Are You A Chubby Chubster?

A Nevada professor says he's discovered a new way to calculate a body's "Maximum Weight Limit".

Most health experts use Body Mass Index, or BMI, to determine healthy body weight.

But, calculating BMI involves a complex formula: weight in pounds is multiplied by 703, and then divided by height in inches squared.

(Charts or online calculators are then used to show a "healthy weight range" given an individual's height that corresponds to the "healthy range BMI."

The professor (at the University of Nevada, Reno) decided, "We need a "Maximum Weight Limit, or MWL... "one number that we know we can't go over, just like a speed limit."

He says it's a very simple calculation that most of us can do in our heads".

For men and women, there is a baseline height and weight.

- For men, the baseline is 5-feet, 9-inches tall and a Maximum Weight Limit of 175 pounds, meaning that a 5-foot, 9-inch tall man should weigh no more than 175 pounds.

- For women, the baseline is 5-feet tall and a Maximum Weight Limit of 125 pounds.

- From that starting point, you simply calculate how much taller or shorter you are, in inches.

Then, if you are man, you add or subtract 5 pounds for every inch you are taller or shorter than 5 feet, 9 inches.

(So, if you are 5-feet, 11-inches tall, you are 2 inches taller than the baseline of 5 feet, 9 inches. You add 5 pounds for each of those 2 inches, 10 pounds, to the baseline Maximum Weight Limit of 175. So, your Maximum Weight Limit is 185 (175 pounds plus 10 pounds).

- Women add or subtract 4.5 pounds for each inch they differ from the baseline height of 5-feet tall.

(These Maximum Weight Limits correspond very closely to BMIs of 25.5 for men and 24.5 for women. A BMI of 18.5 to 25 BMI is diagnosed as the "healthy range." He used a slightly lower BMI base for women and a slightly higher one for men because, on average, women have less muscle mass than men.)