DOTS (an acronym built from its co-creators’ names) is the scoring formula most non-IPF federations use today to compare lifters across bodyweights. Here’s what’s actually happening behind the number.
The formula
DOTS uses a 4th-degree polynomial of your bodyweight to produce a “denominator,” then divides your total by it:
DOTS = Total × 500 ÷ (A + B×BW + C×BW² + D×BW³ + E×BW&sup4;)
The coefficients A through E differ for men and women, since strength-to-bodyweight relationships differ by sex across the population the formula was fitted to. Bodyweight is clamped to a valid range (roughly 40–210kg for men, 40–150kg for women) — outside that range the formula’s assumptions stop holding, so calculators (including ours) cap the input at the boundary.
Worked example
Take a male lifter at 83kg bodyweight with a 600kg total. Plugging in the men’s coefficients and working through the polynomial gives a denominator around 1481, so:
DOTS = 600 × 500 ÷ 1481 ≈ 405
That lands solidly in the “Advanced” tier on most DOTS classification charts (roughly 400–450 for that band), which tracks with what you’d expect from a competitive but non-elite raw total at that bodyweight.
Why the polynomial, and why it changes with bodyweight
Raw strength doesn’t scale linearly with bodyweight — a lifter twice as heavy isn’t reliably twice as strong, because muscle cross-sectional area (which drives force output) scales differently than body mass as size increases. The polynomial exists to correct for that non-linear relationship so a 60kg lifter and a 140kg lifter can be compared on the same scale.
Common mistakes when calculating by hand
- Using the wrong sign on a coefficient — several of DOTS’s coefficients are negative, and a sign error produces a wildly wrong result
- Forgetting to clamp bodyweight at the formula’s valid range for very light or very heavy lifters
- Mixing kg and lb inputs — DOTS coefficients are defined in kilograms; convert first if you’re working in pounds
Skip the arithmetic and get an instant, verified result on our DOTS Calculator.