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In 1959, the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company published the first set of standard weight charts. The weights were drawn from insurance statistics showing what the healthiest, longest-living people weighed — with clothes on and (for the women) wearing shoes with one-inch heels. The problem? At the time, the class of people with insurance was so small and so narrow that it was hard to say with certainty that their weight could predict healthy poundage for the rest of the population.

Thirty-one years later, the government published the weight chart shown in Table 4-3. This moderate, eminently usable set appeared in the 1990 edition of Dietary Guidelines for Americans (more about the Dietary Guidelines in Chapter 16). The weights in this table are listed in ranges for both men and women of specific heights. Height is measured without shoes, and weight is measured without clothes. Because most people gain some weight as they grow older, the people who compiled these recommendations did a really sensible thing: They divided the ranges into two broad categories, one for people age 19 to 34, the other for those age 35 and older.

TABLE 4-3 How Much Should You Weigh?

Height	Weight (Pounds) for 19- to 34-Year-Olds	Weight (Pounds) for 35-Year-Olds and Older
5’	97–128	108–138
5’1”	101–132	111–143
5’2”	104–137	115–148
5’3”	107–141	119–152
5’4”	111–146	122–157
5’5”	114–150	126–162
5’6”	118–155	130–167
5’7”	121–160	134–172
5’8”	125–164	138–178
5’9”	129–169	142–183
5’10”	132–174	146–188
5’11”	136–179	151–194
6’	140–184	155–199
6’1”	144–189	159–205
6’2”	148–195	164–210
6’3”	152–200	168–216
6’4”	156–205	173–222
6’5”	160–211	177–228
6’6”	164–216	182–234

From Nutrition and Your Health: Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 3rd ed. (Washington D.C.: U.S. Department of Agriculture, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 1990)

Muscle is heavier than fat, so individuals with a small frame and proportionately more fat tissue than muscle tissue are likely to weigh in at the low end. People with a large frame and proportionately more muscle than fat are likely to weigh in at the high end. As a general but by no means invariable rule, that means that women — who have smaller frames and less muscle — weigh less than men of the same height and age.

Later editions of the Dietary Guidelines omitted the higher weight allowances for older people so that the “healthy” weights for everyone, young or old, became the ones listed in 1990 in the column for 19- to 34-year-olds. I’m going to go out on a limb here to say that I prefer the 1990 recommendations because they are

 Achievable without constant dieting

 Realistic about how your body changes as you get older

 Less likely to make you totally crazy about your weight