Body Frame Size Calculator
This body frame size calculator tells you whether you have a small, medium or large frame from your height and the circumference of your wrist. Frame size is a simple way to describe the size of your skeleton, and it matters because two people of the same height can carry very different amounts of bone and muscle: a large frame naturally weighs more than a small one, so knowing your frame helps set a realistic healthy weight range rather than a single number that suits nobody. The calculator uses the height to wrist ratio method, which divides your height by your wrist circumference and compares the result against standard bands. A higher ratio means a slimmer, smaller frame for your height, while a lower ratio points to a larger frame. The bands are different for men and women because women tend to have finer wrists at the same height. Measure your wrist at its narrowest point, just below the wrist bone where a watch sits, and enter it in centimetres along with your height. The result gives you a quick, tape-measure estimate you can use to adjust ideal weight targets from our other tools. It is a rough guide to skeletal size only: it does not measure body fat, fitness or health, so read it alongside measures like BMI, waist size and body fat percentage.
A height to wrist ratio of 10.6 places you in the medium frame range for women. Frame size is a rough guide used to fine-tune healthy weight ranges.
Frame size estimates skeletal size only; it does not measure body fat or health. Bands follow the standard height to wrist ratio method. Estimate only.
How it works
The calculator divides your height by your wrist circumference, using the same units for both so the ratio is a plain number. That ratio is then compared against standard bands. For women, a ratio above 11 is a small frame, 10.1 to 11 is medium, and below 10.1 is large. For men, a ratio above 10.4 is small, 9.6 to 10.4 is medium, and below 9.6 is large. Men and women use different bands because, at the same height, women generally have finer wrists, so the same ratio maps to a different frame size.
Worked example
Say you are a woman who is 165 cm tall with a wrist circumference of 15.5 cm. Dividing 165 by 15.5 gives a ratio of about 10.6. For women, 10.6 sits in the 10.1 to 11 band, so that is a medium frame. If your wrist were 14 cm instead, the ratio would rise to about 11.8, above 11, which is a small frame, and a 17.5 cm wrist would drop the ratio to about 9.4, below 10.1, which is a large frame.
Related calculators
- Ideal Weight Calculator: a healthy weight range for your height.
- BMI Calculator: body mass index from height and weight.
- Body Fat Percentage Calculator: estimate your body fat.
- Waist to Hip Ratio Calculator: another quick body shape measure.
- Density of a Cylinder Calculator: mass, Volume and Density.
- Diagonal of a Rectangle Calculator: length, Width to Diagonal.