soldier's heights and weights

[lojafan]

Re: soldier's heights and weights

According to these posts, I need to do a few extra sit-ups and skip that second helping along with dessert!

[Cove Rebel]

Re: soldier's heights and weights

To get me to these weights I'd have to spend a month in Andersonville! Holy cow I can only dream of being 155 lbs again! But oh what a nice dream!

[talkToTheHat]

Re: soldier's heights and weights

Be very careful making calculations like weight per inch, that doesn't work, Taller people are wider and deeper, not just stretched upwards.

Body Mass Index provides a relationship between weight and height for the same body type, it's what the World Health Organisation use as an indication of obesity but remember it does not differentiate between muscle mass and fat.

In SI units (kilogrammes, metres)

BMI = Weight / (Height^2)

In pounds and inches

BMI = (Weight * 702) / (Height^2)

Our 5'7 137lb average comes in with a BMI of 21.5. The WHO thinks that below 19.5 is an indication of malnutrition and above 25 is an indication of obesity.

The following heights and weights correspond to a BMI of 21.5
Height Weight for BMI=21.5
5'4" 125.27
5'5" 129.21
5'6" 133.22
5'7" 137.29
5'8" 141.42
5'9" 145.61
5'10" 149.86
5'11" 154.17
6'2" 167.47
6'3" 172.03
6'4" 176.65
6'5" 181.33

This is less radical but still gives an indication of how wiry an average soldier must have been. Remember there would have been a natural variation in build, with BMIs ranging from maybe 15 to 30 following a roughly normal distribution.

A high BMI doesn't always imply fat, it can also mean high muscle mass, it should be noted that a large proportion of athletes have a body fat ratio of below 15% but a BMI of more than 25.

Childhood diet is the reason for increase in average height, with better vitamin content (Nikolai Lunin (1881) made the first key discoveries, chemical isolation of vitamins 1909-1941), and decreased incidences of overall food shortages.

This thesis is probably relevant to the matter of diet http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/ava...vilWarDiet.pdf

I have to say I'm more than a bit worried about where this thread might be going, but if reenacting is your own reason for a fitness/weight-loss plan then by all means go ahead, but make sure your targets are realistic and safe.

[508preach]

Re: soldier's heights and weights

Well 3 months into the Army doesnt tell of their weight before they went in. My first 3 months in the military I lost 60 pounds. So at this point we have to take in that these men have lost some weight, and probably alot have lost a substantial amount. They were doing more strenuous work, they had a different diet than in the civilian world, and they were marching everywhere. If this census had been taken at the time of their enlistment I'd give at least a 20 pound difference in weight. Seeing as they were mostly from a higher class that is. MHO

[jones56ga]

Re: soldier's heights and weights

My 5xG. Uncle, A. O. Atkinson, was 21 when he enlisted in Cobbs legion in 61'. In the summer of 63' he writes home: " I am in good health, I suppose my weight to be 175 pounds now". He was right at six feet tall. Now I know he didn't have a bathroom scale on hand, but He could have made a pretty good guess.

As far as a diet, I started counting calories. I am 6'1" and so 2600 + or - per day is my magic number, and ive gone from 265lbs to 185lbs.

[Prodical Reb]

Re: soldier's heights and weights

OK, then based on the two posts above that cite height and weight averages (not the Texans), we find the average weight per inch of height to be 2.04 and 2.10 which yeilds and average of 2.07 pounds per inch of height. Let's see what that looks like:

5' 4" (64") 132.5 lbs.
5' 5" 134.6
5' 6" 136.6
5' 7" 138.7
5' 8" 140.8
5' 9" 142.8
5' 10" 144.9
5' 11" 147.0
6' 0" 149.0
6' 1" 151.1
6' 2" 153.2
6' 3" 155.3
6' 4" 157.3
6' 5" 159.4

OK, unless you're a Texan, if you weigh more than 160 pounds, you're a fatass by Civil War soldier standards. And I thought getting my weight to 155 at 5' 9" was going to be good. Humph! There was a post on the AC years ago, prior to one of the crashes, that had height and weight averages out of a hospital in the south that yielded 2.25 pounds per inch of height. See all of you out jogging!

I don't think that is so bad. Remember back all those years ago when I turned 16 and got my first drivers license; I was 5' 9" and weighed a scale tippin' 143 lbs. 6 years later when I joined the Army in 1987, I was 6' 0" and weighed 165 lbs and had a 28 inch waist in modern jeans. I'll never see that end of the curve again unless the end of civilization as we know it comes about and I'm left as a survivor!

[Kyle O'Brien]

Re: soldier's heights and weights

Sorry to necro an old post but I found this very interesting. Almost all other sources I have seen state the average size and weight of CW soldiers were 5.8 and 143 pounds. I'm 5.8 I have been running for the past 6 months with 140lbs being my goal which I hit 3 weeks ago (im now 138). This was a motivation for both personal reasons and so that I could look the part of a CW soldier in my appearence and not just my uniform.

[hireddutchcutthroat]

Re: soldier's heights and weights

Here is what I looked like at 19 years old 5'8" 135 pounds, occupation machinist.

[Pvt Schnapps]

Re: soldier's heights and weights

I've had some weight loss success this year by avoiding processed foods and cutting my drinking back from toxic to merely excessive.