Plate calculator

How plate math actually works

A loaded barbell is just bar + 2 × (sum of plates on one side). If your bar is 45 lb and you want 225 lb on it, that's 180 lb of plates total, or 90 lb per side. The greedy algorithm everyone uses in their head (and that this calculator uses) is "load the biggest plate that fits, repeat."

90 lb per side, using standard lb plates: 45 + 45 = 90. Done. For 315 lb on the same bar: (315 − 45) / 2 = 135 per side. 45 + 45 + 45 = 135. Three plates per side, the classic "three plates."

Standard bar weights

The calculator defaults to the bar you're most likely to use, but if you're at a different gym or working with a non-Olympic bar, pick from the dropdown:

• 45 lb / 20 kg — men's Olympic competition bar (the default in most gyms worldwide)
• 35 lb / 15 kg — women's Olympic competition bar
• 25 lb / 10 kg — training bar, common in beginner classes
• 15 lb / 7 kg — youth or technique bar

If you train on a non-standard bar (curl bar, trap bar, safety squat bar), the calculator still works — just enter the actual weight of the bar manually if it's not in the list.

Competition plate colors

The colors on the plates above aren't arbitrary. They follow IPF (International Powerlifting Federation) and IWF (International Weightlifting Federation) conventions. Once you know the colors, you can read a loaded bar from across the gym without doing any math:

Imperial (lb) plates

• 45 lb — blue
• 35 lb — yellow
• 25 lb — green
• 10 lb — white
• 5 lb — red
• 2.5 lb — silver/grey (change plate)

Metric (kg) plates

• 25 kg — red
• 20 kg — blue
• 15 kg — yellow
• 10 kg — green
• 5 kg — white
• 2.5 kg — red (small change plate)
• 1.25 kg — silver/chrome

Common weights at a glance

These come up so often you'll memorize them eventually, but until then, here's the cheat sheet (assuming a 45 lb bar):

• 135 lb ("one plate"): 45 per side
• 185 lb: 45 + 25 per side
• 225 lb ("two plates"): 45 + 45 per side
• 275 lb: 45 + 45 + 25 per side
• 315 lb ("three plates"): 45 + 45 + 45 per side
• 405 lb ("four plates"): 45 × 4 per side
• 495 lb ("five plates"): 45 × 5 per side

What if my gym doesn't have the right plates?

The calculator's "remainder" line tells you when the target weight can't be exactly loaded with standard plates. For example, if you're trying to load 192.5 lb on a 45 lb bar and you only have 2.5 lb as your smallest change plate, you can get to 195 (45 + 25 + 5 per side) or down to 190 (45 + 25 + 2.5 per side). The remainder shows how far off you'd be.

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