Ideal Weight for a 5'0" Male

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Reference figures last verified: August 21, 2026

At 5'0" (152.4 cm) you are 9 inches below the 5'9" average height for an adult man in the United States (CDC/NHANES anthropometric reference data) - an unusual height, and one that sits at the very edge of what these formulas were built to describe. The healthy BMI band of 18.5 to 24.9 puts the reference weight range for that height at 95 to 127 lb (43 to 57.8 kg), and that range - not any single number - is what this page treats as the answer. The four classic ideal-body-weight formulas disagree by 18 lb at this height (Robinson 115 lb, Miller 124 lb, Devine 110 lb and Hamwi 106 lb), which is exactly why a range is more useful than picking one of them. Body frame size shifts the band by roughly 10% either way: a small-framed man at 5'0" reads 85-115 lb and a large-framed one 104-140 lb, so measure your wrist in the calculator below rather than assuming medium. None of these figures accounts for muscle mass, body composition, pregnancy or any medical condition, and none of them is a target - they are population reference points, and your own healthy weight is a conversation for you and your doctor.

Read this before you read the numbers

Every figure on this page is a population-level statistical estimate. It is not a target, not a goal, and not medical advice.

None of these methods can see muscle mass, bone density, body composition, pregnancy, breastfeeding, disability, or any medical condition or medication that affects weight. Healthy people live above and below every range shown here.

If you are worried about your weight in either direction, or if you have a history of disordered eating, please talk to a doctor or a registered dietitian rather than to a calculator.

Ideal Weight for a 5'0" Male

A healthy weight range for your height, with body frame size actually factored in

The formulas below were only ever published for two categories.
years
Under 18 switches to growth-chart percentiles.
ft
in
cm

Optional, but they change the answer

Used only to show how far the range sits from where you are now.
Measure the smallest part of your wrist, just below the wrist bone. This sets your body frame size.

Quick Tips

  • A range is the honest answer — the four classic formulas can disagree by ten pounds at the same height.
  • Body frame size moves the range by roughly 10% in each direction, and most calculators ignore it entirely.
  • Adult formulas do not apply under 18; growth-chart percentiles do.

Healthy weight range

95–127 lb
Height 5'0" · BMI 18.5–24.9 · Medium (assumed) frame

Under 18: different rules apply

Midpoint
111 lb
Basis
BMI 18.5–24.9
Frame
Medium (assumed)
Formula spread
18 lb

Body frame size

Medium (assumed)

Small frame: 85–115 lb · Medium frame: 95–127 lb · Large frame: 104–140 lb

Measure the smallest part of your wrist and enter it above to have the range adjusted for your frame.

The five estimates, side by side

Method Published Estimate Versus the range
Healthy BMI range WHO / CDC 95–127 lb A range, not a point
Robinson 1983 115 lb inside the range
Miller 1983 124 lb inside the range
Devine 1974 110 lb inside the range
Hamwi 1964 106 lb inside the range

Last updated: August 21, 2026

Healthy weight by height — Male, adult

Every height from 4'6" to 6'8", with the four formula estimates alongside the healthy range.

Height cm Healthy range Robinson Miller Devine Hamwi
4'6" 137.2 77–103 lb 90 105 80 70
4'7" 139.7 80–107 lb 94 108 85 76
4'8" 142.2 83–111 lb 98 111 90 82
4'9" 144.8 85–115 lb 102 115 95 88
4'10" 147.3 89–119 lb 106 118 100 94
4'11" 149.9 92–123 lb 110 121 105 100
5'0" 152.4 95–127 lb 115 124 110 106
5'1" 154.9 98–132 lb 119 127 115 112
5'2" 157.5 101–136 lb 123 130 120 118
5'3" 160 104–141 lb 127 133 125 124
5'4" 162.6 108–145 lb 131 136 131 130
5'5" 165.1 111–150 lb 136 139 136 136
5'6" 167.6 115–154 lb 140 143 141 142
5'7" 170.2 118–159 lb 144 146 146 147
5'8" 172.7 122–164 lb 148 149 151 153
5'9" 175.3 125–169 lb 152 152 156 159
5'10" 177.8 129–174 lb 157 155 161 165
5'11" 180.3 133–179 lb 161 158 166 171
6'0" 182.9 136–184 lb 165 161 171 177
6'1" 185.4 140–189 lb 169 164 176 183
6'2" 188 144–194 lb 173 167 181 189
6'3" 190.5 148–199 lb 177 171 186 195
6'4" 193 152–205 lb 182 174 191 201
6'5" 195.6 156–210 lb 186 177 196 207
6'6" 198.1 160–215 lb 190 180 202 213
6'7" 200.7 164–221 lb 194 183 207 219
6'8" 203.2 168–227 lb 198 186 212 225

Healthy range is BMI 18.5 to 24.9 at a medium frame. Formula columns are single-point adult estimates and are shown for comparison only. Average adult height source: CDC National Center for Health Statistics, NHANES anthropometric reference data for adults aged 20 and over. Reference figures last verified: August 21, 2026.

Ideal weight by height and sex

Female

Male

Ideal Weight Calculator: A Healthy Range, Not a Single Number

There is no single ideal weight for a given height, and any calculator that gives you one is hiding how much disagreement sits underneath it. The four classic ideal body weight formulas — Robinson, Miller, Devine and Hamwi — can differ by ten pounds or more for the same person, and none of them was written to tell an individual what to weigh. They were built for clinical work: estimating drug doses, setting ventilator tidal volumes, standardising research.

So this calculator leads with the thing that is actually defensible: the weight range associated with a healthy BMI at your height, adjusted for your body frame size. The four formulas are still shown, side by side, as context — because seeing how far apart they land is the most honest illustration of how approximate this whole exercise is.

The Four Formulas, and Why They Disagree

All four share one structure — a base weight at 5 feet, plus a fixed amount for every inch above it — and differ only in their constants:

  • Robinson (1983) — men: 52 kg + 1.9 kg per inch over 5 ft. Women: 49 kg + 1.7 kg per inch.
  • Miller (1983) — men: 56.2 kg + 1.41 kg per inch. Women: 53.1 kg + 1.36 kg per inch.
  • Devine (1974) — men: 50.0 kg + 2.3 kg per inch. Women: 45.5 kg + 2.3 kg per inch.
  • Hamwi (1964) — men: 48.0 kg + 2.7 kg per inch. Women: 45.5 kg + 2.2 kg per inch.

Hamwi came first, written on a napkin-simple rule for dietitians. Devine adapted it for drug dosing and became the version most clinical software still uses. Robinson and Miller were both attempts, published in the same year, to fit real population data better than Devine did. Miller adds the least per inch, so the taller you are the further it drifts from the other three.

Below 5 feet, the per-inch term is subtracted. A 4'10" result is the base weight minus two inches' worth. This calculator does that rather than quietly clamping to the 5-foot value the way some tools do — but it is an extrapolation, because none of the four was ever fitted on adults under 5 ft. At those heights the BMI range is the figure to trust.

Body Frame Size: The Input Everyone Publishes and Nobody Uses

Two people of the same height can carry meaningfully different amounts of skeleton, and a heavier skeleton means more weight at the same body composition. The standard proxy is wrist circumference, on the reasoning that a wrist carries almost no fat and very little muscle, so what you are measuring is mostly bone.

WhoSmall frameMedium frameLarge frame
Women under 5'2"under 5.5 in5.5 – 5.75 inover 5.75 in
Women 5'2" to 5'5"under 6 in6 – 6.25 inover 6.25 in
Women over 5'5"under 6.25 in6.25 – 6.5 inover 6.5 in
Menunder 6.5 in6.5 – 7.5 inover 7.5 in

Most ideal weight calculators print this table and then ignore it completely. This one feeds it into the result: enter a wrist measurement and the healthy range shifts by roughly 10% in the appropriate direction, and the page tells you which classification it used. It is a rough correction built on a rough proxy — but a rough correction that is applied beats a precise-looking table that changes nothing.

Why Children and Teenagers Need a Different Method

The four adult formulas have no age term at all. Feed them a 12-year-old's height and they return an adult's weight, which is both meaningless and potentially harmful. A growing body has a different healthy weight at every age, and the reference used by paediatricians is the CDC BMI-for-age growth chart: broadly, the 5th to the 85th percentile for the child's exact age and sex.

If you enter an age under 18, this calculator switches to that basis automatically, labels it clearly on the page, and shows no formula results at all. Even then, treat it as orientation only. Children grow in bursts, at wildly different times, and a paediatrician plotting an individual growth curve over several visits learns far more than any single calculation can tell you.

What These Numbers Cannot See

Body composition. BMI is weight against height and nothing else. A muscular person can land above the range with very low body fat; someone inside it can have a high fat proportion and little muscle. If composition matters to you, a body fat estimate tells you more than any weight figure.

Pregnancy and breastfeeding. Nothing on this page applies. Weight gain in pregnancy is expected and is tracked against pre-pregnancy weight by a midwife or doctor.

Age and ancestry. Older adults lose muscle, bone density and a little height, all of which move BMI without any change in health. Several health bodies also use a lower overweight threshold for people of South Asian and East Asian ancestry.

Medical conditions and medication. Thyroid disorders, fluid retention, oedema, amputation, and many common medications all shift weight in ways no height-based formula can account for.

Why Trust This Calculator?

Transparency: every formula, constant and threshold used is printed on this page. Nothing is hidden behind a single headline number.

Honesty about limits: the adult formulas are switched off under 18, extrapolation below 5 ft is labelled as extrapolation, and the frame adjustment is described as the rough correction it is.

Privacy: nothing is stored or sent anywhere. The calculation runs entirely in your browser.

Not medical advice: these are population-level reference figures. They are not a target, and your own healthy weight is a conversation for you and a doctor or registered dietitian.

Frequently Asked Questions

For an adult man of 5'0" (152.4 cm), a BMI between 18.5 and 24.9 corresponds to roughly 95 to 127 lb, or 43 to 57.8 kg. That is a population-level reference band rather than a personal target: it takes no account of muscle mass, body composition, pregnancy or any medical condition, and plenty of healthy people sit outside it. Your own healthy weight is something to discuss with a doctor.

For a 5'0" male the four classic ideal-body-weight formulas give Robinson (1983) 115 lb (52 kg), Miller (1983) 124 lb (56.2 kg), Devine (1974) 110 lb (50 kg) and Hamwi (1964) 106 lb (48 kg) - a spread of 18 lb between the highest and lowest. They were designed for medication dosing and clinical estimates, not as personal weight goals.

Frame size is estimated from wrist circumference relative to height. For men the standard chart treats a wrist under 6.5 in (16.5 cm) as a small frame, 6.5 to 7.5 in as medium, and over 7.5 in as large; the published men's chart was only ever given for heights over 5'5", so the same cut points are used at every male height here. A small frame shifts the range down by about 10%, to 85-115 lb, and a large frame shifts it up by about 10%, to 104-140 lb. A medium frame keeps the 95-127 lb band. The wrist chart is a rough proxy for skeletal size, not a measurement of body composition.

It is a statistical reference point, not a medical goal. The four formulas on this page were written in the 1960s to 1980s, mostly to standardise medication dosing and clinical estimates, and they return a single number for a given height and sex. Nothing about that number was designed to tell an individual what to weigh, which is why this calculator leads with a healthy range drawn from BMI instead.

Because a range is the honest answer. Four widely used formulas can disagree by ten pounds or more at the same height, and none of them is more "correct" than the others. The healthy BMI band of 18.5 to 24.9 covers the weights associated with the lowest population-level health risk at a given height, so it is shown as the headline and the four single-number formulas are shown underneath as context.

Weight equals BMI multiplied by height in metres squared. At a BMI of 18.5 and again at 24.9, that gives the bottom and top of the band. For example at 1.68 m the range runs from about 52 kg to about 70 kg. The calculator does the conversion to pounds for you and applies a frame-size adjustment if you have entered a wrist measurement.

They share a structure - a base weight at 5 ft plus a fixed amount for every inch above it - and differ only in their constants. Devine (1974) was written for drug dosing and is still the one most clinical software uses. Hamwi (1964) is the oldest and gives the widest spread between the sexes. Robinson (1983) and Miller (1983) were both attempts to fit real population data better than Devine did. Miller adds the least per inch, so it drifts furthest from the others at extreme heights.

They subtract. Every one of these formulas is written as a base weight at 5 ft plus a per-inch term, and below 5 ft that term goes negative - so a 4'10" result is the base minus two inches' worth of weight. This calculator does that rather than clamping to the 5 ft value, because clamping would give a visibly wrong answer. It is still an extrapolation: none of the four formulas was fitted on adults under 5 ft, so below that height the BMI range is the figure to trust.

Wrap a tape measure around the smallest part of your wrist, just below the wrist bone on the hand side, snug but not tight. Use your dominant hand. The measurement is a rough proxy for skeletal size, on the reasoning that wrists carry very little fat or muscle, so what you are measuring is mostly bone.

It changes the reference range, yes. Two people of the same height can differ meaningfully in skeletal mass, and a heavier skeleton means more weight at the same body composition. The convention used here shifts the band by about 10% in each direction for a small or large frame. It is a rough correction based on a rough proxy - useful for context, not a precise adjustment.

Historical accident, mostly: the wrist-to-frame chart was published alongside the Metropolitan Life height-weight tables and got copied forward as a piece of trivia rather than as an input. This calculator actually feeds it into the result, so if you enter a wrist measurement the range you see is the frame-adjusted one and the page says which classification it used.

Because a growing body has a different healthy weight at every age, and the adult formulas have no age term at all. For anyone under 18 the healthy range depends on where the child falls on the CDC BMI-for-age growth charts for their exact age and sex - broadly, the 5th to the 85th percentile. If you enter an age under 18 the calculator switches to that basis and labels it clearly. Growth is genuinely individual, so a paediatrician plotting a child's own growth curve over time is far more informative than any single calculation.

Not well. BMI is weight against height and knows nothing about what the weight is made of, so a muscular person can land in the "overweight" band with very low body fat. The same limitation runs the other way: someone within the healthy band can carry a high proportion of fat and low muscle. If body composition matters to you, a body fat estimate or a DEXA scan tells you far more than any height-weight figure.

It is less useful with age. Adults lose muscle and bone density over time and often lose a little height, all of which shift BMI without any change in health. Some research suggests a slightly higher BMI is associated with better outcomes in older adults than the standard band implies. Treat the range on this page as broad orientation and defer to a clinician who knows your history.

Yes. The WHO notes that people of South Asian, Chinese and some other Asian ancestries tend to face metabolic risk at lower BMI values, and several health bodies use a lower overweight threshold - often around 23 - for those populations. The 18.5 to 24.9 band used here is the general international standard and is not adjusted for ancestry.

No. Weight gain in pregnancy is expected, is monitored against pre-pregnancy weight, and follows guidance specific to each trimester. Nothing on this page applies during pregnancy or breastfeeding. Your midwife or doctor tracks the figures that matter here.

Where a change is clinically appropriate, roughly 1 to 2 lb (0.5 to 1 kg) a week is the rate most health services describe as sustainable, which is why the weeks estimate on this page uses 1 lb a week. Faster loss tends to come disproportionately from muscle and water and is harder to maintain. Whether a change is appropriate at all is a medical question, not a calculator one.

Not by itself. The range describes where population-level risk is lowest; it says nothing about any particular person. Blood pressure, blood glucose, lipids, fitness, sleep, diet quality and family history all matter more to health outcomes than a single number on a scale. If you are worried about your weight in either direction, that is a good reason to talk to a doctor rather than to a calculator.

The BMI calculator gives you the index itself for any height and weight, the body fat calculator estimates composition rather than mass, and the calorie calculator estimates daily energy needs. Together they give a fuller picture than an ideal weight figure alone, which is a single number derived from height and sex and nothing else.

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Healthy weight range
95–127 lb
View Breakdown