Healthy weight calculator
A healthy weight depends on your height. The NHS healthy-weight band is a BMI of 18.5 to 24.9, which FitCalcs converts into a weight range in kilograms for your exact height. Enter your current weight too and it shows how far you sit from the band. BMI is a population screen, not a diagnosis: it does not separate muscle from fat, so very muscular people can sit above the band while still being lean. This is general information, not a medical assessment.
How this is worked out
The NHS healthy-weight band is a BMI of 18.5 to 24.9. Rearranging the BMI formula gives the weight range for your height:
lower kg = 18.5 x (height_m)^2
upper kg = 24.9 x (height_m)^2
Because BMI cannot separate muscle from fat, the NHS pairs it with waist-to-height ratio.
Informational only, not a medical assessment. Editorially reviewed by FitCalcs.
Sources: NHS BMI calculator; NHS: overweight and obesity in adults (BMI bands, lower thresholds for some ethnic groups, muscle and BMI, waist under half your height).
For context, about 64% of adults in England are overweight or living with obesity and 29% live with obesity (NHS Health Survey for England 2022). See the full breakdown by sex and age in the UK fitness and body benchmarks.
Common questions
What is a healthy weight for my height?
It is the weight range that keeps your BMI inside the healthy band for your height. At 1.75 m, for example, that is roughly 57 to 76 kg. Enter your own height above for your range. This is general information, not a medical assessment.
Is BMI accurate for muscular people?
Not reliably. BMI is only weight divided by height squared, so it cannot tell dense muscle from fat. Because muscle is heavier than fat for its size, a lean, strong person can land in the overweight or even obese band while carrying little body fat. The NHS notes that if you have a lot of muscle, BMI can put you in the overweight or obese category even without much body fat.
Is BMI accurate for South Asian people?
The standard BMI bands underestimate weight-related health risk for South Asian and UK Asian people. These groups tend to face higher risks of type 2 diabetes and heart disease at a lower BMI than white European adults, so the NHS uses lower thresholds for them: a BMI of 23 to 27.4 counts as overweight and 27.5 or higher as obese. The same applies to Chinese, other Asian, Middle Eastern, Black African and African-Caribbean backgrounds. This is general information, consult your GP or a registered dietitian about your own risk.
What else should I check besides BMI?
Lean on waist measures too. Keeping your waist under half your height is a simple cross-check that does not depend on ethnicity adjustments, and the NHS recommends using it alongside BMI. Treat a high BMI as a prompt to look closer rather than a verdict.
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Editor, FitCalcs
Oliver Mackman is the named editor of FitCalcs and a director of Best Business Loans Ltd (Companies House 16833937), the company that operates the site. He is accountable for its editorial standards, sourcing and corrections, and requires every result to cite the underlying equation and the named UK source behind it, with health tools carrying the appropriate not-medical-advice caveats.
Last reviewed: 24 September 2026