Correct Weight for Height?
Using Height and Weight Charts
May Not Be the Best Answer

Knowing correct weight for height is not as simplistic as looking at a height and weight chart, since your healthy weight is determined by more than your height or average height and weight statistics. It also may not be wise to consider yourself in the “safe zone” if your age, height and weight are consistent with the average height and weight of your peers.

So, if you’ve used a height and weight table or age and weight chart to identify your target weight zone, whether you fall inside or outside of it, you may need to reconsider a few things.

Things to Consider

1. People who use these charts usually fail to follow, completely, the directions for using the tables (see below for an example…we’ll be posting additional one in the near future).

2. What is now frequently called “ideal” weight was originally referred to as “desirable” weight…which is at least less assuming than the new lingo.

3. When insurance companies created the concept of height and weight charts, they were doing one of the things that they do best…minimizing their risk by using simplistic, oftentimes, unnecessarily exclusive qualification standards.

4. Healthy weight is determined by more than height and age…fat distribution, body composition, conditioning and lifestyle are all important factors when it comes to identifying your correct weight.

Weight can be Deceiving

There are people whose weight falls outside of the “ideal” zone for their height because they are quite muscular (e.g., mesomorph body types), because muscle weighs more than fat. However, they are usually at a healthy weight for them, especially if they have a physical career which make the added weight and strength a plus (e.g., professional football players, fire fighters, roller derby skaters : ) ).

There are also people who may fall outside the “ideal” zone without having mesomorph body types, but who’s waist-to-hip ratio (e.g., they aren’t carrying the bulk of the weight in their waist compared to the weight they carry in their hips…pear versus apple) is good. Their fitness and conditioning may also be great. Chances are this person is much better off than their de-conditioned, slender, yet over-fat neighbor who carries most of their weight in their mid-section.

Body Composition and Waist-To-Hip Ratios Are More Reliable Measurements

When measured accurately, your body composition and waist-to-hip ratio can communicate more to you about your health than Metropolitan Life’s Height & Weight Chart or any one else’s charts.

Contact your local college’s department of kinesiology or the local gym and find out about having them take your measurements. They can help you identity your unique, correct weight for height and offer useful feedback that can help guide your fitness and wellness goals, along with your professional ones…people who are in better physical condition tend to perform better on the job than those employees who possess low fitness levels.