Is 128 pounds for a 13-year old girl is 5'5 average?

Answer 1

OK, your daughter's (I'm assuming) height is between the 75th and 90th centile for age. This means that she is as tall as or taller than between 675 and 90% of girls her age. This is good. Her weight is approximately on the 75th centile for age. That means she is as heavy as or heavier than 75% of girls her age. This is OK, especially keeping in mind that she is taller than most girls too. The most widespread and accepted method we have of monitoring if someone is overweight or not is BMI or Body Mass Index. Your daughter's BMI is calculated by dividing her weight (in Kilograms) by the square of her height (in meters), so wt= 128lb = 58.06Kg ht= 5'5" = 1.65 m so BMI = 58.06/(1.651 x 1.651) = 21.3 for children under 18 yrs, it is important to correlate BMI to age, and this shows that your daughter is approximately in the 75th centile, i.e. her BMI is as high as or higher than 75% of girls her age, which is a healthy BMI. It is important to remember that your daughter is approaching the business end of puberty, and while you may think she is overweight, some (but not excessive) "puppy fat" is normal, especially before she has her pubertal growth spurt. If you would like to continuously monitor her height, weight and BMI, I have included links to printable growth charts from the CDC. Monitoring growth in this way can be a good idea, but it is important not to emphasise being 'skinny' or making her think she is 'fat', as this would teach her to obsess over her weight and is a risk factor for anorexia and bulimia. Hope this helps! Aj :) Weight/Height http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhanes/growthcharts/set2clinical/cj41c072.pdf BMI http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhanes/growthcharts/set2clinical/cj41c074.pdf