Has anyone ever found out that they're taller than they are?

[purplespink]

I have always thought I was 5'7. I had a drs appointment where they took height and weight and I'm 5'8.5! Has anyone else ever has this happen to them? I feel so tall all of a sudden 😂

@annonymousse lol same here! I'm nearly 50 so not so much these days, but when I was younger, men in bars etc would swear I was 6ft (I'm 5ft 10.5,)just because their fragile little egos couldn't handle being under 6ft. Poor poppets.

What? How?

I don't know - they took my height and weight to work out the anaesthetic dose before the operation and I was 5'3 as always. The following year I had one of those wellbeing checks that gives your risk of heart attack and weighed/measured again and I was 5'4! I had noticed my husband seemed shorter but assumed he might have been shrinking a bit with age so didn't say anything. My sister speculated that removing all the fibroids and endo might have loosened my muscles so they stretched out a bit more.

😂 I mean really.It’s just a ridiculous question.

Other way around told everyone I was 5'2 for years until I was about 40 but I'm not actually sure where I ever got that from? Maybe my mum told me?

So started at the gym and it had a measuring thingie, under I pop to discovery I'm barely 5'1

I used to go under that measure thing most weeks just to make sure!! And still 5'1 (just)

Was about to post the same, a DEXA scan is a good idea for anyone losing height but tbh once you are post menopausal you can pretty much take it you are losing density along with your oestrogen. Diet and weight bearing exercises v important

Yes! About 10 years ago I had a wellbeing check and was told I was 5’5 and all my life I thought I was 5’4!!

It's true that you shrink with age, and you shrink throughout the day. You're taller in the morning when you get up than before you go to bed.

Yes! I do a bit of work on the side as a film extra and had a fitting for a costumed role in the summer. After they had kitted me out they took pictures from all possible angles, including standing against one of those boards like they use for mugshots. The costume assistant measured me as 5 feet 5 inches. I was like "Are you SURE??" because I have been telling everyone I was 5 feet 4 for years.

Delighted.

And yes the measuring thing in the studio might have been wrong but I am clinging to that extra inch.

Im clinging onto any height I can get. My mum is 4 foot 10!

In middle age I found out that I was 1 and 3/4 inches taller than I was in my early 20s. Measured bare footed, by several medical students and their professor!

No idea why. Although I lived for many years in a sunny climate (vit D?). Had five babies (growth hormones?) Put on a good few kg. Can fat sit between vertebrae and spread them out?

Since the perimenopause my feet have gone up a European shoe size too!

No but I am still sulking that I have officially lost an inch in height thanks to my last health check.

It’s common for feet to get bigger… they just sort of spread out a bit and the arch relaxes a little. Mine are bigger too!

Im still the same height (at 56) as I ever was, but DD(27) grew in her 20s! She was always an inch shorter than me, and the shortest out of all the females (me and her 3 sisters) but I noticed she looked taller recently, so we measured… and she was!

I don't know why people shrinking has come as a surprise to them.
Always thinking you were 5'6" abd finding at 50 that you are now 5'5 isn't some mystery or even surprising.

It's thinking you were shorter than you are which some of us have had.

I was 100% 5'2". We were weighed abs measured annually at school. They can't have got it wrong every year. Yet during my 3rd pregnancy at 39 when they measured me I was 5'3". I'm almost 60 and I'm still 5'3" so not only have I grown somewhere in adulthood but I've not really started shrinking either.

The top ends of women's femurs can keep growing until the early 20s. I think that's what happened to me: a year spent eating well and exercising well in a sunny country gave me a tiny growth spurt. Between 16yo and 22yo I was 170cm tall with size 7 feet. At 24yo I discovered I was 172cm tall with size 7.5 feet.

I knew that 'old' people shrank, but I didn't think it happened as early as 50.

Nope, the opposite. I have been 1m71cm for as long as I can remember, but am now 2cm shorter!

@Gwenhwyfar

I knew that 'old' people shrank, but I didn't think it happened as early as 50.
Depending on activity levels, health and genetics it's not uncommon to start shrinking in your 30s!

But it's not noticeable for most people until their late 40s and it rapidly increases as people further age.

Weight bearing exercise and stretching to keep good posture help massively

I'm almost 60 and perversely I am about the tallest I have every been

Also do you think people are weird about height ?
My mate used to go on about how tiny I am then we did one of them height, weight bmi machines at the gym. I was 161cm and she was 163cm!😂

I only attend health checks on days I feel self-confident and have done my hair.
Therefore I am recorded as 5'4". I think it shaves about 0.05 off my BMI and that can only be a good thing?

On the contrary I have always prided myself on being 5'6 😂 until... I was measured at the doctors last year and told I was a measly 5'5 😭

I'm going to remeasure myself in hope of gaining some height.

Yes but in the opposite direction. I think the doctors measuring device wasn't working properly. I corrected him and he didn't believe me until he checked my history and saw I'd been 5 ft 3 for years, and it was unlikely that I'd lost 3 inches in a year*

*I get this CAN happen with age or osteoarthritis btw, but I'm not that old!

I mean if your height goes up your BMI surely goes down so good news all round.

Time to hit the cake trolley.