Last updated on September 23, 2020
Question:
I’m 15 and short, only 5’4 or 5’5. My friend told me that her cousin who is 14 took them and grew six inches over the summer, and also her 30-year-old teacher took them and his height increased. Is this really possible? Should I start taking protein shakes?
Answer:
If you were malnourished, getting the proper nutrition will allow your body to grow as it is supposed to. But if you are already well-nourished, consuming more nutrients will only tend to make you fatter.
Let’s take the cousin. Age fourteen is slightly late for a girl to reach her growth spurt, but not abnormal. It is more likely that she simply started her growth spurt about the time she started drinking the protein shakes. Like most people, she assumed that one had to have caused the other, even though the facts say otherwise.
The case of the teacher would be a falsehood. Once a person’s growth plates close they cannot reopen. A thirty-year-old cannot directly gain height. However, let’s suppose this man was out of shape. He may have had a belly, which would cause a curved spine and a slouching stance. Along with the protein shake, I could see such a man also getting on an exercise program. As he lost weight and toned his muscles, he would have stood up taller. He would have more height, but not from growth.
It is possible that you are a late bloomer. I won’t know without knowing what stage of development you are at. See the Tanner Stage of Development Calculator.
Question:
By the way, my friend is a girl, but her cousin who had the growth spurt is a boy. My doctor told me a while back about growth plates closing and said that has always happened by the ’20s but this girl was adamant that her teacher got taller. She said before she was at his chin but now she is below his shoulder. I took the test and I’m a 4.2 but I had a look at the stages but they don’t describe me.
Answer:
For a boy to have a growth spurt at 14 is just about average. As I said, all one has to do is not slouch and stand taller to be taller.
The calculator describes the main markers of growth and not all the variations in between or the different combinations. Stage 4 means you’ve had your growth spurt and are starting to slow down. This is the phase when you’ll start to fill out, get bigger muscles, wider shoulders, and a deeper voice. It hasn’t happened yet because you just started the stage.