1

I'm 15 years old and only 5'2 and about 47kg. I can't help it anymore and I really want to get taller, as I hate seeing my friends grow to about 6'0 and i stay shorter as if i'm their kid. My dad is 5'9 and my mum is about 5'4-5'5, and i believe that i can grow taller due to my parents genetics, however it doesnt seem to make any difference as i havent nearly grown any taller in the past year. I eat all my vitamins and eat healthy and sleep for about 8 hours every night however i can see no difference. I train and exercise a lot and everyday, i do about 30 minutes jogging everyday, does this have anything to do with it? maybe too much training is stunting my growth? I also take a multi-vitamin pill everyday to help me be healthy and grow. My wrist is actually really small and skinny, does this have anything to do with it? last year i was 5'2 and i'm still 5'2 this year, just maybe slightly taller. Thanks a lot and i would be very happy with your help and guidance about what i should do to grow taller. How many calories a day should i eat?

3
  • I also recommend a second challenge: accept being short. One of my highly respected bosses is extremely smart, confident and successful... and very short. If you can face being short, you'll be ready to face your next flaw; and we all have them :)
    – Michael
    Dec 26, 2013 at 9:47
  • Voted to close as both off topic and a near duplicate.
    – JohnP
    Dec 26, 2013 at 15:49
  • You are just 15 years old. Don't worry about height at this early stage. I was around 5'2 till 18 years and then I grew slowly to 5'8 (same as my father's height). You have chances of growing till 22 years age.
    – Freakyuser
    Jan 3, 2014 at 16:13

2 Answers 2

2

A very important factor here is the question: are you male or female? From what I've observed:

  • Young women tend to stop growing taller by the time they are your age.
  • Young men tend to keep growing till their early 20s.

There are exceptions in both cases, but as a general rule this is what I've observed over the years. A friend of mine was about your height when he was your age, but by the time he was in college he grew to about 6'1".

Your full stature will be regulated by your genetics. You should expect to be about the same height as your parents when you are done growing. Expect to be closer to your mother's height if you are a young lady, or closer to your father's height if you are a young man.

To support growth:

  • Eat plenty of healthy foods. As long as you are relatively thin, eat. Slow down when you start gaining more fat than muscle/bone.
  • Take your multivitamins
  • Stay active. It's better to do active things you like than things you don't like.
  • Sleep a full 8 hours every night.
  • Drink plenty of water

That's all you can do. Time and genetics will do the rest. Some coaches have observed that when a young person takes up training with weights they grow more than kids who don't. If this is true, then don't expect miracles from it. At best you might get another inch of height. Should you choose weight training, stick with full body movements and train no more than 3x a week.

1

Growth can happen late. In my case, I hit my growth spur between the ages of 22 and 26, when I went from about 5'3" to 5'10". (My father is 5'3 and my mum 5'7 or so).

You are 15 years old. I was slightly smaller than you at the same age and my best friend at the time was 6'3", I know all about being the small guy.

So that's the first point. You have plenty of time ahead of you. You could end up being 5'2" all your life, or grow another foot before you turn 30 or anything in between.

Some people are tall, some people are small, the same way some people are black and some white. Tall doesn't mean better.

What can you do and what should you do to grow more? It's one of those rare cases where the best answer is probably "nothing". There is nothing wrong with your height.

Yeah, but I don't like it, what can I do?

You may or may not hit a growth spur later on. Doesn't matter. You live right now, don't wait to grow up, just work with what you got:

One thing you can pay attention to is posture. Having a good posture makes you look taller, but more importantly, it is quite good for your body. Head up, back straight. Work your back and neck muscles.

Train for agility, mobility, speed and endurance. Being smaller gives you an advantage in that department. If you ever watch fighting sports like Judo or MMA, you will notice that the smaller weight divisions always have the fastest, most dynamic fighters with the most endurance. It's not a coincidence.

You have to find your assets and cultivate those. One way or another, there are things that will come more naturally to you. Instead of just wishing you could be big, take advantage of those things you can do better because you are not.

Don' let your size prevent you from doing what you like either. Around your age, I played Volley Ball. Being small forces you to have a different look at the game. I couldn't block, in fact I couldn't even reach the top of the net, but I got pretty good at making saves and working with the tall guys in the team. At the end of the day I was just as effective as one of my team mates who was over 6 feet, at a game where he should have been massively better.

And a nice little bonus is that if you do eventually grow taller, the skills you gain while being "the small guy" will give you a competitive advantage over people who have always been tall if you have developped a technical game. At whatever sport you chose, you should always strive to be a technical/tactical player.

In short, don't worry, concentrate on what you have and never mind the folks who believe that them being big is somehow a huge achievement of theirs. Natural gifts only carry you so much, but as soon as you want to accomplish something meaningful, what really matters is how much quality work you put in.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.