Health · 5 min read

Ideal Weight for Your Height: Charts for Men & Women

Your "ideal" weight is really a range — the band where a healthy BMI (18.5–24.9) puts you for your height. For 5'6" (168 cm), that is roughly 52–70 kg (115–154 lb) regardless of sex.

Healthy weight ranges by height

• 5'0" (152 cm): 43–58 kg (95–128 lb)
• 5'4" (163 cm): 49–66 kg (108–145 lb)
• 5'8" (173 cm): 55–74 kg (122–164 lb)
• 6'0" (183 cm): 62–83 kg (137–183 lb)
• 6'2" (188 cm): 65–88 kg (144–194 lb)

Get your personal range instantly with the BMI calculator.

The formulas doctors use

Clinicians sometimes use the Devine formula (developed for drug dosing): 50 kg + 2.3 kg per inch over 5 feet for men; 45.5 kg base for women. The Hamwi and Robinson formulas give similar mid-range numbers. All land near the middle of the BMI band — useful anchors, not targets.

Why two people share a height but not an ideal weight

Frame size (wrist circumference is a quick proxy), muscle mass and age all shift the healthy point within the range. A broad-framed, muscular 30-year-old sits naturally near the top of the band; a small-framed person near the bottom. Chasing a number outside your natural zone is fighting biology — aim for the range, then let fitness, energy and bloodwork judge the result.

Why "ideal weight" is somewhat outdated thinking

The formulas above were developed decades ago for specific clinical purposes — the Devine formula, for example, was created in 1974 to help dose medications by body weight, not to define beauty or health standards. Modern thinking has shifted away from a single "ideal" number toward a healthy range combined with functional markers: strength, cardiovascular fitness, blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar. Two people at the exact same "ideal weight" can have very different health profiles depending on their muscle mass, fitness level and lifestyle.

Setting a realistic personal goal

Rather than fixating on a single target number, most health professionals now recommend picking a comfortable point within your healthy BMI range and prioritising the habits that get you there sustainably — regular movement, adequate protein, sleep and stress management — over chasing an exact figure from a chart. If your current weight sits meaningfully outside the healthy range for your height, even modest, sustained progress toward it (rather than an immediate jump to the "ideal" number) delivers most of the health benefit and is far more likely to stick.

Factors the charts can't see

• Bone structure: naturally larger or smaller frames shift where in the range someone sits without any difference in body fat.
• Ethnicity: some research suggests certain populations carry health risk at slightly different BMI thresholds than the standard 18.5–24.9 band, though it remains the most widely used general guide.
• Training history: long-term strength training changes body composition in ways that make chart-based "ideal weight" figures increasingly unreliable the more muscle someone carries.
• Life stage: healthy weight during pregnancy, post-pregnancy recovery and older adulthood all follow different guidance than standard adult charts.

A more useful question than "what's my ideal weight?"

Instead of asking what you should weigh, it's often more productive to ask what habits would make you feel strong, energetic and healthy — and let weight settle as a natural result of those habits rather than the primary target. This reframing tends to produce more sustainable outcomes than chasing a specific number pulled from a decades-old formula, and it sidesteps the frustration of feeling like you've "failed" simply for not matching a chart that was never designed with your individual body in mind.

Using the charts sensibly

Treat the height-to-weight ranges above as a rough orientation point, not a strict rulebook. If your weight sits within the healthy BMI band for your height, there's rarely any medical reason to chase a lower number purely for appearance. If it sits meaningfully outside the range, use it as a prompt to look at the fuller picture — activity level, diet quality, sleep and stress — rather than fixating on the scale alone.

Recap

Ideal weight is best understood as a healthy range for your height, not a single perfect number — check yours with the BMI calculator, and remember that frame size, muscle mass and life stage all shift where you naturally sit within that range.

If you're using this information to set a personal goal, aim for the range rather than a single figure, and prioritise the habits that get you there sustainably over speed.

Frequently asked questions