What should a healthy adult weigh in relation to height or age?

Answer:
There is no absolute answer to what a healthy adult should weigh in relation to height or age. Body weight is a misleading measure. Since people have different builds, different people of the same height and sex can have the same percentage of body fat and yet have different body weights.

What is important is body composition. The reason for this is that muscle weighs more than fat. Therefore, what counts more than your body weight is your percentage of body fat. If you are female, your percentage of body fat should probably be about 15 to 20% for good health. For males the percentage of body fat should probably be about 10 to 15% for good health.

To determine your percentage of body fat at home, obtain some plastic body fat calipers and do a simple skin-fold test. Body fat calipers are not expensive and they are readily available to buy.

For information about the causes of weight gain, or obesity, and how to avoid it, or how to get rid of excess body fat, see the page links, further down this page, listed under Related Questions.
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First answer by Keats. Last edit by Keats. Contributor trust: 4410 [recommend contributor recommended]. Question popularity: 39 [recommend question].
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