You’re 5'7". You’ve likely spent a good chunk of your life looking at those height-weight charts in a dusty doctor's office or scrolling through BMI calculators on your phone. It’s a weird height to be. You’re tall enough that five pounds of holiday weight disappears easily, but you're also at that threshold where the "ideal" weight numbers start to look a little intimidating. If you've been searching for the healthy weight 5'7 female range, you've probably seen the number 121 to 158 pounds thrown around.
That's the standard BMI range. It’s also incredibly limited.
Honestly, that 37-pound window is a massive gap. It doesn't account for whether you have the bone structure of a bird or the build of an Olympic powerlifter. It doesn't care if you're 22 or 62. Body composition matters way more than the total mass pushing down on a spring in your bathroom.
The BMI Problem and Why 5'7" is Tricky
BMI is a math equation. It was invented by Adolphe Quetelet, a Belgian statistician, in the 1830s. Note that I said "statistician," not "physician." He wasn't trying to diagnose health; he was trying to find the "average man." When we apply that to a 5'7" woman in 2026, it gets messy.
If you have a lot of muscle, you might clock in at 165 pounds and look lean. According to the chart, you're "overweight." That’s ridiculous. Muscle is much denser than fat. It takes up less space. A 150-pound woman with 20% body fat looks completely different than a 150-pound woman with 35% body fat.
Your frame size—what doctors call "biacromial breadth" and "bi-iliac breadth"—dictates where your weight should actually sit. Some women have wide shoulders and broad hips. They need more mass to support that skeleton. Others have very narrow frames. If you have a larger frame, trying to force your body down to 125 pounds might actually be metabolic suicide. You’d be losing muscle mass just to hit a number that wasn't designed for your skeleton anyway.
What Science Actually Says About Your Heart and Weight
Let's look at the actual data. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) uses BMI as a screening tool, but they admit it’s not a diagnostic tool. For a healthy weight 5'7 female, the focus shouldn't just be on gravity. It should be on metabolic health markers.
Are your triglycerides low? Is your HDL (the "good" cholesterol) high? Where is your blood pressure sitting? These are the "vitals" that matter. A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) found that people in the "overweight" BMI category actually had a lower risk of all-cause mortality than those in the "normal" or "underweight" categories. This is the "obesity paradox," and while it’s debated, it suggests that having a little bit of a buffer—especially as you age—might be protective.
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If you are 5'7" and 165 pounds but you run three times a week and your blood work is pristine, you are likely "healthier" than a 125-pound woman who lives on processed sugar and has high visceral fat. Visceral fat is the real villain. It’s the fat that wraps around your organs. You can't see it in the mirror, but it's what drives insulin resistance.
The Role of Age and Hormones
Life happens.
In your 20s, your basal metabolic rate (BMR) is usually humming along. You might naturally sit at 135 pounds without trying. Then 35 hits. Then 45. Perimenopause enters the chat. Estrogen levels begin to fluctuate and eventually drop, which signals the body to store more fat in the midsection. This isn't a failure of will. It's biology.
A healthy weight for a 50-year-old woman who is 5'7" is almost certainly going to be higher than it was when she was 21. And that's okay. In fact, it’s often necessary for bone density. Adipose tissue (fat) actually produces a small amount of estrogen, which can help protect bones after the ovaries take a backseat. If you're too thin at 5'7" during your post-menopausal years, your risk for osteoporosis and fractures skyrockets.
Body Composition: The Muscle Factor
Stop focusing on being "small." Focus on being strong.
As a 5'7" woman, you have long levers. Your arms and legs are longer than the average person's. This gives you a mechanical advantage in certain movements, but it also means you need more muscle to look "toned." If you just diet down to a low number, you'll likely end up "skinny fat." That's when you have a low weight but a high body fat percentage.
- Bone Density: Lifting heavy things keeps your bones from becoming brittle.
- Metabolic Rate: Muscle burns more calories at rest than fat does.
- Functional Longevity: Can you carry your own groceries? Can you get up off the floor without using your hands? These are the real metrics of a healthy weight.
If you're hitting the gym and the scale goes up two pounds, but your jeans fit better, you're winning. That's the muscle-to-fat shift. Don't let a $20 plastic scale from Target tell you that you're failing when your body is actually getting tighter and more efficient.
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Waist-to-Hip Ratio: A Better Metric
If you want a number to track, grab a tape measure instead of a scale. The Waist-to-Hip Ratio (WHR) is a much better predictor of heart disease and diabetes than BMI.
Basically, measure the narrowest part of your waist and the widest part of your hips. Divide the waist number by the hip number. For women, a ratio of 0.85 or lower is generally considered healthy. This accounts for your shape. If you’re a 5'7" pear shape, you might carry more weight in your thighs and hips. That fat is actually "metabolically subcutaneous," meaning it's mostly harmless compared to the fat stored in the belly.
The Mental Toll of the "Ideal" Weight
We have to talk about the psychological side. Trying to maintain a healthy weight 5'7 female status shouldn't make you miserable. If your "target weight" requires you to skip every social event, obsess over every almond, and feel lightheaded when you stand up, it’s not a healthy weight for you. It’s a prison.
Set points are real. Your body has a weight range it likes to defend. For some 5'7" women, that’s 140. For others, it’s 155. When you try to push below that set point, your brain kicks in with hunger hormones like ghrelin to pull you back up. Chronic dieting can actually lower your BMR, making it harder and harder to maintain that lower weight over time.
Real-World Actionable Steps
Instead of chasing a 130-pound ghost, try these shifts:
1. Prioritize Protein Intake
Aim for about 0.8 to 1 gram of protein per pound of your goal weight. If you want to be a solid 145 pounds, try to get near 140 grams of protein. This keeps you full and protects your muscle tissue while you lose fat.
2. Focus on Performance Goals
Forget the scale for a month. Instead, try to hit a specific fitness milestone. Maybe it's 10 full pushups. Maybe it's walking 10,000 steps a day for 30 days straight. When you focus on what your body can do, the way it looks tends to follow naturally.
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3. Get a DEXA Scan or InBody Test
If you really want the data, get a body composition scan. It will tell you exactly how many pounds of fat, muscle, and bone you have. Seeing that you have 115 pounds of "lean mass" makes it a lot easier to realize why weighing 125 pounds is an unrealistic (and unhealthy) goal.
4. Check Your Sleep and Stress
You can't out-train a lack of sleep. High cortisol from stress tells your body to hold onto belly fat. If you’re 5'7" and "doing everything right" but the weight won't budge, look at your sleep hygiene. Seven to eight hours is non-negotiable for metabolic health.
5. Fiber is Your Best Friend
Most people get about 10-15 grams of fiber. You need 25-30. Fiber feeds the gut microbiome, which regulates how you harvest energy from food. It also keeps your blood sugar stable, preventing the insulin spikes that lead to fat storage.
Final Thoughts on the 5'7" Frame
Being 5'7" is a gift. You have the height to carry weight gracefully and the stature to build incredible functional strength. Don't let a generic chart from the 1800s dictate how you feel about your body today.
A healthy weight 5'7 female is one who is metabolically flexible, physically strong, and mentally at peace with her plate. If you’re eating whole foods, moving your body, and your doctor gives your blood work a thumbs up, the number on the scale is just data. It isn't a grade. It isn't your worth. It's just gravity.
Focus on the inputs—the sleep, the protein, the heavy lifting—and let the output (your weight) settle where it naturally wants to be. Your body is a complex biological system, not a math problem to be solved. Listen to it more than you listen to the calculator.
Next Steps for Your Health Journey:
- Calculate your Waist-to-Hip ratio today to get a baseline of your fat distribution rather than just total weight.
- Schedule a basic metabolic panel with your physician to check your fasted glucose and lipid levels.
- Increase your daily protein by adding 30g to your breakfast to stabilize hunger hormones for the rest of the day.