Male Body Shape Calculator

Your male body shape is the pattern of how your shoulders, chest, waist and hips compare with one another.

Enter those measurements in the calculator above and it names your build: inverted triangle, trapezoid, rectangle, triangle or oval. If you searched for "what is my body type male" hoping for a quick answer, that is it, and it takes four numbers at most.

One thing to know before you go on. Many men use "body type" to mean somatotype: ectomorph, mesomorph or endomorph. That system describes build and muscle, not outline, and this calculator does not measure it. Our body types guide explains the difference. What this tool gives you is the shape that decides how shirts, jackets and trousers sit on you.

1. MeasureUse a soft tape over a thin T-shirt. Keep it level and snug, breathe out normally, and take each number twice.
2. EnterChoose inches or centimetres, then fill shoulders (or chest), waist and hip. The outline and the V-taper scale above move as you type.
3. Read your buildPress Find my body shape. You get your build, how strongly your numbers match it, what to buy for and tailor, and your waist-to-hip ratio.

Shoulders

All the way around the widest part of the shoulders, over the upper arms and across the upper back, with the tape level. A helper makes this far easier. The number is large, usually close to 40 in (100 cm) or more. A straight width across the back is only around 16 in, and the calculator will ask you to re-measure if you enter something that small.

Chest

Around the fullest part of the chest, under the armpits and across the shoulder blades, arms relaxed at your sides. Breathe normally.

Waist

Your natural waist, the narrowest part of your body between the ribs and the hips, usually just above the navel. Stand relaxed and do not pull your stomach in.

Hip

Around the fullest part of your hips and buttocks, feet together, with the tape level at the back.

No tape measure? Wrap a piece of string round the spot, mark where it meets, then lay it along a ruler. The illustrated steps for every measuring point are in our body measurements guide.

Shoulders are the measurement the rules are written for, so they give the sharper result. The calculator compares your shoulders with your hip, and that gap (the V-taper scale above) decides most builds. If you enter both, shoulders are used and chest is shown for reference.

Chest works as a fallback when you cannot measure your shoulders reliably on your own. Because the thresholds were set for shoulders, a chest-only result can land one build lower, for example trapezoid instead of inverted triangle, and the calculator tells you when that may be the case. Whichever you use, use it every time you re-check, so a change in your result reflects your body and not the method.

A size label tells you roughly how much room a garment has overall. Your build tells you where that room needs to be. Two men can wear the same jacket size and still need different fixes, because one carries more width in the shoulders, another through the middle and another through the seat.

• Use size to choose a starting range and your build to decide where the room goes.
• Buy for the area that has to stay fitted: the shoulders in a jacket or shirt, the seat in trousers.
• Tailor the rest. Taking in a waist is a routine job; rebuilding a shoulder is not.
• Expect different labels in different brands. A better cut often beats chasing the same number everywhere.

Body shape is your outline: how shoulders, waist and hips relate. Somatotype (ectomorph, mesomorph, endomorph) was proposed by the psychologist William Sheldon in the 1940s and describes build and how easily you gain muscle or fat. Most men are a blend rather than a single type, and this calculator measures shape, not somatotype.

The two systems overlap loosely. Lean, narrow builds often read as rectangle or inverted triangle, muscular athletic builds as trapezoid or inverted triangle, and softer, rounder builds as oval or triangle. That is a tendency, not a rule. Some guides call the oval build "apple", and you can read more in the apple body shape guide. For the wider picture, see the body types guide and all body shapes.

Re-measure whenever your fit changes, not only when your weight does.

• After a strength phase, a noticeable weight change, or when jackets and trousers start to fit differently.
• With the same tape, posture and shoulder-or-chest method every time, so a change in the result is real.
• Treat the result as current guidance, not a fixed identity.
• If you sit between two builds, keep the styling ideas from both and follow whichever solves today's fit problem.

Under your result the calculator shows your waist divided by your hip. The World Health Organization uses 0.90 as the cut-off for men to flag increased health risk. It is a screening flag, not a diagnosis. To look at the number properly, use the waist-to-hip ratio calculator, or check your waist against your height with the waist-to-height ratio calculator. This is general information, not medical advice. For any health concern, speak to a qualified doctor.