How much should I weigh for my height and age?

For each person, based on a number of individual factors, their “ideal” weight is formed. These factors include: height, age, fat-to-muscle ratio, gender, body type.

The question “How much should I weigh?” interests many people. But there is no single answer to this question: for each person, based on a number of individual factors, there will be a different ideal weight. These factors include: height, age, fat-to-muscle ratio, gender, body type.

Excess weight is fraught with the possibility of developing diseases: type 2 diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular problems, etc.

Not everyone who is overweight experiences health problems. But the researchers believe that the absence of problems at present does not provide a positive forecast for the future. Below are 4 ways to determine the ideal weight for each person.

Body Mass Index (BMI)

One of the most common tools for determining your ideal weight in relation to your height is the body mass index (BMI).

To calculate BMI, divide your body weight (in kilograms) by the square of your height (in meters). For example, let's calculate the body mass index for a person weighing 65.5 kilograms and height 183 centimeters:

BMI = 65.5 / (1.83 x 1.83) = 65.5 / 3.3489 = 19.56. It should be remembered that calculating BMI will not give the correct figures for children and pregnant women.

Based on data from the US National Institutes of Health:

• BMI less than 16 – severe underweight;
• BMI from 16 to 18.5 – underweight;
• BMI from 18.5 to 25 – normal weight;
• BMI from 25 to 30 – pre-obesity;
• BMI from 30 to 35 – first degree obesity;
• BMI from 35 to 40 – second degree obesity;
• BMI over 40 is third degree obesity.

What's the problem with BMI?

Calculating BMI is a simple measurement and is widely used. However, the main factor is the person's height and is not taken into account:

• hip and waist measurements;
• features of the figure and fat distribution;
• muscle mass.

These indicators also have an impact in determining normal weight. For example, athletes have high BMIs despite being in excellent physical shape. This is explained by a large amount of muscle mass, and this does not mean being overweight.

BMI rather gives an approximate understanding of whether a person can be called a healthy weight, rather than defining ideal parameters. BMI measurements are also useful for statistics when researchers calculate trends. This indicator should not become the only one when assessing a person’s normal weight. At a minimum, it is worth considering additional factors.

MEASUREMENT FEATURES: WEIGHT AND HEIGHT NORM FOR TEENAGERS AND MORE

Good parents are always interested in how their child is growing and closely monitor the process so as not to miss the slightest misfortune. Therefore, it is extremely important for them to correctly assess the height and weight of children. To do this, you have to refer to established generally accepted parameters. For example, in Russia the average height of an adult man is one meter seventy-eight centimeters. For a woman, this indicator is one meter sixty-four centimeters.

The norm for height and weight in adolescents can be considered the average parameter accepted in a certain area at a specific time. This indicator is not stable, constant, but can change smoothly or sharply over an arbitrary period of time. Such factors are not the same for all of humanity. Statistics perceives as true and most accurate those data that were obtained over the previous ten years.

IMPORTANT TO UNDERSTAND: NUANCES AND CLARIFICATIONS

Small babies grow extremely quickly, and over time this process gradually slows down. At eleven to sixteen years of age, most may experience a strong growth spurt, after which growth becomes slower again.

This means that a person can sharply “jump” upward at the age of twelve. By fifteen he has already reached his final height, and at fourteen he is just beginning to slowly stretch out. The main factor influencing these indicators is heredity and the lifestyle of the child or adolescent.

At the same time, some grow slowly and imperceptibly, while others are able to gain several tens of centimeters in one summer. It is known that there are even daily fluctuations in growth. During the day, a person may be a little lower or, conversely, taller. The largest indicators were found during measurements in the early morning, and the smallest in the evening. The difference can be two to four centimeters.

INFLUENCE OF PUBERTY

The period of adolescent puberty is characterized by the most intensive growth.

• Girls develop earlier, so peak growth rates are observed at ten to twelve years of age.
• Boys begin to mature later and for them the most active growth is considered to be thirteen to sixteen years.

There are cases when, during the development process, the body does not have time to keep up with the growth of the skeleton, cannot build up the required muscle mass, or gain the required weight. There are also other cases where weight increases first, and only then does growth follow. These are completely normal conditions, so you shouldn’t worry too much, immediately look for signs of anorexia in a teenager (hyperlink to the article), or try to force him to lose weight.

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WEIGHT CORRECTION

For teenagers, forced weight loss or weight gain can be dangerous. The correspondence of their indicators will be quite conditional. A growing organism, and especially the brain, constantly requires “building materials”, thanks to which it develops. An underdeveloped brain, which has not received its portion of nutrients and resources, subsequently turns out to be much more difficult to heal than a body that has not gained or has gained the required kilograms.

If in adolescence, with weight and height within the normal range, you are bothered by a seemingly too large tummy, then this is not a global problem. Most likely it’s all about improper nutrition and diet, as well as weak abdominal muscles. In this case, special exercises along with normalization of nutrition help greatly. The best person to help with the last question is a dietitian.

Body mass (weight) and volume are not identical indicators, but completely different things. With the same volume, fat will weigh several times less than muscle and muscles. The eighth-ninth grade anatomy course shows that these tissues themselves can be of different types.

Therefore, if your weight is within normal limits and your body looks thin or plump, you should not immediately panic. Perhaps the skeleton grows faster than the muscles, or perhaps there is more fat in the body than muscle. All this can be easily “treated” with a balanced diet, exercise and a healthy lifestyle.

POSSIBLE REASONS FOR DEVIATIONS

The indicators are not always ideal. This could be due to many different reasons.

• The development of parents and other ancestors of a teenager (heredity), embedded in the genetic code.
• Delayed or premature puberty.
• The special nature of an individual's lifestyle.
• Malfunction of the pituitary gland, the center in the brain responsible for growth.
• Thyroid dysfunction.
• Genetic diseases like Turner syndrome, Marfan syndrome or others.

Possible diseases of the central nervous system, gastrointestinal tract, heart, liver, kidneys, abnormal development of blood vessels or joints. However, there is no need to panic, since the disease can only be discussed after a complete clinical study. If no problems are found, you should pay attention to the teenager’s lifestyle, nutrition, and physical activity.

Waist-to-hip ratio (WHR)

WHR helps determine your waist to hip ratio. People who have excess fat around the waist are more prone to developing diabetes and cardiovascular disease (CVD). The greater the proportional deviation of waist volume from hip volume, the higher the risk. Waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) provides information to understand whether a person is at a healthy weight.

How to measure your waist to hip ratio?

1. Measure your waist at the narrowest point, usually just above your navel.
2. Measure your hips at their widest point.
3. Divide the first indicator by the second (waist size by hip size).

For example, a girl with a waist of 64 centimeters and hips of 95 centimeters will have a WHR of 0.67.

What does this indicator mean?

WHR influences the risk of cardiovascular diseases (CVD). Due to differences in body shapes, risk assessment will differ between men and women.

Cardiovascular disease risk indicators for men:

• below 0.9 – low risk;
• from 0.9 to 0.99 – moderate risk;
• 1.0 or more – high risk.

Cardiovascular disease risk indicators for women:

• below 0.8 – low risk;
• from 0.8 to 0.89 – moderate risk;
• 0.9 or more – high risk.

Rates may vary depending on a person's ethnicity.

Because WHR takes into account fat distribution, it is a better indicator of cardiovascular disease risk than BMI. However, even WHR cannot provide an accurate estimate of total body fat percentage or its ratio to muscle mass.

Height to weight ratio in teenagers: height and weight table

Growth norms for girls and boys
To assess indicators of physical development, it is important to evaluate not only height separately from other indicators, but also its relationship with weight.

The optimal ratio of height and weight in children and adolescents is presented by the following centile graphs. The method for assessing indicators is similar to the method for assessing centile tables described above: in the range from 3 to 97 centiles we can talk about the norm, everything above or below these values ​​requires the attention of parents and doctors.

Optimal height to weight ratio for boys

Optimal height to weight ratio for girls

Waist to Height Ratio (WHtR)

To calculate WHtR, divide your waist size by your height. If the resulting score is less than or equal to 0.5, then the person is likely to be at a healthy weight.

For example:

• for a woman 163 centimeters tall, a normal waist size of less than 81 centimeters will be;
• For a man 183 centimeters tall, a normal waist size of less than 91 centimeters will be normal.

The above parameters when calculating WHtR will give an indicator of less than 0.5.

The researchers note that WHtR is also a more informative indicator compared to BMI. Based on statistics from an analysis of 300,000 people belonging to different ethnic groups, they concluded that WHtR is better at predicting strokes, heart attacks, hypertension and diabetes. This makes the WHtR measure useful in screening.

An indicator that takes into account waist size is a good indicator of risk, because fat, which can accumulate in large quantities in the waist area, is dangerous for the functioning of the heart, liver and kidneys. Of course, it is worth taking into account the person’s height and hip size.

Body fat percentage

Body fat percentage is calculated by dividing fat mass by total body mass. Fat in the human body is necessary to maintain normal functioning and is divided into several types.

White fat

White fat is the largest source of energy in the human body and accumulates around organs. Thanks to the production of certain hormones with the help of this fat, the risk of cardiovascular diseases and diabetes is reduced. But, an increased amount of white fat in the body can lead to a constant feeling of hunger and, as a result, to obesity.

According to statistics, a body fat content of 15 to 25% is considered normal for a man, and 15 to 30% for a woman.

Brown fat

The location of brown fat is in the area of ​​the kidneys, shoulders, neck and back. In the adult body, the amount of this fat is small, but it helps with weight loss by helping to expend energy. For example, a person weighing 69 kilograms has approximately 20 to 30 kilograms of fat. Of the total amount, brown fat accounts for only 500 to 800 grams. However, this amount will be enough to lose half a kilogram per week.

Beige fat

Beige fat is a transitional fat that can turn into white fat with regular exercise and help you lose excess weight. If a person is in a low temperature environment, beige fat can transform into brown fat.

Subcutaneous fat

Subcutaneous fat is fat that makes up 90% of the total body fat. Women always have more subcutaneous fat than men. It should also be taken into account that with old age its amount decreases.

Visceral fat

Visceral fat is dangerous to human health. It accumulates around the liver, heart, intestines and other organs. Problems of the cardiovascular system (for example, heart attack and stroke) and a number of other diseases can be caused by excess visceral fat.

Visceral fat can be assessed using the WHR indicator, which was described above.

When estimating your total body fat percentage, you should take into account a person's body type and activity level. For example, at an average level of activity, body fat is considered normal: 18-25% in men and 25-31% in women. For athletes, these figures are reduced by almost 2 times.

Estimating body fat percentage indicates fitness level, but the calculation focuses on the percentage of fat to total body weight. The BMI indicator does not take these nuances into account.

TABLE OF HEIGHT AND WEIGHT NORMAL FOR ADOLESCENTS

Doctors have developed special tablets that can be used to find out the average statistical norms for body weight and height of adolescents at a certain age, relevant for the last ten years. However, you need to understand that these relationships are conditional. That is, it is impossible to consider them absolute and blindly strive to achieve exact parameters. After all, a 17-year-old boy or girl may be plump and short, or tall and thin - this is quite normal.

There is a special centile method for assessing the physiological development of a child, up to full adulthood. Its essence is quite simple: here anthropometric factors are directly compared with values ​​considered standard. The latter are obtained from general studies, that is, they can be considered averaged for a certain region.

ANTHROPOMETRIC (CENTILE) TABLES

The proportions of a teenager’s body should be as close to ideal as possible. To compile such tables, measurements from hundreds of relatively healthy representatives of the current population of the region are used. People of the same age are selected, after which their measurements are arranged in ascending order. The indicators are entered into tables where a certain numbering is observed, which is called the centile.

• Parameters up to three centiles are an area of ​​extremely underestimated values. They clearly go beyond the norm and occur in only 3% of those examined. Such adolescents are classified as a “diagnostic group”, that is, they must be carefully examined for the presence of pathologies.
• Up to ten centiles are low, and in healthy children they can occur in only seven percent of cases. You should pay attention to them, but you don’t have to rush as much as in the first case. Particular attention should be paid to the growth and development of such adolescents.
• Up to twenty-five centiles is a parameter below average, but no longer poses a danger. In healthy adolescents, this is observed in 15-16% of cases.
• From twenty-five to seventy-five centiles are normal ratios for a healthy person of any age. In fact, it can be called the absolute norm and is found in 50–65% of those examined.
• Up to ninety centiles occur in healthy people without pathologies only in 6-7% of cases. This is an area of ​​overestimated values. If there are other developmental or growth abnormalities against this background, you should definitely see a doctor.
• Anything over ninety centiles is obviously bad; these are very high values ​​that indicate the seriousness of the problems.

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As is clear from the instructions above, indicators of 25–75 centiles can be considered harmonious and fully appropriate to age. Anything lower will be conditionally considered a developmental delay, and anything higher will be considered faster than healthy growth. If something worries you, it is better to contact a pediatrician, who can then, depending on the need, refer you to an endocrinologist, geneticist, nutritionist or gastroenterologist.

WEIGHT AND HEIGHT 7–17 YEARS (BOYS)