To the Editor: The increasing emphasis on weight control in American society makes it important to audit the principal base lines from which overweight and obesity assessments for adults are derived. There are two base lines, the various tables of average weights and the table of desirable weights. The Metropolitan Life Insurance Company's standards of weight for height are those most commonly used by clinicians, family physicians, nurses, nutritionists, physical educators and so forth as well as the general public. The tables were originally introduced in 19121 in the form of average weights with age scales, but in 1942–43 the . . .