Ideal body weight calculator
Four clinical formulas estimate a reference bodyweight from your height, adjusted for frame size, alongside the weight range a healthy BMI corresponds to. These came from medicine, not from fitness, and it shows.
None of these formulas knows about muscle. Read the limits below before treating any of these numbers as a target.
- Healthy BMI range
- 58.6-78.9 kg
- Devine
- 73.2 kg
- Robinson
- 71.1 kg
An estimate from a published formula, not a measurement. Use it as a consistent yardstick for tracking change.
The four formulas
All four are height-based with a sex offset, all four were published between 1964 and 1983, and the spread between them for a given height is usually several kilograms.
| Formula | Reference weight |
|---|---|
| Devine (1974) | 73.2 kg |
| Robinson (1983) | 71.1 kg |
| Miller (1983) | 70.4 kg |
| Hamwi (1964) | 75.2 kg |
Where these formulas came from
Not from fitness. Devine published his in 1974 to calculate drug dosages, and the others followed in the same clinical tradition. Their job was to give a reference weight for a patient of a given height so a dose could be scaled sensibly.
That origin explains a lot about how they behave. They are conservative, they are linear in height, and none of them was ever meant to describe what a healthy trained person should weigh.
What frame size adjusts and what it does not
Skeletal frame genuinely varies. Two people at the same height can differ by several kilograms of bone and connective tissue before any muscle is counted, and the classic clinical method estimates it from wrist circumference relative to height.
The adjustment here is the standard ten percent either side of medium. It is a correction, not a licence: it moves the reference figure, it does not change what the underlying formulas can see.
Why a lifter will read as overweight
Every formula on this page is height in, weight out. None of them has an input for muscle. A trained 180 cm lifter at 88 kg and 12% body fat will land well above every one of these references and be in better health than the number implies.
The same problem affects the BMI range shown next to them, for the same reason. If you carry meaningful muscle, fat-free mass index and body fat percentage are the numbers that actually describe you.
What to use instead
- Body fat percentage tells you what your weight is made of, which is the question these formulas are being asked as a proxy for.
- Fat-free mass index puts your lean mass in the context of your height, the correction BMI is missing.
- Waist circumference is a better single health marker than any height-weight formula, because central fat is what the health risk actually tracks.
Questions people ask
Which ideal body weight formula is best?
For their original clinical purpose, they are broadly interchangeable and Devine remains the most used. For deciding what you should weigh as someone who trains, none of them, because none accounts for muscle.
Why is my ideal weight lower than my current weight?
If you lift, most likely because you carry more lean mass than a 1974 height-weight formula assumes. Check body fat percentage before concluding anything from the gap.
How do I work out my frame size?
The clinical method compares wrist circumference to height. Roughly: for a 170 cm adult, a wrist under about 16 cm suggests a small frame and over about 19 cm a large one. It is approximate, which is why the adjustment is a flat ten percent.
Should I use ideal body weight as a goal?
As a rough orientation at most. A target body fat percentage, or a performance goal in the gym, gives you something both more meaningful and more achievable than a number from a dosing formula.
Related tools
Numbers worth training towards
Mekimeki tracks strength and volume rather than weight alone, so progress is measured by what you can do, free and offline.
Download on the App StoreFree · Every feature included · No subscriptions · No paywalls · iOS 17+
Scan with your iPhone camera