Plate Calculator

A barbell is loaded symmetrically, so the calculator takes your target weight, subtracts the bar, halves what is left and fills that half with the heaviest plates first — the way plates actually go on, biggest against the collar. That is why 100 kg on a 20 kg Olympic bar comes out as 25 + 15 per side rather than two 20s: 40 kg a side, heaviest plate first.

Standard plates in kilograms: 25 kg · 20 kg · 15 kg · 10 kg · 5 kg · 2.5 kg · 1.25 kg.
Standard plates in pounds: 45 lb · 35 lb · 25 lb · 10 lb · 5 lb · 2.5 lb.

If your gym has different plates, the calculator finds the closest weight it can build and tells you how much is missing per side, plus up to two loads either side of it that you can actually make. Switching between kg and lb converts the weight you already typed; a named bar keeps its name and takes that bar’s weight in the new unit — an Olympic bar is 20 kg or 45 lb, not 44.1.

Disc colours follow the usual competition convention (red 25 kg, blue 20 kg, yellow 15 kg, green 10 kg, white 5 kg) so the picture matches the rack in front of you. Plate colours are not standardised everywhere, so trust the numbers over the colours.