Body Shape Calculator – Hourglass, Pear, Apple or Rectangle?
Three tape measurements — bust, waist and hips — are all it takes to place your proportions in one of seven classic fit categories. What makes this page different is that the rule list is printed in full below: your shape is worked out by seven written rules, checked in order, and you can retrace exactly which rule claimed you and by how many inches. Shapes here are styling categories, nothing more — a way to talk about proportions when you are choosing cuts and fits, never a grade for a body.
Your measurements
🔒 Private by design: the whole calculation runs in this page. Your numbers are never sent anywhere.
Your body shape
Your bust and hips sit level with each other and your waist drops a full 10 inches below both — the balance the classic hourglass is named for.
Matched rule 1 of 7 — first match winsThe differences your shape was read from
Balanced bust and hips, a clearly defined waist
Your bust and hips are in near balance and your waist is distinctly narrower — at least 9 inches below your bust. Clothing cut to follow a natural waist — wrap fronts, belts, fitted bodices — tends to sit the way it was drafted on this frame. Nothing about the shape needs fixing; it is simply the proportion the fashion industry built its classic fit model on.
Method: the seven-rule list printed in full below, checked in order, first match wins. All differences are computed in inches; centimetres are converted at exactly 2.54 cm per inch before the rules run. The waist-to-hip bands are the World Health Organization’s descriptive bands for women.
- Seven written rules, checked in order: the first rule your numbers satisfy is your shape, and if none of the first six fits, the answer is rectangle.
- Your waist-to-hip ratio is waist divided by hips, read against the WHO descriptive bands: low at 0.80 or below, 0.81–0.85 in the middle, high at 0.86 or above.
- Borderlines matter: the guide shows how one inch can change the answer, so re-check the tape before trusting a close call.
- The seven rules, printed in full
- Keep exploring
- How your shape is worked out, in three steps
- The rules in the open, with two worked examples
- Going deeper
- Seven cases, one per rule: run the list yourself
- Borderlines: how one inch changes the answer
- What a shape does not tell you
- Same shape, different bodies: why size still matters
- Measuring in centimetres
- Frequently asked questions
The seven rules, printed in full
This is the entire method — nothing is hidden behind the result. The calculator works out four differences from your measurements, then checks these rules in order. The first rule your numbers satisfy is your shape; if none of the first six fits, the answer is rectangle. Your row is highlighted.
| # | Shape | The rule (all differences in inches) | What it describes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hourglass | Bust no more than 1 above hips, and hips less than 3.6 above bust, and waist at least 9 below bust or 10 below hips | Balanced top and bottom, defined waist |
| 2 | Bottom hourglass | Hips 3.6 to 10 above bust, and at least 9 above waist | Fuller hips, still a defined waist |
| 3 | Top hourglass | Bust more than 1 and less than 10 above hips, and at least 9 above waist | Fuller bust, still a defined waist |
| 4 | Apple / Oval | Waist within 2 of — or wider than — both the bust and the hips | The midsection is the fullest part |
| 5 | Pear / Triangle | Hips at least 3.6 above bust, and less than 9 above waist | Hips widest, a softer waist |
| 6 | Inverted triangle | Bust at least 3.6 above hips, and less than 9 above waist | Bust widest, a softer waist |
| 7 | Rectangle | None of the rules above matches | A naturally straight line |
Your waist-to-hip ratio, on the WHO bands
Your ratio is your waist divided by your hips. Health researchers use it as one rough marker among many; the bands below are the World Health Organization’s descriptive bands for women.
Your ratio of 0.72 sits in the low band (0.80 or below). These bands describe population-level patterns from large studies — they are not a diagnosis, and they say nothing about how a body looks.
The seven shapes at a glance
Hourglass
Bust and hips in balance, waist clearly defined.
Bottom hourglass
Hips fuller than bust, waist still defined.
Top hourglass
Bust fuller than hips, waist still defined.
Apple / Oval
The midsection is the fullest part.
Pear / Triangle
Hips the widest point, waist softer.
Inverted triangle
Bust the widest point, waist softer.
Rectangle
Bust, waist and hips close together — a straight line.
Keep exploring
BMI Calculator
The weight-for-height index doctors use as a first screen — a different lens on the same body.
📏Body Fat Calculator
Estimate your body fat percentage from measurements, including the US Navy tape method.
🎯Ideal Weight Calculator
The classic height-based weight ranges from four published formulas, side by side.
How your shape is worked out, in three steps
Measure three places
Bust at its fullest, waist at its natural narrowest, hips at their fullest — tape snug, level, and not pulled tight. Measure twice and use the second reading.
Run the printed rules
Four differences are worked out in inches — bust against hips, and each against the waist. The seven rules above are checked in order and the first match wins.
Read the shape, keep the numbers
You get the category, the exact rule that matched, the differences that decided it, and your waist-to-hip ratio — so a borderline result shows you its border.
The rules in the open, with two worked examples
Here is this page’s default example walked through the list — bust 36, waist 26, hips 36. The differences are: bust − hips = 0, hips − bust = 0, bust − waist = 10, hips − waist = 10.
| Rule checked | Test | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 1 — Hourglass | Bust within 1 of hips (0), hips − bust 0 is under 3.6, bust − waist 10 is at least 9 | Match — Hourglass |
And a second example, because it shows why the order matters — bust 34, waist 32, hips 40. The differences are: hips − bust = 6, hips − waist = 8, bust − waist = 2. Rule 1 fails (hips − bust 6 is not under 3.6). Rule 2 fails (hips − waist 8 is under 9 — the waist is not defined enough for a bottom hourglass). Rule 3 fails. Rule 4 fails: the waist, 32, is within 2 of the bust but a full 6 below the hips, so the midsection is not the fullest part here. Rule 5 matches — hips at least 3.6 above bust, and less than 9 above waist — so the shape is Pear.
Why the apple rule asks about both bust and hips
An apple or oval shape means the midsection is the fullest part of the frame. A waist can sit close to the bust for two very different reasons — a genuinely full middle, or simply wide hips below a smaller top half. Only the first is an apple. So rule 4 on this page requires the waist to sit within 2 inches of (or beyond) both the bust and the hips before it applies. Where a wide-hipped figure’s waist is near the bust but well below the hips, the honest label is pear — as in the worked example above.
Assumptions, printed rather than buried
- First match wins. The rules are checked in the printed order. Several pairs can never match at once — an hourglass needs the waist at least 9 inches below the bust, an apple needs it within 2 — but where rules do overlap, the earlier one decides. An apple check comes before the inverted-triangle check, so a full midsection over narrower hips is read as apple.
- All differences are computed in inches. Centimetres are converted at exactly 2.54 cm per inch before the rules run, and the rules use the unrounded differences; only the displayed numbers are rounded, to one decimal.
- The waist-to-hip bands are the WHO women’s bands — 0.80 or below, 0.81 to 0.85, 0.86 or above — published as descriptive population-level groupings, not personal cut-offs.
- Shapes are fit and styling categories from the clothing world. They are not health grades and not a ranking of bodies; two neighbouring shapes often differ by a single inch at a single measurement.
- Measuring conditions matter. The rules assume a tape over thin clothing, standing relaxed. Bulky layers, a held breath, or a tape riding up at the back can each move a reading by half an inch or more — enough to flip a genuinely borderline result.
- Accepted range: each measurement above zero and up to 80 inches (about 203 cm). Entries outside that are almost always a unit mix-up or a typo, so the calculator asks rather than guesses.
Going deeper
The seven names on this page were not invented by medicine — they come from the clothing trade. Pattern drafters and fit specialists needed a shared shorthand for the ways three circumferences can relate to each other, because a garment drafted for one relationship hangs badly on another. Fruit and geometry supplied the vocabulary: pear and triangle for hips that lead, apple and oval for a leading midsection, rectangle for a straight run of similar numbers, and hourglass for the balanced frame with a nipped waist that mid-century pattern books treated as the standard fit model.
The numbers attached to the names hardened later, as fitting systems were written down. The most durable of them is the hourglass waist test: a waist roughly 9 inches or more below the bust has been used for decades as the working line between a defined waist and a straight one, and the smaller thresholds — an inch or two of bust-to-hip difference counting as “balanced” — reflect how much variation a fitted garment tolerates before it pulls. This page’s rule list is one consistent version of that shared system, printed so you can see it whole. Other honest versions exist; the next section is about why they can disagree with this one.
There is no governing body for body shapes, so every calculator encodes somebody’s version of the rules — and the versions differ in three predictable places. First, thresholds: one system may ask for 9 inches of waist definition, another for 10, and a waist that sits between the two flips category depending on whose page you are on. Second, extra measurements: some systems add a high-hip reading (around the hip bones, above the fullest point) and split the pear family further, adding a “spoon” shape this page does not use. Third, the apple test: some pages call any waist that approaches the bust an apple, even when the hips are far wider still — this page requires the waist to approach both bust and hips, and files that figure as a pear instead.
None of this means one page is lying. It means the labels are conventions, and conventions vary at the borders. What you can hold every calculator to is showing its working: the differences, the thresholds, and the rule that fired. If your numbers put you within an inch of a boundary — and the breakdown on this page will show you if they do — the honest reading is that you sit between two neighbouring shapes, and both descriptions will contain something true about how clothes fit you.
Seven cases, one per rule: run the list yourself
The fastest way to trust the rule list is to watch it decide seven different bodies. Every case below was run through this page’s own calculator, and every result below is the result it returned. The differences are bust minus hips, hips minus bust, bust minus waist and hips minus waist, all in inches, and the waist-to-hip ratio is waist divided by hips.
| Case (bust / waist / hips, in) | Differences that decide it | Waist-to-hip | Rule matched |
|---|---|---|---|
| 36 / 26 / 36 | Bust − waist 10, hips − waist 10 | 0.72 | 1 — Hourglass |
| 34 / 28 / 42 | Hips − bust 8, hips − waist 14 | 0.67 | 2 — Bottom hourglass |
| 40 / 28 / 34 | Bust − hips 6, bust − waist 12 | 0.82 | 3 — Top hourglass |
| 38 / 38 / 38 | Waist level with bust and hips | 1.00 | 4 — Apple / Oval |
| 32 / 30 / 38 | Hips − bust 6, hips − waist 8 | 0.79 | 5 — Pear / Triangle |
| 40 / 34 / 32 | Bust − hips 8, bust − waist 6 | 1.06 | 6 — Inverted triangle |
| 36 / 30 / 36 | Bust − waist 6, hips − waist 6 | 0.83 | 7 — Rectangle |
Notice what the table rewards: it is not size, it is gaps. The 36 / 26 / 36 case and the 36 / 30 / 36 case share the same bust and hips, yet they land two different shapes, because the waist gap falls from 10 inches to 6. The hourglass rule asks for a waist at least 9 inches below the bust or 10 below the hips, and 6 clears neither, so the list runs past rules 1 to 6 and lands on rectangle. That is not a failure of the list. Rectangle is the honest answer when no gap is large enough to claim another name.
The pear case and the bottom hourglass case are the pair most often confused, and the table shows exactly where they split. Both have hips 6 to 8 inches wider than the bust. The bottom hourglass case has a waist 14 inches below the hips, comfortably past the 9-inch line, while the pear case has a waist only 8 inches below the hips, just short of it. One inch of waist definition is the whole difference between the two names, which is why the measuring advice on this page matters more than it first appears: a waist read an inch too high or too low can move a borderline body across that line.
The inverted triangle case shows the same discipline on the other side. A bust 8 inches wider than the hips is a large gap, but the waist is only 6 inches below the bust, short of the 9 inches the top hourglass rule demands, so the list does not award the hourglass name. The rule list never rounds a near miss up. It awards the name only when the stated gap is actually met, and that strictness is what makes the result repeatable: two people measuring the same body the same way get the same answer.
Borderlines: how one inch changes the answer
If your result surprises you, the first suspect is a borderline gap, not a broken calculator. Three verified pairs show how little movement it takes.
Start with the default, 36 / 26 / 36, which the calculator calls hourglass. Keep the bust and hips fixed and move only the waist to 28 inches, and the answer becomes rectangle: the bust-to-waist gap drops from 10 to 8, below the 9-inch line, and the hips-to-waist gap drops from 10 to 8, below the 10-inch line, so rule 1 fails and nothing else claims the numbers. Two inches on one measurement, and the name changes completely, even though the body has barely changed. Anyone whose waist sits near 9 inches below the bust should expect this sensitivity and should measure twice, as the page advises, before treating the label as settled.
The hips-to-bust boundary is just as sharp. Take 36 / 26 / 39.6: hips 3.6 inches above the bust, with a waist 13.6 inches below the hips. Rule 1 requires hips less than 3.6 above the bust, so 3.6 exactly fails it, and rule 2, which covers hips 3.6 to 10 above the bust with a waist at least 9 below, claims the case as bottom hourglass. A tenth of an inch the other way, to 39.5, would hand it back to hourglass. That is not pedantry; it is the list working exactly as printed, and it is why the page shows you the matched rule number alongside the name, so a borderline result announces itself as borderline.
The waist-to-hip ratio has its own bands on this page, and they move independently of the shape name. The page’s scale reads low at 0.80 or below, the middle band at 0.81 to 0.85, and high at 0.86 or above. The rectangle case above, 36 / 30 / 36, has a ratio of 0.83, in the middle band, while the apple case, 38 / 38 / 38, has a ratio of 1.00, in the high band, and the bottom hourglass case, 34 / 28 / 42, has a ratio of 0.67, in the low band. The ratio and the shape are two different summaries of the same three numbers: the shape names the pattern, the ratio names the waist relative to the hips, and neither one on its own is a verdict about the person.
What a shape does not tell you
A shape label is a fit category from the clothing trade, as the page’s own deep dive explains. It is worth stating plainly what it leaves out, because the label invites over-reading.
It does not give a clothing size. Two bodies can share a shape and wear different sizes in every brand, because size charts are built on absolute circumferences and on each brand’s own fit model, while this calculator only compares the three numbers with each other. The verified pair in the next section makes the point: a 32 / 22 / 32 body and a 42 / 32 / 42 body are both hourglass by the rules, yet no size chart would put them in the same garment. Shape narrows the cut to look for — a defined waist, a straighter column — and the size chart still does the sizing.
It does not measure weight, body fat or fitness. Those need different inputs, and this site’s related calculators cover them: the body mass index from weight and height, body fat from tape measurements, and ideal weight ranges from height. A shape result that surprises you is not a reason to change a health routine, and a shape result that pleases you is not a substitute for any of those other measures. The calculator’s own result panel keeps the same discipline, reporting the category, the matched rule and the differences, and nothing beyond them.
It also does not freeze. Bodies change with training, with weight change, with age and with posture, and the page’s frequently asked questions already say the shape can change over time. The useful habit is to re-measure the same way, at the same points, and to compare the differences rather than only the label: a waist gap moving from 6 inches to 8 inches is real movement even while the label still reads rectangle, and a gap moving from 10 to 8 is real movement even while the label still reads hourglass on a good measuring day.
Same shape, different bodies: why size still matters
The rule list compares gaps, never absolute sizes, so the same name can cover very different frames. Both cases below were run through this page’s calculator and both returned hourglass.
A 32 / 22 / 32 body has a bust-to-waist gap of 10 inches and a hips-to-waist gap of 10 inches, which clears the hourglass line on both sides. A 42 / 32 / 42 body has exactly the same gaps, 10 and 10, and clears the same line. The proportions are identical; the bodies are ten inches apart at every point. The calculator is right to call both hourglass, because hourglass here means a relationship between measurements, not a size, and it would be wrong to reserve the name for one end of the size range.
The practical consequence is in shopping, not in the label. A wrap front or a belted waist follows the waist on both frames, because the waist is defined relative to the bust and hips on both. But the garment itself, its length, its cut and its size, still has to fit the absolute numbers, which is why the page’s measuring guidance insists on the actual tape reading rather than a dress size or a trouser size. The trouser-size trap is a verified one: a waist measured at the trouser line instead of the natural waist reads larger, and on the default frame a waist of 28 instead of 26 is enough to flip hourglass to rectangle, as the borderline section shows. Measure the natural waist, not the waistband, and the shape follows the body rather than the clothing.
One omission is stated here rather than hidden: this calculator works from three circumferences only. It does not use shoulder width, torso length, height or posture, all of which change how a garment hangs on a real frame. A shape result is a starting point for fit, not a complete fitting, and anyone buying made-to-measure or fitted clothing should still expect a fitter’s own measurements to refine it.
Measuring in centimetres, and re-measuring the same way twice
The seven rules run in inches, so centimetre readings are converted before the rules run, and the conversion is where small errors creep in.
Centimetres are converted at exactly 2.54 cm per inch before the rules run, and the rules use the unrounded differences; only the numbers shown on screen are rounded, to one decimal place. A centimetre example makes the point: bust 91 cm, waist 66 cm and hips 91 cm convert to 35.8, 26.0 and 35.8 inches on screen, while the unrounded waist gaps are 9.84 inches on both sides, which clears the 9-inch line in rule 1 and returns hourglass. If the same readings were rounded first and the rules run on the rounded numbers, a genuinely borderline gap could still flip, which is why the page keeps the full precision behind the display.
| Measurement | Centimetres | Inches, unrounded |
|---|---|---|
| Bust | 91 cm | 35.83 |
| Waist | 66 cm | 25.98 |
| Hips | 84 cm | 33.07 |
| Hips, larger frame | 102 cm | 40.16 |
Do not mix units in one entry. Pick one unit and enter all three measurements in it. Switching units on the page converts the numbers you have already typed together, so typing a bust in inches and then a waist in centimetres, without converting first, feeds the rules two different scales and returns a shape that belongs to neither. To convert before typing, divide centimetres by 2.54 for inches, or multiply inches by 2.54 for centimetres, and enter the converted numbers, not a second conversion of numbers the page has already rounded for display.
Re-measuring well matters more than measuring once carefully, because the rule list is sharp at its boundaries. Use the same tape, the same three points, standing relaxed, over thin clothing, with the tape level and snug but not pulled tight, and measure twice. If the two readings differ, take the second, and compare the gaps rather than only the label: on the default frame of bust 36 and hips 36, a waist of 27 inches gives gaps of 9 inches and returns hourglass, while a waist of 28 inches gives gaps of 8 inches and returns rectangle. One inch at the waist is the whole difference between those two names, and a tape that rides up at the back or a breath held in can move a reading by that much.
Kibbe body types are a different system from this calculator’s seven rules
The Kibbe system and the seven rules on this page both sort bodies into types, and they share almost nothing else.
Kibbe body types come from David Kibbe’s image-identity system, which sorts people into 13 types grouped in five families: Dramatic, Natural, Classic, Gamine and Romantic. The assessment is made from bone structure, body flesh and facial features together, judged in person or from photographs, and its purpose is clothing style: which lines, fabrics and details suit the person’s overall impression. It is a style system, not a measurement system, and it has no formula.
This calculator is the opposite kind of tool. It takes three tape measurements, bust, waist and hips, applies seven ratio rules in a fixed order, and returns one of seven shapes. Nothing about bone structure or facial features enters the calculation, and no Kibbe type can be derived from bust, waist and hips alone. A person whose Kibbe type is, say, Soft Natural may land in any of the seven shapes here depending on their measurements, and that is not a contradiction: the two systems are answering different questions. If you want a Kibbe assessment, it has to be done on Kibbe’s own terms. If you want to know which of the seven measurement shapes your tape readings produce, this page answers that, and only that.
The V shape and the inverted triangle: reading the result, and the shoulder measurement behind it
A V shape is shoulders wider than hips. The inverted triangle rule on this page infers it from bust and hips, and the inference has a limit worth knowing.
The V shape is the everyday name for what this calculator calls the inverted triangle: the upper body is the widest part and the silhouette narrows toward the hips. The rule behind it compares bust and hips, with the bust at least 3.6 inches above the hips and less than 9 inches above the waist. When that rule fires, the upper body is carrying the width, whatever the reason. But the calculator never measures the shoulders, and shoulders are where a V shape actually lives. A person with broad shoulders and a narrower bust can read as a rectangle or an hourglass here while looking unmistakably V-shaped in a mirror, because the tape never went near the shoulders.
Shoulders are measured across the back, at the widest point, with the tape held level and the arms relaxed at the sides. It is a two-person measurement: reaching across your own back twists the shoulders and moves the reading. Take it standing naturally, not pulled back, and take it twice. The reading is not an input on this page, and adding it would change the system rather than refine it, but knowing how it relates to the result stops the most common misreading of an inverted triangle answer: the shape describes the relationship between bust, waist and hips, and a shoulder line that disagrees with it is information about the shoulders, not evidence that the measurement was wrong.
Frequently asked questions
How do I measure myself for this calculator?
You need three numbers, taken with a soft tape over thin clothing, standing relaxed. Bust: around the fullest part, tape level under the arms. Waist: your natural waist — the narrowest point of your torso, usually just above the navel; do not use your trouser size, which sits lower and reads bigger. Hips: around the fullest part. Keep the tape snug but not digging in, and measure twice; if the two readings differ, take the second. A centimetre of tape placement can move a borderline result between neighbouring shapes, so measure the same way each time.
What is the difference between a pear and a bottom hourglass?
Waist definition. Both shapes have hips at least 3.6 inches wider than the bust. If the waist is also 9 inches or more below the hips, the rule list calls it a bottom hourglass; if the waist sits less than 9 inches below the hips, it is a pear. The two shapes are neighbours, not ranks — the same person can cross from one label to the other with a two-inch change at the waist, which is one reason this page prints its rules instead of hiding them.
Can my body shape change over time?
Yes — the category follows your measurements, and measurements move. Muscle gain, weight change, pregnancy, and simple ageing all redistribute inches between bust, waist and hips, and a shape that fit at 25 may not be the one the rules return at 45. Nothing has gone wrong when that happens: the labels are a snapshot of proportions today, useful for choosing cuts and fits today. Re-measure every so often and let the category follow the tape.
Does this calculator work for men?
You can enter the numbers, but read the result with care: the seven categories and the rule thresholds come from women’s clothing fit, and the waist-to-hip bands shown are the World Health Organization’s bands for women. Men’s proportions are usually described with different categories — athletic, inverted triangle and oval among them — and different waist-to-hip reference points. Treat a result here as a rough proportions description rather than a settled category.
What waist-to-hip ratio is considered healthy?
For women, the World Health Organization’s descriptive bands put a ratio of 0.80 or below in the lower-risk group, 0.81 to 0.85 in a moderate group, and 0.86 or above in the group where abdominal obesity is associated with higher metabolic risk at population level. Those are statistical bands from large studies, not a personal verdict: fitness, muscle, and where you carry weight all matter, and a clinician reads the ratio alongside waist circumference, blood pressure and blood work — never alone.
My bust and hips are equal, so why did I get rectangle?
Because the hourglass rule asks for waist definition, not just balance. With bust and hips equal, the rule still needs your waist at least 9 inches below your bust (or 10 below your hips) before it calls the shape an hourglass. A waist 6 or 7 inches below an equal bust and hips is a gentle definition, and the rule list files it as rectangle. Borderline results like this are exactly where calculators disagree with each other — the printed rules above show you precisely which line your numbers fell on.
Why did my shape change when I re-measured?
Because one of your gaps sits near a rule boundary, and a small measuring difference crossed it. The clearest verified example on this page is the waist: 36 / 26 / 36 reads hourglass, but 36 / 28 / 36 reads rectangle, because the bust-to-waist gap falls from 10 inches to 8, below the 9-inch line the hourglass rule requires. Re-measure the same way — same tape position, same posture, snug but not tight — and compare the gaps, not just the label, because the gaps show how close to a boundary you are.
Does this shape tell me my clothing size?
No. Shape is a proportion, size is an absolute measurement, and the two answer different questions. A 32 / 22 / 32 body and a 42 / 32 / 42 body are both hourglass by this page’s rules, yet they wear different sizes in every brand. Use the shape to narrow the cut — a defined waist, a straighter column — and use the brand’s size chart, with your actual tape measurements, to pick the size.
What happens if my numbers sit exactly on a rule boundary?
The list is applied exactly as printed, first match wins, and a boundary value belongs to the rule that includes it. Hips exactly 3.6 inches above the bust fail rule 1, which requires hips less than 3.6 above the bust, and match rule 2, which covers 3.6 to 10, provided the waist is at least 9 inches below the hips — verified here as 36 / 26 / 39.6 returning bottom hourglass. If your numbers sit on a boundary, treat the result as borderline and re-measure, because a tenth of an inch either way can hand the case to the neighbouring rule.
Can two people with the same shape look completely different?
Yes, and that is expected. The calculator compares only the gaps between three circumferences, so it deliberately ignores height, shoulder width, torso length and absolute size. Two hourglass frames can differ by ten inches at every measurement and still share the name, because the name describes the relationship between the numbers, not the numbers themselves. The shape is a fit shorthand, not a portrait, and it should never be read as a judgement about a body.
Can I enter one measurement in inches and another in centimetres?
No. Enter all three measurements in one unit. Switching units on the page converts the numbers you have already typed together, so a bust typed in inches and a waist typed in centimetres, without converting first, feeds the rules two different scales and returns a shape that belongs to neither. Convert before typing: divide centimetres by 2.54 for inches, or multiply inches by 2.54 for centimetres.
I measured in centimetres and got a different shape than in inches. Why?
Almost always rounding. The rules use unrounded differences, while the numbers shown on screen are rounded to one decimal place, and converting rounded inches back into centimetres compounds the rounding. Always enter the numbers in the unit you measured in, and if a result sits near a boundary, re-measure in that unit rather than re-converting. A waist gap near the 9-inch hourglass line is where a tenth of an inch of rounding can change the name.
Is a V-shape body the same as an inverted triangle?
In everyday language, yes. A V shape means the shoulders and upper body are wider than the hips, narrowing downward. This calculator calls that shape the inverted triangle and infers it from the bust sitting at least 3.6 inches above the hips. The difference is only in the words: one is the shape people describe, the other is the rule this page uses to assign it.
Can this calculator tell me my Kibbe type?
No. Kibbe types are assessed from bone structure, body flesh and facial features together, as a style system with 13 types in five families. This calculator uses three tape measurements and seven ratio rules, and no Kibbe type can be derived from bust, waist and hips alone. The two systems answer different questions and their results are not interchangeable.
Should I measure my shoulders for this calculator?
Shoulders are not an input on this page, so a shoulder measurement will not change your result. The shape is worked out from bust, waist and hips only. A shoulder measurement is still useful as context: if your shoulders are much wider than your bust, you may look more V-shaped than the bust-to-hip rule suggests, and that is a limit of a three-measurement system, not a measuring error.
Related guides
The seven shapes, and the measuring behind them.
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Body mass index from your weight and height.
📏Body Fat Calculator
Body fat percentage from tape measurements.
🎯Ideal Weight
Height-based weight ranges from four formulas.
💪FFMI Calculator
Lean mass for your height, frame-adjusted.
🔥TDEE Calculator
Total daily energy expenditure from activity.
Built on one printed rule list — seven shapes, first match wins — because a category you cannot retrace is just a label.
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