ABSTRACT
Developing a global de nition for acceptable ranges of body size is a dif cult task. The usual approach includes establishing reference values of basic anthropometric characteristics-height, weight, selected circumferential measures and derived indices, BMI, and others. On the basis of the measurement of a certain population, average values were evaluated as norms or, more recently, as percentiles. The 50th percentile is generally accepted as a standard for the population in question. However, the most common or average value in a population does not always translate to the optimal value.
