Free tool · 4 measurements
Enter your bust, waist, high hip and hip measurements to find your body shape — using the same formulas clothing researchers use — and see a rough photo projection of your shape, plus your waist-to-hip ratio and what to train for it. Private: your measurements never leave this page.
Your measurements
Your body shape
Bust and hips about the same width, with a clearly defined waist.
Want to see it at your height and weight, before and after glute training? Try the female body visualizer.
Your body shape
Hips wider than your bust, with a clearly defined waist.
Want to see it at your height and weight, before and after glute training? Try the female body visualizer.
Your body shape
Bust wider than your hips, with a clearly defined waist.
Want to see it at your height and weight, before and after glute training? Try the female body visualizer.
Your body shape
Hips much wider than your bust, with a defined waist and a high hip that flares out just below it.
Want to see it at your height and weight, before and after glute training? Try the female body visualizer.
Your body shape
Often called pear
Hips wider than your bust, with less waist definition.
Want to see it at your height and weight, before and after glute training? Try the female body visualizer.
Your body shape
Bust and shoulders wider than your hips, with less waist definition.
Want to see it at your height and weight, before and after glute training? Try the female body visualizer.
Your body shape
Bust, waist and hips similar, with little waist definition.
Want to see it at your height and weight, before and after glute training? Try the female body visualizer.
Your body shape
Your measurements fall between the FFIT shapes, which happens near the cut-offs. Re-measure carefully, then compare yourself with the seven shapes below — most people recognise themselves in one or two.
Enter your bust, waist and hips to see your shape.
The Glute Routine Builder builds your training focus into a week around your days, time and equipment, and keeps private progress photos so you can watch your proportions change.
Your body shape is a description of how your bust, waist and hips compare — nothing more. These seven are clothing-fit categories, not health categories, and moving the tape a couple of inches can change your answer. So measure carefully, and treat the label as a starting point, not a verdict.
Use a soft tape measure, snug but not pulling, kept level with the floor all the way round. Measure over bare skin or thin, fitted clothes, standing relaxed with your feet together. "BWH" is just bust, waist and hips — the same three numbers, plus high hip here.
Measure each one twice and use the average. High hip only matters for telling a bottom hourglass from a spoon, so you can leave it blank — the calculator will tell you if it needs it. For more on finding the fullest point of your hips, see how to measure your butt size.
Hourglass
Bust and hips about the same width, with a clearly defined waist.
Bottom hourglass
Hips wider than your bust, with a clearly defined waist.
Top hourglass
Bust wider than your hips, with a clearly defined waist.
Spoon
Hips much wider than your bust, with a defined waist and a high hip that flares out just below it.
Triangle
Often called pear
Hips wider than your bust, with less waist definition.
Inverted triangle
Bust and shoulders wider than your hips, with less waist definition.
Rectangle
Bust, waist and hips similar, with little waist definition.
FFIT also describes a diamond and an oval shape, but both need stomach and abdomen measurements, so this calculator doesn’t sort into them.
Your bone structure sets the frame, and where you store fat is largely genetic. What you can change is muscle — and muscle changes your measurements. Building your glutes adds to your hip number; building your shoulders and upper back changes your top half.
| Body shape | Training focus | Guide |
|---|---|---|
| Hourglass | Keep it balanced: hip thrusts and RDLs for projection, abduction for the side curve, and some rows for your upper back. | butt shapes guide |
| Bottom hourglass | Your glutes are already a strength. Add upper-body work — lateral raises and rows — and upper-glute work for a smooth curve from waist to hip. | upper glute guide |
| Top hourglass | Put your extra training into the lower body: hip thrusts and RDLs for glute size, and abduction to build out the hips. | upper glute guide |
| Spoon | Similar to a pear: balance the top with lateral raises and rows, and build the upper glutes so the curve from waist to hip is smooth. | pear-shaped guide |
| Triangle | Build the upper glutes and glute medius, and add two upper-body moves for balance. | pear-shaped guide |
| Inverted triangle | Lower body first: hip thrusts and RDLs for glute size, and abduction to widen the hips. | round butt guide |
| Rectangle | Glute medius for the side curve plus glute max for projection — the same plan as a square butt. | square butt guide |
Whatever your shape, the basics are the same: train your glutes two to three times a week (here’s how often to train glutes) and give it months, not weeks (here’s how long it takes to grow glutes). Because glute training adds to your hips, your body shape result can shift over time, so it’s worth running the calculator again every few months. Your body shape and your butt shape are different questions, too: the glute shape quiz tells you whether your glutes are round, heart, square, V or A-shaped.
Want this as a plan? Join the waitlist — the Glute Routine Builder turns your shape’s training focus into a routine around your days, time and equipment.
It uses the Female Figure Identification Technique (FFIT), developed at North Carolina State University and published by Simmons, Istook and Devarajan in 2004, in the formulation published by Lee, Istook, Nam and Park (2007) and reproduced as working code by Parker and colleagues (2021). The rules are checked in this order, and the first one that fits is your shape. All numbers are in inches; if you enter centimetres, the calculator converts them first.
The photo is the closest match from a library of 21 — each of the seven shapes at three sizes. The size comes from your hip measurement: under about 39 inches, 39 to 46.5, or over 46.5, which are roughly the 25th and 75th percentiles for US women (see the butt size chart). Treat it as a rough projection of your shape, not a picture of you — no two bodies with the same numbers look alike, and the photos aren’t something to aim for.
| # | Shape | Rule (inches) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hourglass | Bust − hips ≤ 1 and hips − bust < 3.6, and bust − waist ≥ 9 or hips − waist ≥ 10 |
| 2 | Bottom hourglass | Hips − bust from 3.6 to 10, hips − waist ≥ 9, and high hip ÷ waist < 1.193 |
| 3 | Top hourglass | Bust − hips more than 1 and less than 10, and bust − waist ≥ 9 |
| 4 | Spoon | Hips − bust > 2, hips − waist ≥ 7, and high hip ÷ waist ≥ 1.193 |
| 5 | Triangle | Hips − bust ≥ 3.6 and hips − waist < 9 |
| 6 | Inverted triangle | Bust − hips ≥ 3.6 and bust − waist < 9 |
| 7 | Rectangle | Bust and hips within 3.6 of each other, bust − waist < 9, and hips − waist < 10 |
As accurate as your tape measure — and less stable than most calculators admit. In a study of 1,679 women scanned in 3D, simply changing where the bust, waist, hip and high hip were measured put the same body into a different FFIT shape in up to 40% of cases (Parker et al., 2021). Rectangle, inverted triangle and top hourglass results held steady; hourglass, bottom hourglass, triangle and spoon did not.
FFIT also only looks at the zone from your bust to your hips. It ignores your shoulders, your height and where your muscle sits. So if you land near a boundary, you may genuinely be between two shapes — that’s normal, not a mistake.
The calculator also divides your waist by your hips. That number is a health screening measure, not a beauty score: for women, the World Health Organization uses a ratio of 0.85 or above as a marker of substantially increased metabolic risk (WHO expert consultation). Preference research tends to cluster around 0.7, but that’s an average, not a target — I go through it in what the most attractive butt shape is.
Both halves of the ratio respond to body fat, and the hip half responds to glute training. To see a body like yours at your height and weight — and set goal measurements — try the female body visualizer.
"Body type" gets used for three different things. This calculator gives your body shape — how your bust, waist and hips compare. Ectomorph, mesomorph and endomorph are somatotypes, a separate system about overall build; this calculator doesn’t sort into them. And your butt shape — round, heart, square, V or A — is about the glutes themselves; the butt shapes guide covers all six.
Then you’re near a boundary, which is common. FFIT uses hard cut-offs, so half an inch can flip a result. Re-measure carefully, and if it still sits on the line, read both shapes — you will usually recognise yourself in one more than the other.
It depends on the group and on how the measurements are taken. In a UK study of 1,679 women scanned in 3D and measured the FFIT way, hourglass (31%), bottom hourglass (27%) and rectangle (25%) were the most common results, followed by spoon (12%). Top hourglass, triangle and inverted triangle were each under 4%.
Partly. Your bone structure and where you store fat are largely set, but muscle and body fat change your measurements. Building glute muscle adds to your hip measurement, and upper-back and shoulder work changes your top half — so your result can shift over months of training.
No. Those are somatotypes, a different system that describes overall build rather than bust, waist and hip proportions. This calculator sorts you into body shapes only.
No shape is better than another. These are clothing-fit categories, built to help garments fit, not to rank bodies. Preference research does cluster around a lower waist-to-hip ratio, but that’s an average, not a standard you owe anyone.
Two reasons: they use different rules (some use only bust, waist and hips, some add shoulders), and small differences in where you measure change the result. Researchers found the same body could land in a different FFIT shape in up to 40% of cases just by moving where the measurements were taken.
Honestly, it’s a rough projection, not a picture of you. It’s the closest match from a library of 21 photos — seven body shapes, each at a smaller, average and larger size picked from your hip measurement — so it can only show the general idea of your shape. No two bodies look the same, even with identical measurements: height, frame, muscle, and where you carry weight all change how a shape looks. And the photos aren’t a goal. Nobody should try to look like them — they’re there to help you picture the label, nothing more.
No. Your measurements are calculated in your browser and never stored or sent, and there is no sign-up. The only thing recorded is an anonymous count of which shape result comes up, so I can see how the tool is used.
Whatever your shape, the part you can build is muscle. The Build The Shelf app plans that work around your week and keeps your progress photos private — join the waitlist to get it first.
