Healthy Weight by Height

Learn how to identify your HEALTHY WEIGHT by height, BMI, waist to hip ratio, and waist to height ratio.

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A few months ago, I read the book called Thin Within by Judy Halliday. It is a wonderful book that teaches about getting people to their God given size. In essence, God created each of us and our bodies have a specific weight that each of us should maintain to be healthy. She gives wonderful tips on how to get to our ideal weight, but still appreciating our bodies even if you aren’t there yet. I highly recommend this book!

Every body is different, there is no ideal weight that fits everybody across the board and boy am I relieved about that!

If I was told a woman aged 31 should weigh 1s0 lbs. I would be so discouraged and think there ain’t no way. As a 5 foot 9 inch woman, 120 pounds would not be my healthy weight.

Thankfully there are other measures that tell me what my healthy weight is EXACTLY for me!

Why it is Important to be at your healthy weight

As a woman who has been overweight her whole life, I am passionate about this topic. There are so many health benefits to being at a healthy weight.

Yes, I long for the day when I have my dream body, but we are not talking about aesthetics here. We are talking about a HEALTHY weight. Our healthy weight is for just that, being healthy.

The truth is, our bodies do not perform as well when we are overweight. Actually, being overweight and having excess fat can increase risks for health conditions such as:

• Obesity
• Type 2 diabetes
• High blood pressure
• Heart disease

Ways to Assess Healthy Weight

The scale is the tool that we use to measure weight, but how much should you weigh based on your height? Are you overweight, underweight, or at a healthy weight?

There are a few different ways that we are going to discuss here.

• BMI
• Waist to Hip ratio
• Waist to Height ratio
• Body fat percentage

What is BMI?

BMI stands for Body Mass Index and is the most common way to analyze if somebody is at a healthy weight for their height. You can find your BMI using this calculator.

Once you find your BMI, use the chart below to see which category you fall under.

<18.5	underweight
18.5-24.9	healthy weight
25-29.9	overweight
30+	obese

What is the problem with BMI?

BMI is a very simple system to measure the “average body size”. However, every body type is different. It does not take into account muscle mass and fat distribution.

For example, Athletes have a tendency to be high on the BMI charts due to their muscle mass. Even though they have little body fat, they still register high on the BMI chart. This does not mean they are unhealthy or overweight. 

BMI alone is not a great indicator for healthy weight.

Waist to Height Ratio (WtHR)

I had never heard of WtHR (waist to height ratio) until recently when I started researching healthy weights. This measurement is going to tell you if you have a healthy fat distribution based on your height.

It is actually very simple.

1. Measure your waist circumference using a sewing tape measure. If you don’t have one, use a string to measure your waist and then lay it down. Use a regular tape measure to measure the length of the string. If you don’t know how, here is a great tutorial.
2. Divide your waist by your height in inches. (Or use this online calculator.)

For example, if your waist is 30 inches and your height is 62 inches, your WHR would be .48 and you would be considered healthy, barely 🙂

I absolutely LOVE this measurement system!

Classification	Adult Women	Adult Men
Extremely Slim	< 0.34	< 0.34
Slim	0.35-0.41	0.35-0.42
Healthy	0.42-0.48	0.43-0.52
Overweight	0.49-0.53	0.52-0.57
Very Overweight	0.54-0.57	0.58-0.62
Obese	>0.58	>0.63

Waist to Hip Ratio (WHR)

It is a measure that shows where on your body you carry excess fat. Use this measurement to see of you are at a higher risk of getting certain diseases.

How to get your WHR

• Measure your waist at the smallest point.
• Measure your hips at the widest part.
• Divide your waist number by your hip number or use this calculator.

Women	Men	Health Risk
0.80 or lower	0.95 or lower	Low health risk
0.81-0.84	0.96-1.0	Moderate risk
0.85 or higher	1.0 or higher	High risk

The idea here is that your waist should be smaller than your hips. This type of fat location is related to a higher chance of getting heart disease and type 2 diabetes. 

Women with a ratio of 0.8 or below (men are 0.95 or below) are considered pear shaped bodies and have lower risks of developing heart disease, type 2 diabetes and some cancers.

Women with a ratio of 0.85 or above (men are 1.0 or above)are considered to have apple shaped bodies. Fat tends to gather around the middle of the body and they have a high risk of type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and some cancers.

In conclusion

Use all of these measures to get a good picture of your overall health. If you are seeing that all of your measures are showing that you are overweight, start making a few changes. Your health depends on it!