MO.6: Deep Dive – Comparison of Average and Healthy Weights for Canadian Adults

Approximate reading time: 3 minutes

“Normal” weight is not the same as “healthy” weight. Example: Average Adult Canadian Women’s and Men’s average weight as compared to their healthy weight.

Calculating Average Weights for Adult Canadian Women and Men

In the context of body weight and health, the term “normal weight” is often used to describe a weight range considered statistically average or typical. However, this term can be misleading, as “normal” in a statistical sense refers to what is most common, rather than what is necessarily healthy or optimal. A more appropriate term would be “healthy weight”, which focuses on the health implications rather than the statistical frequency.

To illustrate this point, let’s consider the average weights and heights of Canadian adults, and compare these to the recommended Body Mass Index (BMI) ranges. For Canadian women, the average weight is 68.9 kg (Adhikari, 2016). Assuming an average height of 1.62 meters (Statistics Canada, 2015), this translates to a BMI of approximately 26.2 kg/m², which is at the higher end of the recommended BMI range of 21-27 kg/m² for women (Willett et al., 1995). Similarly, for Canadian men, the average weight is around 77 kg (Williamson, 1993). With an average height of 1.77 meters (Statistics Canada, 2015), this results in a BMI of about 24.6 kg/m², aligning with the upper limit of the recommended BMI range for men, which varies with age (Yi et al., 2015).

These figures suggest that the average weight of Canadian adults, while “normal” in a statistical sense, is closer to the upper boundary of what is considered a healthy BMI. This observation underscores the importance of distinguishing between what is common and what is healthy. The term “healthy weight” more accurately reflects the weight range associated with the lowest health risks, as opposed to “normal weight”, which merely reflects an average or typical weight in a given population.

This exercise in rough calculations is our way of proving that the use of the term “healthy weight” over the usual “normal weight”we see in psychological and medical publications is not just a semantic distinction but a necessary shift to emphasise health and well-being over statistical norms. This change in terminology can encourage a more health-focused perspective on weight, aligning public health messaging with health outcomes rather than statistical averages.