Human weight

Weight in measuring human body weight in the medical sciences and in sports is a measurement of mass, expressed in units of mass such as kilograms (kg) or pounds (lb). In Britain, the stone (14 lb = 6.35 kg) is still common for this purpose as well.

Related Topics:
Body weight - Mass - Kilogram - Pound - Stone

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The average weight for male adults in the United States is about 76 to 83 kg (168 to 183 lb). The average weight for male teenagers in the United States is about 45 to 64 kg (99 to 141 lb). For female adults the average weight is 54 to 64 kg (120 to 140 lb). For female teenagers the average weight is 45 to 57 kg (100 to 126 lb). Weight is of course related to height, so people taller than average tend to be heavier as well.

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Human body weight is important in connection with:

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• normal and abnormal growth and development
• the physiological and hormonal control of ingestion and digestion
• hunger and other motivations to eat
• problems in regulating body weight, often resulting in obesity
• eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa
• effects of disease
• leveling the playing field in various sports such as boxing, wrestling, and judo by classifying participants according to their weight

Note that textbooks in fields such as physics and engineering often use the term weight to mean the force exerted on an object due to gravity, and often express body weight in force units such as newtons and pounds force, this refers to mass multiplied by the gravity of the planet. In medicine, sports and other everyday terms weight refers to the mass of the body rather than its physics meaning.

Related Topics:
Physics - Engineering - Weight - Force - Newton - Pounds force

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Human weight: See also ►