Ideal Body Weight Calculator | Find Your Target Weight
Use this free ideal body weight calculator to find your target weight based on your height and sex. The calculator runs the four most trusted clinical formulas, Hamwi, Devine, Robinson, and Miller, and returns the average as your headline number alongside each formula's individual result.
Your Stats
Enter your height to see your ideal body weight range.
What Is Ideal Body Weight?
Ideal Body Weight (IBW) is a target weight calculated from your height and sex using formulas originally built for clinical medicine. Doctors and pharmacists still use these formulas today to calculate drug doses that scale with lean body mass rather than total weight. Over time they became useful reference points for nutrition and fitness planning as well.
Unlike BMI, which evaluates the weight you already carry, IBW gives you a number to aim toward. Think of it as a starting reference rather than a hard target. Athletes, resistance-trained individuals, and people with larger frames often sit above the formula range while carrying very little body fat. Use it alongside a Body Fat Calculator for the full picture.
All four formulas take only your height and sex as inputs, not your current weight. The result is a weight you could reasonably carry at a healthy body composition for your frame.
These formulas were built for drug dosing, not aesthetics. Devine (1974) is still used by pharmacists today to calculate medication doses that scale with lean body mass.
The formulas reflect average body composition for a given height and sex. Athletes and heavily muscled individuals will typically sit above the range without carrying excess fat.
The four formulas produce results that differ by 5 to 15 pounds. That spread is the range, and landing anywhere within it is the realistic goal for most people.
How Does the Ideal Body Weight Calculator Work?
The calculator runs four clinical formulas simultaneously and averages the results into one target weight, giving you a range to aim for rather than a single number to chase.
- Input
- Formulas
- Result
Enter Your Height and Sex
What Factors Influence Your Ideal Body Weight?
The formulas use only height and sex, but real-world ideal weight is shaped by more. These are the variables the equation cannot see.
Frame Size
Small, medium, and large frames can differ by 10 to 15 pounds at the same height. A quick proxy is wrist circumference. A wrist under 15 cm for women or under 17 cm for men at 5 feet 5 inches suggests a small frame that may do well toward the lower end of the range.
Muscle Mass
Muscle is denser than fat by volume. A person who lifts consistently can carry 15 to 20 pounds more than the formula suggests while looking and feeling leaner than a sedentary person at the formula's exact number. The scale is not the full story.
Age
Lean muscle mass naturally declines after age 30 without resistance training, while fat tends to accumulate. Ideal body weight formulas do not adjust for age, so older adults may find the formula number harder to reach without addressing body composition directly.
Health Conditions
Thyroid disorders, PCOS, certain medications, and conditions that cause fluid retention all affect where your body settles. If medical factors are at play, the formula number is a reference only. A doctor or registered dietitian should help set a realistic personal target.
Activity Level
Active people carry more lean mass to support performance. A runner or cyclist may function best 5 to 10 pounds above the formula's average. Chasing a lower number can actually hurt output and recovery in people who train regularly.
Body Composition
Two people at the exact same weight and height can have wildly different body fat percentages. Combine your ideal weight target with a body fat check to see whether the gap between you and the formula is fat, muscle, or both. This tells you which direction to train.
How Do You Use Your Ideal Body Weight?
The number from the formula is a starting point. What you do with it depends on where you currently sit and what your body composition looks like.
Lose Fat to Reach Range
If you are above your ideal weight range, a sustained calorie deficit is the direct path down. A 300 to 500 calorie daily deficit produces 0.5 to 1 pound of fat loss per week without significant muscle loss. Use the Calorie Deficit Calculator to find your precise daily target based on your current weight and goal weight.
Maintain Once You Arrive
Reaching ideal weight is only half the job. Maintaining it requires knowing your exact maintenance calorie level and building habits that hold it year-round. The Maintenance Calorie Calculator gives you a verified daily target with a 14-day tracking protocol to confirm the number is right for your body.
Recompose Above the Range
If you train seriously and sit above your ideal weight range, the goal may not be to lose weight at all. Body recomposition, building muscle while burning fat at roughly the same total weight, can move you from above the range and overfat to above the range and lean. Track body fat with the Body Fat Calculator to see whether weight or composition is the real variable to change.
What Are the Best Ways to Reach Your Ideal Body Weight?
Six practical habits that move you toward your target weight without sacrificing the lean mass that keeps your metabolism running.
- 1
Set a 5 to 10 pound target window
rather than a single number, since the four formulas themselves disagree by that much and a range is more realistic to maintain long term
- 2
Lose at 0.5 to 1 pound per week
to protect lean muscle mass, since faster fat loss from aggressive deficits costs you the muscle that determines how you look at any given weight
- 3
Lift weights 2 to 4 times per week
because building muscle while losing fat reshapes your body so you may end up above the formula target and still look and feel leaner than the number suggests
- 4
Eat 1.6 to 2.2 g of protein per kg of body weight
to protect muscle during a calorie deficit and to support growth when training in a surplus, which is non-negotiable at any target weight
- 5
Track body fat alongside scale weight
every 4 weeks using measurements or a calculator, since the scale alone cannot tell you whether the weight you carry is fat, muscle, or water
- 6
Adjust the target if the formula disagrees with your body
because if you feel strong, sleep well, and perform well in training, you may already be at your personal ideal weight even if a formula says otherwise
Frequently Asked Questions About Ideal Body Weight
Quick answers to the questions people ask most.
There is no single perfect number. Ideal body weight is a range built from your height and sex using clinical formulas. This calculator runs the four most respected estimates, Hamwi, Devine, Robinson, and Miller, and returns the average as your headline number. A 5 foot 10 inch man, for example, lands between 166 and 172 pounds across all four formulas.
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