According to Dr. Steven Halls, medical director of St. Mary's Hospital in Alberta, Canada, the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company initially conceived of the idea of an ideal or desirable weight in 1943 to identify people with the lowest mortality rates. Over the years, Americans adopted the concept, not always with an accurate understanding of how to apply it. In the 21st century, there are several different ways of calculating your ideal weight, not all of them involving pounds, and most are more indicative of good health than Met Life's original 1943 height and weight tables.
Body Frame
Bone as well as fat contributes to the weight of your body. If you are large-boned, you will weigh more than someone else of the same height who is not. The Nutrition and Food Web Archive, or NAFWA, uses the Hamwi formula to calculate weight by frame. According to NAFWA, a small-framed woman who stands five feet one inch tall should weigh approximately 95 lbs., a medium-framed woman should weigh approximately 105 lbs., and a large-framed woman should weigh about 115 lbs. A small-framed man should weigh approximately 101 lbs. at this height, a medium-framed man should weigh about 112 lbs., and a large-framed man should way about 118 lbs.
To measure your frame, Met Life indicates that you should place a finger on either side of your elbow with your arm upright. The distance between your fingers should be between 2¼ inches and 2½ inches for a medium-framed woman who is 5 feet 1 inch. If the space is any less than that, you are small-boned, and if it is any more than that, you are large-boned.
Body Mass Index
According to Rush University Medical Center, the best indication of whether or not you are at your ideal weight, no matter how tall you are, is your body mass index, or BMI. Your BMI registers bone and muscle to fat. The higher the number, the more likely it is that you are overweight and the greater the danger to your health. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC, indicates that your BMI should be between 18.5 and 24.9. Over 30 is obese. Many websites, including that of the CDC, offer BMI calculators, into which you can plug in your pertinent information and find out your results.
Waist Circumference
The CDC also suggests that the weight you're carrying around your waist is more critical than how much you weigh overall. Regardless of their height, men should have a waist circumference of less than 40 inches and women should have one less than 35 inches if they are not pregnant. If your waist measures any more than that, you are most likely not at your best weight, and you may be at risk for coronary artery disease, high blood pressure, or type 2 diabetes.
Miscalculations
Halls indicates that most people don't realize that, for chart purposes, your height is actually one inch more than you stand in your bare feet. Most insurance company charts -- not just Met Life's -- assume that you are wearing 1-inch heels. They also generally do not apply to anyone under 25 years of age or the elderly.
Average Statistics
Rush University Medical Center is more generous toward men than the Hamwi formula. The University indicates that a man of average bone structure should weigh between 101 and 123 lbs. if he is 5 feet 1 inch tall. A woman of the same height should weigh 6 to 7 lbs. less, or 95 to 116 lbs.
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