How Much Should I Weigh By Age – Ideal Body Weight Calculator

Physical fitness is an entity that everyone in the world today is trying to aspire for. The soaring desire to present oneself as attractive, remain healthy, and have a perfect weight is akin to all human beings. But with this desire surfaces the question; How much should I weigh by age? Age is a pivotal factor in determining the weight of a person. 

One crucial factor to remember is that the world cannot be divided into blacks and whites, as there is a huge gradation of greys in between; similarly, having an exact number for your weight isn’t possible. Numerous factors at work and countless external influences on a person should be considered before reaching a range of perfect weights suited for your body type.  

Attributes Of Body Weight

A person’s weight by age depends on many attributes like gender and height, and another crucial factor is the person’s age. The person’s age heavily governs the suitable weight for a body as one of the most important defining factors for a certain number in weight.  

You escalate in age, and so does your weight vary accordingly. There is a stark difference in the weight that accompanies different age groups, and it’s inevitable to ignore age while considering your perfect body weight. But keeping your body weight at a good number is essential for your health and longer life.  

Ideal Body Weight Calculator

The ideal body weight IBW is an entity that can be reached through many weight calculators devised by different scientists over decades in the previous century. However, in calculating the IBW, one attribute remains of prime consideration: the person’s height. It accurately determines your ideal weight for age and height.

Here we have presented you with the most commonly used formula for calculating IBW, showing you your ideal weight against your height. 

IBW Calculator

Mostly the IBW value considered against the first 5″ height of a man is 106 pounds and 100 pounds for a 5″ tall woman. The BMI is evaluated against considering 5 feet as the standard. A higher or lower value in height will affect the formula as under. 

In the case of women, if the height is somewhere in the lower range from 5 feet, then an amount of 2 pounds will be subtracted for every inch.  

Factors Affecting Ideal Body Weight

The ideal weight by age of a person depends on a variety of attributes. A perfect weight based on height and age should be considered, determining all these attributes so that the IBW should be an unachievable challenge.

 Age

Age is one of the factors to be considered while enquiring about the IBW. For children, the normal weight by age varies with each passing year; however, after adolescence, the body attains its peak of growth in height and build so that the IBW stays almost the same up to 50 years of age. 

Yet people aging after 60 again lose some of their height, and the body has other limitations, like low metabolism, aging tissues, and chronic fats; all these things are to be considered while analyzing an IBW for aging people, and the value will be drastically affected by these factors.  

Gender

Another undeniable factor while calculating the ideal body weight is the gender of the person. Usually, women have smaller bone structures and shorter heights than their male counterparts. This affects the ideal weight calculations for women in contrast to men. 

Women usually exhibit less weight because their bones are lower in density and because they have fewer muscles that make up most of the body’s weight than fats. So genders bring in a lot of contrast in terms of weight.  

Height

The height we all know is something of indispensable nature when it comes to maintain a healthy weight. All the formulas devised for body weight consider height as the leading factor in judging the body’s weight. Height means more bone weight and more muscles surrounding the bones. This is the answer to the question about what is healthy weight for my height and age!

So it will be not incorrect to say that the person’s height is directly proportional to the person’s weight. The more the height, the more weight you will possess. 

Body Frame Size

Again, the body frame size is an entity directly proportional to the person’s weight. The broader the structure of the body will be, the more would be the weight. And in the case of thin body structure, you would exhibit smaller weight.  

Formula Or Calculation To Find The Ideal Weight

The formula for calculating height is against 5 feet; for men, if the height is more than 5 feet, another 6 pounds will be added for every inch. The IBW for men can be calculated as under 

IBW (men) = 106 pounds + (i X 6)

Here ‘i’ stands for inches above 5 feet.  

For women, the increase in each inch above 5 feet makes a difference of 5 pounds per inch. It can be easily expressed in the formula: 

IBW (women) = 100 pounds + (i X 5)

For women of height under 5 feet, there will be a deduction of 2pounds for each inch and can be expressed as in the formula below:  

IBW (women) = 100 pounds – (i X 2)

How Is Weight Ranges Determined?

The weight ranges are determined through many techniques, and the BMI is the most widely used worldwide by physicians. The BMI gives you a figure against the weight and height of your body, and then this BMI figure is compared against the given ranges on the weight scale chart that shows low, normal, and overweight ranges. 

The BMI range below 18.5 and above 24.9 is something to worry about. The lower range represents an overly thin body with malnutrition, and the upper range shows signs of overweight, leading to obesity in the other upper range.  

How Can BMI Be Used To Determine Ideal Weight?

BMI is an acronym for Body Mass Index. Most people are quite familiar with this term; however, if you come across it for the first time, I will surely elaborate on BMI. It is a figure that determines the mass of your body by considering your weight and height in an inverse relation where height is squared.  

The BMI is a very efficient way to calculate the ideal weight as it gives accurate ranges for a healthy working body, considered trustworthy by most physicians. According to this range, you can decide how much more you want to reduce or put on yourself. The formula to calculate BMI (Body Mass Index) is 

BMI = weightX703/height²

The weight is taken in pounds and multiplied by 703, then divided by the height, considered in inches. So if you weigh 64 kg, that will be 141pounds, and if your height is 5 feet 4 inches, that will make 64inches in total. So the BMI would be it will be 24.19.  

A rounded figure will be 24.2, which falls perfectly in the healthy weight range. The following table shows different ranges of BMI: 

Weight And Height Chart By Age (Middle-aged Adults)

Individuals attain the maximum height up to the age of around 18. After achieving the maximum height, the ideal body weight remains almost the same throughout middle age. Here is a table showing you the perfect body weight for middle-aged adults. 

 Waist-To-Hip ratio (WHR)

As told earlier, not a single formula can assist you towards the ideal body weight. You have to consider many features of your body, like the tendency for fat accumulation. 

In women, the fats are mostly accumulated around the hips, and in the case of men, we have seen a tendency to have a big tummy. So make a judgment about your ideal weight, you should also consider the Waist-to-hip-ratio. 

The waist-to-hip ratio is measured by taking into account the waist measurement in their narrow waste point to the hips at their widest measuring point. 

Formula For WHR

Waist Measurement / Hip Measurement = WHR

For example, for a waist of 33 inches and hips of around 42, the WHR would be 

33/42=0.78 

This value is then compared to the set of healthy ranges to assess the excess or low WHR value. Ideally, this ratio is up to 0.8 for a lower risk of developing heart-related diseases in women. However, in men, the ratio should ideally fall below 0.9; any higher value leads you to risk of developing heart and circulatory problems. 

Waist-To-Height Ratio (WHtR)

Another useful fact for analyzing an ideal body weight for yourself is the Waist-to-Height-Ratio. This ratio pulls in height to be compared with the waist size, which is usually overlooked in the perfect weight formula. 

Considering the waist circumference adds a lot of information to the data about your body type and where it falls in terms of ideal weight. 

The formula for WHtR

WHtR= Waist Measurement in inches / Height Measurement in inches

To elaborate further, let’s consider if you have a height of 5.4″ and your waist measures around 32″, your height in inches would be 65 inches, so the formula goes like 

32/65=0.49 

This value is then measured against the healthy WtHR range to evaluate your ideal body weight. 

 Body Fat Percentage

The presence of fats in the body is important to determine a person’s health risk rates. The fact of fats demanded by men’s or women’s bodies shows a drastically different figure. Men’s bodies require less fat, around 2-5%; however, a woman’s body needs more, approximately 10-13%. 

The BMI, WHR, and WHtR give you an accurate weight to some extent, but still, it misses a variety of important factors and cannot account for the presence of fats in the body.  

When calculating the fats present in the body, there are no simple formulas that a layperson can incorporate to determine the value. This body fat percentage is determined by special health physicians who use different processes to calculate the fats in the body.  

Some of the ways incorporated to calculate body fat are DXA, the dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry test that determines the fats inside the body through passing the x-rays. Another technique is electrostatic weighing, which involves weighing a person underwater and comparing that weight with the normal one.   

How To Reduce Body Fat

Reducing body fats requires much effort, which is even more rigorous than losing weight. It is a long-term process as the chronic fats take even longer to burn. Heavy load exercises like weight lifting and cardio exercises can help dissolve fats faster.  

While undertaking fat-burning exercises, you should be careful about not stretching yourself over the end. That will not be good for your muscular health. However, there are some fats as chronic that some surgical processes are involved in getting rid of them.  

Limitations Of Ideal Body Weight Calculator

There is not a single formula that can serve as perfect for you. This is something that you have to grope for yourself own-self what suits you best. You can even consult your physician to suggest you follow a certain ideal body weight formula that suits your body the most and works for it.  

Deciding the ideal body weight by height and age has its loopholes. While calculating the IBW, only the weight and height are considered; however, the shape of the accumulation of fats in the body is also utterly important in determining the IBW.  

To solve this problem, some processes analyze the weight according to the weight around the stomach compared to the height and also the comparison of the waist with hips. These two processes are WHtR and WHR, respectively.  

Still another way is to calculate the percentage of fats present in the body, which involves even intricate methods. While considering the ideal body weight, you should consider your perfect body shape with utmost care and go through different formulas according to your body requirements.  

Frequently Asked Questions

Final Thoughts

Modern medical science and investigations have proved rewarding in answering the perpetual question of how much I should weigh by age. The ideal body weight is calculated by considering factors like age, height, body type, and gender to keep the individual safe and enjoy a healthy life for longer. This article gives you a multitude of formulas to calculate the ideal body weight that is meant particularly for your body. So stop chasing unreliable body weight goals and get a precise figure to start working on your body.