Calculate the current U.S. Army waist-to-height ratio (WHtR) assessment from official height and waist measurements. Army Directive 2026-13 replaced the previous height-and-weight tables and circumference tape body-fat methods with WHtR as the sole Army Body Composition Program assessment.
Current Army WHtR Standard
The Army standard is a recorded WHtR below 0.550. A recorded value of 0.549 passes; 0.550 does not. The official result is recorded to three decimal places by truncating extra digits rather than rounding them.
Formula
WHtR = waist circumference / height. Use the same unit for both values. The calculator uses exact decimal arithmetic and the exact 2.54 cm per inch conversion, then truncates the ratio to three decimal places for the Army comparison.
Official Measurement Context
- Waist circumference is measured at the navel (belly button). Enter the official recorded average waist from DA Form 5500, not one raw tape reading. Each tape reading is rounded down to the nearest half inch in the official process.
- Height is measured in socks and recorded to the nearest half inch. Height and the averaged waist must come from the official Army measurement process for a record assessment.
- A failed initial WHtR measurement requires a same-duty-day confirmation by a different team.
- WHtR does not estimate body-fat percentage, and the former one-site tape equations and age/sex body-fat limits are no longer the Army standard.
How to Use the Result
Use this calculator for planning and to check the arithmetic. Command-recorded measurements, DA Form 5500, ATIS entry, medical exemptions, confirmation measurements, flags, and ABCP actions remain governed by current Army policy.
Sources
Source checked October 20, 2026 against Army Directive 2026-13 and the official measurement guidance. The calculation preserves the exact decimal comparison and discards digits after the third decimal place; it does not substitute a historical body-fat equation.
