a group statistic to an individual loses exactly the information — build, composition, history — that makes the individual case different.
Sitting outside the range is a reason to ask a question, not to conclude anything. A clinician can weigh the number against blood work, waist circumference, fitness and family history. A calculator has your height.
If you track it, track it consistently. Weigh at the same time of day under the same conditions. Day-to-day variation of a kilogram or two is water and gut contents, and it will swamp any real change over short periods.
With your numbers
- At 5 ft 6 in, BMI 18.5 to 24.9 is 114.6 lb to 154.3 lb
Quick reference
A band derived from population statistics, not a personal target. It does not apply to children, pregnancy or high muscle mass.
| Example | Healthy weight range, lower |
|---|---|
| 5 ft 2 in | 101.1 lb |
| 5 ft 6 in | 114.6 lb |
| 5 ft 10 in | 128.9 lb |
| 6 ft 2 in | 144.1 lb |
| 5 ft 8 in at 190 lb | 121.7 lb |
| 160 cm | 47.4 kg |
| 175 cm | 56.7 kg |
| 170 cm at 85 kg | 53.5 kg |
Where the numbers come from
The fixed figures this calculator relies on, and the published source each one was checked against. How the calculators are built and checked
2 sources
WHO Technical Report Series 894 (2000), Obesity: preventing and managing the global epidemic, Table 2.1, p. 9, https://iris.who.int/handle/10665/42330: underweight <18.50, normal range 18.50-24.99, preobese 25.00-29.99, obese class I 30.00-34.99, class II 35.00-39.99, class III ≥40.00.
Used for
- Upper boundary of the WHO underweight band.
WHO Technical Report Series 894 (2000), Obesity: preventing and managing the global epidemic, Table 2.1, p. 9, https://iris.who.int/handle/10665/42330: underweight <18.50, normal range 18.50-24.99, preobese 25.00-29.99, obese class I 30.00-34.99, class II 35.00-39.99, class III ≥40.00. The one-decimal edge is the one IOM/NRC, Weight Gain During Pregnancy (2009), Table S-1, p. 2, prints ("18.5-24.9 kg/m²"); health-shared.ts classifies below the next band's lower edge (25.0, 30.0), so both tables give the same band.
Used for
- Upper boundary of the WHO normal BMI band.
Common questions about the Healthy Weight Range Calculator
- Why is the range so wide?
- At five foot ten it spans about twenty kilograms, because the WHO normal band spans BMI 18.5 to 24.9 and weight scales with the square of height. That width is not imprecision in the calculation; it reflects how weakly weight alone predicts health outcomes for any individual. A narrower band would imply a confidence the underlying studies do not support.
- What if I am just outside it?
- The edges are not thresholds where anything changes. BMI 24.9 and 25.1 describe almost identical bodies, and the cut-offs were chosen as round numbers for population reporting, not because a risk curve bends there. Being a kilogram outside the band is not meaningfully different from being a kilogram inside it.
- Does the range change with age?
- The WHO band does not vary by age for adults. Some researchers have argued that a slightly higher BMI is associated with better outcomes in older adults, but WHO has not changed the thresholds and this page uses the published ones. It does not apply at all to anyone under eighteen, where growth charts are used instead.
- Does it change by ethnicity?
- WHO notes that some Asian populations show elevated risk at lower BMI values and has discussed additional action points around 23 and 27.5 rather than 25 and 30. This calculator uses the international thresholds. If that applies to you, the lower action points are worth raising with a clinician.
- Why does the range not account for muscle?
- Because it is derived from height alone. BMI cannot tell muscle from fat, so a muscular person often sits above the band while carrying little fat. That is a known limitation of the measure rather than a fault in the arithmetic, and it is why a body fat or waist measurement adds information this page cannot.