Barbell Plate Loader

How this is worked out

Plates are chosen greedily — heaviest first, then the next that still fits. That is provably optimal here because standard plate sets are canonical: no combination of smaller plates beats taking the largest one that fits. It is also exactly how you load a bar in practice.

Where the target doesn’t divide into your plates, the closest loadable weight below it is shown along with the shortfall, rather than a number you cannot actually put on a bar.

Information only — not medical advice. These are estimates from population-level formulas, not a substitute for professional assessment. See our full disclaimer.