Ideal Body Weight Using the Post-Op Calculator on This Site

That was the formula back in the 1950's before we learned about BMI. Is someone really pushing it today? People are larger today than they were 70 years ago.

The short answer is no. However, since deal weight for height reference standards such as the Metropolitan Life Insurance Tables from 1959 and 1983 or the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey percentiles are no longer used. The calculation I posted, known as the Hamwi Equation ( Hamwi, 1964 ), is used in health care settings for a quick calculation to provide a rough reference point. It is very flawed. It does not adjust for age, race, or frame size and its validity is questionable. However, because it is so quick to do, it is used widespread in health care settings for a rough reference.

I left a longer explanation in response to another post. To be very clear about what the Hamwi equation or your IBW, is used for is primarily by clinicians and healthcare providers as a rough calculation, often in the context of other anthropomorphic equations or as a rough reference point and very specific situations such as calculating the appropriate tube feed formula for an obese patient who is critically ill.

As I said on my other reply, there are a range of healthy weights and BMIs for every height. For most people, this is not their IBW.

There are several IBW formulas referenced at the site linked to below, including BMI normal range. At 5'3", the formulas other than BMI put IBW at 115-126, with normal BMI at 104-140. BMI gives a broad range to account for differing frames an muscle mass.

https://www.mytecbits.com/tools/medical/ideal-body-weight-ca lculator

The calculation in my post is called The Hamwi Formula. It is the standard formula used to calculate IBW because ideal weight for height reference standards such as the Metropolitan Life Insurance Tables from 1959 and 1983 or the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey percentiles are no longer used. The Hamwi formula does not adjust for age, race, or frame size and its validity is questionable. It is in widespread use by clinicians as a quick method for estimation of ideal weight, usually in the context of other anthropometric calculations or as a rough reference point. Ideal body weight is not the same as appropriate or healthy body weight or BMI.

Please keep that in mind - I want to stress this: IBW is primarily a quick clinical calculation for a rough reference point. Ideal body weight is not necessarily the same as appropriate or healthy body weight or the same as or a correlate to your BMI. You are right, there is a range of healthy weights/BMIs for every height. You can be a healthy weight for your height but be above or below your IBW.

And I do apologize because there was a type-o in my post -- it should have read, "the BMI calculator is accurate BUT the IBW (Ideal Body Weight) numbers are way off." I don't know how that's being calculated, but while my BMI was right to the decimal point, my IBW was off by 28 pounds. IBW is just math; don't take it personally and definitely don't use it as goal or measure for success or failure.

>> IBW is just math; don't take it personally and definitely don't use it as goal or measure for success or failure.

Then why are you telling people how to "correctly" calculate it if the information is basically useless to laypeople like us?

I use a friend of mine as my ideal bodyweight. She is 5'5" tall and fit and slim. She weighs 150 lbs and is probably a similar frame to me.

Of course she thinks she is fat. Go figure.

Good Lord!

I don't know anyone who uses that extinct calculation. This is actually the first time I've heard of it since the 1970s.

General practice doctors certainly don't use it any longer in counseling their patients about weight control. If they refer to anything, they refer to BMI, as do dieticians, nutritionists, bariatric surgeons, trainers. And after the BMI mention there's usually a little lecture about how BMI is a simple calculation based on only height/weight that doesn't take into account the human race's variations on bone structure, musculature, body proportion, fitness levels, age, etc. They also often include a bit about "the skinny fat" folks who don't weigh much, but have very low muscle mass.

So given how much more latitude there is in our culture about which sizes of women and men are now considered healthy, beautiful, or acceptable, I'm surprised to hear anyone using that IBW calculation these days with the balls to call it "Ideal" anything,

BTW, anybody watching music videos these days?! That'll change your mind quickly about what today's Western culture considers "ideal."

FTR, I'm 5'5" and this morning weighed 136.2, which makes me 11.2 pounds "overweight" in terms of IBW tables.

I don't think so. I've seen me at 125. And it ain't pretty.