What is a healthy weight for someone 5 ft 5 in tall?

A BMI between 18.5 and 24.9 corresponds to roughly 111 to 150 pounds at this height, or 50.4 to 67.9 kilograms — a window about 38 pounds wide. Every weight inside it carries exactly the same verdict from the measure; there is no basis for preferring the middle. On the WHO cut-offs for South and East Asian populations the upper bound falls to about 138 pounds, while the lower bound is unchanged.

How much does one pound move BMI at 5 ft 5 in?

About 0.17 of a BMI point, since one pound is 703 divided by height in inches squared. That means roughly 6 pounds to move a whole point, and it is why a reading within a point of a boundary should be read as near the line rather than on one side of it. The same pound would be worth 0.20 points at five foot and 0.12 at six foot six — the measure is not equally sensitive at every height.

Does the boundary at 25 mean something changes at 25?

No. The thresholds were adopted as round numbers for classifying populations, not discovered as points where anything happens to a body. Nothing is different about a person at 24.9 and the same person at 25.1, and treating the category as a verdict gives the line an authority it was never given. It marks where a closer look might be worth taking, and that is all it was built to do.

Why does BMI misread muscular people?

Because it measures weight against height and nothing else. Muscle is denser than fat, so a trained body weighs more at the same size and reads higher — which is why the measure routinely places athletes in the overweight category and occasionally in the obese one. That is the arithmetic doing exactly what it says, being asked a question it cannot answer. A body fat measurement or a waist circumference answers the real one.

How accurately do I need to measure my height?

More carefully than most people do, because height is squared. An inch of error moves BMI by roughly twice as much as a pound of weight error does. Measure without shoes, standing straight against a wall, and preferably in the morning — most people are around half an inch taller then than in the evening, which is enough to move the number by a couple of tenths.

BMI Calculator for 5'5"

At five foot five, the healthy range is about 111 to 150 pounds. BMI misreads muscle at every height, and it does so slightly more emphatically at shorter ones. Because the range is narrower here, a given amount of added muscle covers more of it — ten pounds of lean tissue is about a quarter of the whole window at thi..

YOUR MEASUREMENTS

WEIGHT (lbs)

lbs

HEIGHT

FEET

INCHES

= 165.1 cm

YOUR RESULTS

BODY MASS INDEX

25.6

Overweight

BMI PRIME

1.02

Normal = 0.74–1.00

HEALTHY WEIGHT RANGE

111 – 150 lbs

Lose 4.4 lbs to reach healthy weight

Above healthy range. Lifestyle changes may reduce health risks.

BMI GAUGE

YOUR POSITION

FULL SUMMARY

BMI25.6

CategoryOverweight

BMI Prime1.02

Healthy range111–150 lbs

Min healthy weight111 lbs

Max healthy weight150 lbs

WHO BMI CATEGORIES

Severely Underweight

< 16.0

Underweight

16.0–18.4

Normal weight

18.5–24.9

Overweight

25.0–29.9

Obese Class I

30.0–34.9

Obese Class II

35.0–39.9

Obese Class III

≥ 40.0

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HOW TO USE

1
The height is already set to 5 ft 5 in, which is 165cm. Change it if that is not yours and everything below recalculates.
2
Enter a weight in whichever units suit you. The two systems give the same answer to about four significant figures — the imperial form uses a rounded conversion constant.
3
Read the range before the category. At this height it spans about 38 lb, and every weight inside it produces the same verdict from the measure.
4
Treat a reading near a boundary as near a boundary. Daily variation in weight and height covers a few tenths of a BMI point on its own.

WORKED EXAMPLE

At 5 ft 5 in — 65 inches, or 165cm — a BMI of 18.5 puts the lower bound at 50.4kg (111 lb) and a BMI of 24.9 puts the upper bound at 67.9kg (150 lb). The window is 17.4kg, or about 38 lb. One pound moves the number by 0.17 of a point, so it takes roughly 6 pounds to cross a whole one. On the WHO 2004 cut-offs for Asian populations the upper bound drops to 62.4kg (138 lb), with the lower bound unchanged.

REFERENCE FORMULAS

FORMULA REFERENCE TABLE

Name	Formula	Description
BMI (Metric)	BMI = weight(kg) / height(m)²	Divide weight in kg by height in metres squared
BMI (Imperial)	BMI = 703 × weight(lbs) / height(in)²	Multiply weight in pounds by 703, divide by height in inches squared
Height in metres	h(m) = h(cm) / 100	Convert centimetres to metres before squaring
BMI Prime	BMI Prime = BMI / 25	Ratio of BMI to upper limit of normal (25). Values >1.00 indicate overweight
Ponderal Index	PI = weight(kg) / height(m)³	More accurate than BMI for very tall or short individuals. Normal: 11–15 kg/m³
Healthy weight	w = BMI × height(m)²	Rearranged BMI formula: weight(kg) for any target BMI at your height

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Last updated: August 2, 2026 · Formula verified by EagleCalculator team · Source: WHO Global Database on Body Mass Index · Eagle-eyed accuracy for every calculation.