How much will I grow? / What can I do to grow?

Question

I'm not very self conscious about my height, but I'm fourteen and flat out 5 feet. I love track, but compared to everyone else I'm a little slow since my legs aren't as long as theirs. I'd like to be fast, and I want to know how tall I'll end up growing. I got my period May 2007, and I don't know if I'll keep growing. I've grown 2 inches in the past year. My mom is 5'2, my sister 5'2, my dad 5'5 (I come from a line of short people they range from 4'8-5'10). I eat pretty well; fruits (watermelons, pears, and apples mainly... sometimes oranges), soy products, but not much of a meat eater. I used to ride a bike for an hour almost everyday for a month, and that's when I grew an inch. I also do 50 push ups a day, and my arms are pretty long for my height. My sleeping habits are not good though. I get around 7 or 5 hours of sleep during summer, but when school starts I get about 8 to 10 hours of sleep.

Should I continue that routine of biking to help my growth or was that a coincidence? Or am I lacking protein to help me grow, because I'm part vegetarian? Should I sleep more? I also crack my back a lot, is that bad?

Answer 1

sleeping as much as possible is good. but i also think that you need more protein. you might want to try nuts if you dont like meat.

Answer 2

you're done growing sadly.

BUT the running doesn't mean you're too short and thats why you're slowing down...

it could be because of stress or lack of sleep. You have short in your gene

Answer 3

You won't stop growing until you're about 20/21 so you've still got time to catch up! Some say you can guess how tall you'll by combining the heights of your parents and dividing by two... but I'm not sure how accurate that would be.

You don't need to eat much meat if you're not keen on it, but you do need to make sure you get proteins and 'good' fats from somewhere - nuts perhaps as they are a good source of both. One thing though is that you don't mention any intake of calcium - through cheese, milk etc. That's important in a diet, and is a factor in bone growth, too.

Lastly, your sleeping habits seem fine to me. As long as you get at least 7 hours or so most nights you should be fine. (So don't worry if you don't get 7 every night, just try to keep it steady)

As for cracking your back... my brother is well over 6feet and does it all the time. I don't think its an issue!