Last updated on August 4, 2020
Question:
Hello,
I am 15 years old, I’ll be 16 soon, I am 5 foot 9 and a half and I have been this height since this exact time last year, but the difference being is that last year I was 147 lbs. Now, a year later I am still the same height and close to 160 lbs. I am a very, very physically mature guy for my age. I’m very muscular and extremely strong. I have been told I look 21 years old and I have lots of hair on my underarms, legs, chest and I got lots of hair on my neck, upper lip, and almost a full beard as it continues to grow in an arc to my lip. But my main question was, is am I done growing? Lots of people have said no boy is done growing at 15, but I just haven’t grown in so long. I just continually pray to God for a growth spurt to make me 6 feet or 6 foot 1 but I always end up losing my faith.
I’d appreciate your help.
Answer:
At one time lots of people said the world was flat. People base their thoughts and ideas on their personal experience, but few actually study a topic in detail — mostly because there is too much to learn and too little time to learn even a great portion of what is available.
Let’s look at what is known. The age when a boy begins to develop (puberty) covers a wide range. Doctors consider “normal” for the first external signs to happen anywhere between the ages of 9 and 16 for boys. The average is 11.5. Typically, the physical changes that you can see take between 8 and 10 years to complete.
Now all those changes are not in height. Most of the changes in height occur in Dr. Tanner’s stage 3. Stage 4 consists mostly of the widening of your shoulders and the building of muscles. From your description of yourself, it sounds like you are right at the end of Stage 4, or perhaps at the beginning of stage 5. Your growth is basically done.
You, didn’t say when you hit puberty, but I suspect that it was around the age of eight. Most boys miss the earliest signs and likely since you were only eight, your parents probably weren’t expecting to see them that soon either. It probably wasn’t until age nine that you noticed some of the changes. But at the fastest development, that would put you to being done at the age of 16.
Yes, you don’t see a large number of men develop that soon. It even would have been called “precocious puberty” by a doctor if he was made aware of it. Precocious refers to a person or an animal who develops sooner or faster than what is considered normal. If my guess is correct, you would be considered right on the edge of precocious. But it is not impossible. I have a boy in my Tae Kwon Do classes who is fully developed and towers over me and he is barely 14.
Still, your height of 5′ 9.5 inches is close to the average height of an adult male in the United States, which is 5′ 9.4 inches. See the article on Human Height in Wikipedia.
Question:
Thank you for your reply (see above). I believe I started puberty at 9 or 10. My mom is 5 foot 2 and my dad is either 5 foot 6 or 5 foot 7. I get my height from my mom’s side. My mom’s dad is 5’10” and her brother is 5’10”, but her uncles and cousins are 6 foot and above. I have a 17 year old cousin (her nephew) and he’s 6’1″ and a half. Do you think I have a few more inches left of growing? I also understand that nothing is impossible through God and I would like to hear your input and what you suggest.
Answer:
The typical height prediction formula says to take the average of you father and mother’s height and then add five inches for boys. Most boys end up within five inches of that height.
In your case, the formula says you would be somewhere around 5’7″ (between 5’2″ and 6’0″) — and you are right in that range. You’re also right at the average height of a man in the United States.
If you want to know if you have more growth left, try the Tanner Stage Calculator for Boys and tell me what number you get from it. My guess from your description is that you are in stage 5. If that is so, you can’t expect any more growth.
Yes, God can do all things. He could turn you into a pig if He wanted to. But the point is not what He can do, but what He has done. He made the world with rules and regulations to control its behavior. Once in awhile, He makes some major interference, which we call a miracle. But those miracles are not arbitrary, nor are they directed by men; He did them for a specific reason. Most of the ones recorded in the Bible were used to prove that God was behind the words of someone delivering a message from God (Hebrews 2:3-4). God also makes minor interferences, which we refer to as the providence of God. These are things that appear to be within the realm of probability but result in a “too convenient” coincident. For example, Esther just happening to be queen in Persia at a time when someone tried to wipe out the Israelite race (see the book of Esther). The providence of God is seen often in the answer to prayers.
God answers prayers, but He doesn’t violate His rules without a reason. Praying for God to work against Himself is not a reasonable thing to do. He made you who you are. Be content with that. Don’t say, I can’t be happy unless God makes me 6 feet tall! Be like Paul instead, “I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content” (Philippians 4:11). Instead of looking for reasons to grumble, look for the advantages your strength gives you for the moment over your peers.
Question:
Hello again, I’m sorry to bother you again..but I decided to re-do the Tanner Stage Calculator for Boys and it says I’m in 4.6 and you’ve told me that the formula says I should be somewhere between 5’2″ and 6 feet, and I’m 16, and either 5’9″1/2 or 5’10”, it says growth will be slowed down in stage 4 but an additional 1 to 3 inches will be added, is it possible I could reach 6 feet for my 17th birthday?
Answer:
The statement in the description of Stage 4 covers the entire stage of development. Stage 3 is when you have your rapid growth spurt. During stage 4 this slows down until when you reach stage 5 it has stopped. The amount a boy grows in stage 4 depends a lot on how much he was growing in stage 3. For example, a boy putting on 9 inches in stage 3 will slow down and might only put on another 3 inches in stage 4, but a boy putting on 6 inches in stage 3 might slow down in stage 4 and only put on an inch and a half.
The descriptions were written to cover the entire stage and the most typical ranges of possibilities. There is no guarantee that you will max out the potential. And since you have been in stage 4 for a while, you have already slowed down and gained a portion of that remaining growth.
Since we last talked, it sounds like you put on another half-inch or so, so it appears you are still growing, but I would think it very unlikely that you will gain another three inches from this point.