---
title: "Ideal / healthy body-weight range"
method: GET
path: "/calculate/ideal-weight"
tags: ["Energy & macros"]
---

# Ideal / healthy body-weight range

`GET /calculate/ideal-weight`

## Request

- Base URL: `https://myplate.food/api/v1`
- URL: `https://myplate.food/api/v1/calculate/ideal-weight`
- Auth: none declared

Estimated ideal body weight from height and sex via four classic clinical formulas (Devine, Robinson, Miller, Hamwi), plus the healthy-BMI (18.5–24.9) weight band and your current BMI for context. Adult equations: ages 18 to 120. A younger age returns 400; for a child or teenager use myplate-plan or dri, whose energy equations have child forms. Above the healthy-BMI band, ideal_weight also carries firstGoal (the weights 5 to 10% under the current weight, the first goal in the 2013 AHA/ACC/TOS obesity guideline) and adjusted (the Hamwi ideal weight plus 25% of the weight above it). Both are null at or under the band, and in pregnancy and while breastfeeding. weight_loss_withheld gives the reason when they are withheld (pregnancy or lactation).

Cites its source in every response: `source` (the formula + published reference) and `canonical_url` (https://myplate.food/ideal-weight-calculator), plus a `disclaimer`.

## Query parameters

- `age` integer, required
- `sex` 'male' | 'female', required
- `height_cm` number
- `height_ft` number
- `height_in` number
- `weight_kg` number
- `weight_lb` number
- `pregnancy` 'not-pregnant' | '1st-trimester' | '2nd-trimester' | '3rd-trimester'
- `lactation` 'not-lactating' | '0-6-months' | '7-12-months'

## Response `200`

Calculation result with citation envelope.

- CitedResult: Calculation result. Shape varies by endpoint, but every result carries the citation envelope fields below alongside the calculator's own numbers.
  - `calculator` string, required: The endpoint name.
  - `inputs` object: The parsed, normalized inputs the result was computed from.
  - `source` string, required: The formula and published reference behind the number.
  - `canonical_url` string, uri, required: The matching myplate.food page.
  - `disclaimer` string: Present on health calculators.

## Other responses

- `400`: Invalid or missing parameters.

---

[API](https://skmtc.dev/myplate/apis/myplate-food-nutrition-api.md) · [All operations](https://skmtc.dev/myplate/apis/myplate-food-nutrition-api/llms.txt) · [OpenAPI document](https://skmtc.dev/myplate/apis/myplate-food-nutrition-api/revisions/cb7ba731c59b?raw)