ObjectiveTo confirm the adequacy of the formula suggested in the literature and/or to develop appropriate equations for the Brazilian population of immobilized patients based on simple anthropometric measurements. MethodsHospitalized patients were submitted to anthropometry and methods to estimate weight and height of bedridden patients were developed by multiple linear regression. ResultsThree hundred sixty eight persons were evaluated at two hospital centers and five weight-pre-dicting and two height-predicting equations were developed from the measurements ob-tained. Among the new equations developed, the simplest one for weight estimate was: Weight (kg) = 0.5759 x (arm circumference, cm) + 0.5263 x (abdominal circumference, cm) + 1.2452 x (calf circumference, cm) -4.8689 x (Sex, male = 1 and female = 2) -32.9241 (r = 0.94); and the one for height estimate was: Height (cm) = 58.6940 -2.9740 x (Sex) -0.0736 x (age, years) + 0.4958 x (arm length, cm) + 1.1320 x (half-span, cm) (r = 0.88). The estimates thus calculated did not differ significantly from actual measurements, with p = 0.94 and 0.89 and a mean error of 6.0 and 2.1% for weight and height, respectively.