The meaning of "ideal weight" varies among groups ranging from insurance carriers to modeling agents. Even doctors and dietitians do not have a consensus on one standard for everyone. The ideal weight for any individual is the one at which they look and feel their best and are at the lowest risk for health-compromising conditions.
Life Insurance Tables
The initial ideal weights, obtained from life insurance tables, used weights at which people lived the longest. These charts were being used as recently as the 1980s for determining the nation's dietary guideline reports, according to an article in the "Journal of Nutrition" that summarizes how healthy weights have been determined over the years.
Hamwi Method
Dietitians have traditionally used a method based on gender, height and body frame to calculate ideal weights. The Hamwi formula for women is 100 lbs. for 5 feet tall, plus 5 lbs for each additional inch of height. For example, a woman who is 5 feet 4 inches tall has an ideal weight of 120 lbs. There is 10 percent leeway above and below this number, making the range 108 to 132 lbs. For males, the formula is 106 lbs at 5 feet tall and 6 lbs for each additional inch. This method is still employed for calculating doses of some pharmaceuticals.
Total Weight Versus Fat Weight
Two people can weigh the same number of pounds with one having quite a higher percentage of body fat. In the discussion for Healthy People 2010, a national health promotion and disease prevention initiative, experts are looking to base definitions of overweight on the amount of excess body fat present. As of 2009, there are no specific guidelines for how much fat is too much. However, it is known that excess body fat, not weight alone, is what contributes to risk factors for many chronic diseases.
Waist Measurement
Where excess fat is located on the body is actually the main risk for health conditions according to the Weight-control Information Network (WIN). Fat mainly around the waist comes with a higher risk of developing health problems than fat carried more in the hips and thighs. Standards for waist measurement suggest women with a waist measurement of more than 35 inches or men with a waist measurement of more than 40 inches have a higher disease risk than people with smaller waist measurements. For the clinical waist measurement, the tape measure is placed around the abdomen just above the hip bone.
Body Mass Index
The body mass index (BMI) is a formula used to determine the mass of a person based on height and weight. The standard recommendation is to keep BMI below 25 for the lowest risk of chronic diseases. Charts are available online at the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute and the WIN websites. Drawbacks are that BMI can overestimate risk in a very muscular person, or underestimate risk in someone with muscle loss. Used with these considerations in mind, BMI is one of the best guidelines for determining ideal weight.
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