What's the Most You Should Weigh?
Tuesday, January 12, 2010 at 6:46AMFiguring out whether your weight is in the healthy range involves multiplication, division and calculating your height in inches, squared. If you do all that right, you'll get your Body Mass Index (BMI), which ideally should be in the range of 19 to 24.
A Nevada professor of applied statistics has come up with an easier formula you probably can do in your head. Here's how: for women, the baseline height is 5 feet and the maximum weight limit (MWL) is 125, meaning that if you're 5 feet tall and weigh more than 125 you’re over your MWL. If you're taller, add 4.5 pounds for every extra inch so if you’re 5'5", your MWL would be 147.5 (125 + 22.5). If you’re less than 5 feet tall, subtract 4.5 pounds for every inch below that baseline. For men, the baseline height is 5'9" and MWL is 175. For every additional inch, add five pounds (or subtract five for every inch under 5'9"). Results closely correspond to your BMI. Professor George Fernandez presented his new method at the Sept. 22, 2009 Nevada Public Health Association Conference.
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Reader Comments (5)
Well, I'm male and 5'9" and happen to know that my fat free weight is 160 lbs. According to this, I am only allowed a maximum of 8.6% body fat, while most of what I have read allows me up to 18-20% before I am overweight. So I would say that this is just as much of a travesty as the BMI. When is the medical community going to stop discriminating against muscular people?
I like this...simple math and easy to remember rules! Thanks for sharing :)
These numbers seem high, also not much of a "range" when only 1 number is calculated?
I'm a female 5'1". That means I should be 129.5. This means I need to lose 2.5 lbs. Seriously?
ecw: Dr. Weil is a muscular person too. While we like to share information none of this should put people off--just serve as a guideline.
Thanks for posting.
Carol. You are not taking the chart that seriously are you? 2.5 lbs is certain within the reasonable range isn't it?
It's all just a guideline.