So, you’re standing at five-foot-eight. It’s a great height. You’re taller than the average American woman by about four inches, which honestly feels like a superpower when you're trying to reach the top shelf at the grocery store or see over a crowd at a concert. But that extra height complicates things when you step on a scale. Most "standard" weight advice is built for women who are 5'4", and when you try to apply those same rules to a longer frame, the math gets messy.
How much should a 5 8 woman weigh? If you ask a standard BMI chart, it’ll give you a range that feels massive. If you ask a fitness influencer, they might give you a number that sounds dangerously low. If you ask a powerlifter, they'll tell you the scale doesn't matter at all.
The truth is somewhere in the middle. Weight is a tricky metric because it doesn't know the difference between a gallon of water, a dense slab of thigh muscle, or the literal weight of your bones. Let's get into the actual data, the medical standards, and why your "ideal" number might be totally different from the woman standing next to you who is the exact same height.
The medical baseline: What the BMI says
Doctors still lean heavily on the Body Mass Index (BMI). It’s old. It was actually created in the 1830s by a Belgian mathematician named Lambert Adolphe Jacques Quetelet. He wasn't even a doctor; he was a statistician trying to find the "average man." Keep that in mind.
For a woman who is 5'8", the "normal" BMI range—which is a BMI between 18.5 and 24.9—typically falls between 125 and 163 pounds.
That’s a 38-pound gap. It’s huge. Within that range, you could be a distance runner with a very lean build or a woman with a softer, more curvaceous frame, and both would be considered "healthy" by the CDC.
But here is where it gets weird. If you weigh 165 pounds, you are technically "overweight" by BMI standards. Does that mean you're unhealthy? Not necessarily. If you go to the gym and lift weights, that extra weight is probably just muscle. Muscle is significantly more dense than fat. A 165-pound woman with 20% body fat looks completely different than a 165-pound woman with 35% body fat.
Beyond the BMI: The Hamwi Method
Some dietitians prefer the Hamwi formula. It’s a bit more "old school" but specifically accounts for height differently. For women, the rule of thumb is 100 pounds for the first 5 feet of height, plus 5 pounds for every inch after that.
For our 5'8" height:
- Start with 100 lbs.
- Add 40 lbs (8 inches x 5 lbs).
- Result: 140 pounds.
Most practitioners allow for a 10% swing in either direction based on "frame size." If you have tiny wrists and narrow shoulders, you might lean toward 126. If you have a wide ribcage and a broad build, 154 might be your sweet spot.
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Honestly, though, these formulas are just starting points. They don't account for age. They don't account for menopause, which shifts how a woman’s body holds weight. They definitely don't account for the fact that some of us just have heavier skeletons than others.
Why your "frame size" actually matters
Have you ever compared your wrist to a friend's? It sounds like a middle school trend, but it’s actually a legitimate medical way to determine frame size.
Take your thumb and middle finger and wrap them around your opposite wrist. If they overlap significantly, you’ve likely got a small frame. If they just touch, you’re medium. If they don't meet, you’re large-framed.
This matters because a 5'8" woman with a large frame might feel like she's starving herself to hit 135 pounds, whereas a small-framed woman might feel sluggish and heavy at 155. Your bones, organs, and essential tissues—your "fat-free mass"—dictate your floor. You can't diet away bone structure.
The athlete's perspective: Muscle vs. Fat
Let's talk about the "fit" look. Many women at 5'8" look at celebrities or athletes and wonder why they weigh 155 pounds but look "thinner" than someone at 140.
It's the muscle.
Look at professional CrossFit athletes or swimmers. A woman like Katie Ledecky is roughly 6'0", but if we scale that down to a 5'8" athlete, you're looking at someone who likely weighs between 150 and 160 pounds. Why? Because muscle is metabolically active. It’s heavy. It’s dense.
If you are active, forget the 125-pound goal. It's probably not sustainable or healthy for your hormone production. When body fat drops too low—especially for taller women who have more surface area to maintain—you risk losing your period (amenorrhea) or developing bone density issues.
A quick look at body fat percentages
Instead of focusing on the question of how much should a 5 8 woman weigh, many modern health experts suggest looking at body fat percentage:
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- Athletic: 14% to 20%
- Fitness: 21% to 24%
- Average/Acceptable: 25% to 31%
- Obese: 32%+
At 5'8", you can be 160 pounds and 22% body fat, and you will look incredibly "toned." Or you can be 140 pounds and 30% body fat (sometimes called "skinny fat") and actually have higher health risks for things like Type 2 diabetes.
The "Middle Age Spread" and hormonal shifts
If you're 45, you shouldn't be trying to weigh what you weighed at 19. It’s a losing game.
As women age, particularly as they enter perimenopause and menopause, estrogen levels drop. This leads the body to naturally store more fat around the midsection to protect organs and provide a secondary source of estrogen.
At 5'8", a woman in her 50s might find that her "happy weight" has shifted from 145 to 158. And that's okay. In fact, research from the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society suggests that carrying a little extra weight as you age can actually be protective against osteoporosis and can improve survival rates if you face a serious illness.
Thinness is not a synonym for longevity.
Real-world examples: What 5'8" looks like
Let's look at some recognizable figures to get a sense of the range.
- Kendall Jenner: She is roughly 5'10", but her proportions at 5'8" would likely put her in the 125-130 range. This is a very lean, high-fashion model build.
- Rihanna: Often cited around 5'8". Her weight has fluctuated naturally over the years, likely ranging from 135 to 160. She is a prime example of how the same height can look vastly different depending on muscle mass and curves.
- Gal Gadot: Also around 5'10", but for her role as Wonder Woman, she put on significant muscle. A 5'8" version of that "warrior" build would easily sit at 150+ pounds.
The point? There is no one "right" way to be 5'8".
When should you actually worry?
If the scale is just a number, how do you know if you're actually at an unhealthy weight?
Look at your waist-to-hip ratio. This is often a much better predictor of heart health than total weight. Take a tape measure and measure the smallest part of your waist and the widest part of your hips. Divide the waist measurement by the hip measurement.
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For women, a ratio of 0.85 or lower is considered healthy. If your weight is "high" on the scale, but your waist-to-hip ratio is low, you probably have nothing to worry about. You’re just carrying your weight in a way that doesn't put your internal organs under stress.
Also, check your energy.
- Are you constantly tired?
- Is your hair thinning?
- Are you always cold?
These are signs you might be underweight for your height, even if the BMI says you're "perfect."
On the flip side:
- Is your blood pressure creeping up?
- Are your joints hurting?
- Do you get winded climbing one flight of stairs?
These are better indicators that your weight might be putting a strain on your frame, regardless of what the number is.
The psychological trap of the "Goal Weight"
We all have that number in our heads. Maybe it's 135. Maybe it's 145. We think that once we hit that number, everything will click into place.
But weight is fluid. You can gain three pounds overnight just by eating a salty dinner or because your period is starting. If you’re 5'8", your body holds more water than a 5'1" woman. You have more blood, more tissue, more everything. Seeing the scale jump 4 pounds isn't a disaster; it’s just physics.
Practical steps for finding your healthy weight
If you are trying to find where your body "wants" to be, stop looking at the charts for a second. Try these actionable steps instead:
- Get a DEXA scan or a Bioimpedance scale. These aren't perfect, but they give you a better idea of your muscle mass versus your fat mass. If you find out you have 120 pounds of lean mass, trying to weigh 130 pounds is literally impossible without losing muscle and bone.
- Focus on functional strength. Can you carry your own groceries? Can you do a push-up? For a 5'8" woman, having a strong core and back is vital because a longer spine is often more prone to issues.
- Track your "Set Point." Eat intuitively for a month—real, whole foods, but don't starve yourself. Move your body in a way that feels good. Wherever your weight settles without you obsessing over every calorie? That is likely your body’s natural set point.
- Ignore the "Ideal Weight" calculators. They don't know if you're a marathoner or a couch potato. They don't know your genetics. They are averages of averages.
The "ideal" weight for a 5'8" woman is the weight at which she feels strongest, has regular cycles (if pre-menopausal), possesses stable energy levels, and maintains good metabolic markers like blood sugar and cholesterol.
For some, that's 135. For many, it's 155. For some very muscular women, it's 175.
Listen to your body, not the 19th-century mathematician who never met you.