Do You Grow Taller When You Lose Weight?

Losing weight can offer many health benefits, but many people wonder if you’d grow taller when you lose weight. It is true that you will look leaner after losing weight and that may give an impression that your height has increased. It may also affect your posture a bit and make you look taller. However, the truth is that your body will stop growing after a specific time, and that is when losing weight may not help with your height.

Do You Grow Taller When You Lose Weight?

If you have to lose a few pounds to be in a healthy weight range, losing weight would not make any difference to your height. The change in height is possible and is usually the outcome of the exercise you do to lose weight. Doing functional exercises on a regular basis is going to help improve your posture, which in turn can make you look taller. However, you are likely to notice a clear difference in height if you are clinically obese and decide to shed those extra pounds. This will help make it easier to stand taller and look taller as well.

It is also important to bear in mind that ultimately your height is dependent on the environment and your genetics. If growth plates have not yet closed, you can try a number of ways to increase your chances of reaching your maximum height potential. Keep in mind though that height plates are likely to close in your mid-20s, after which it is not possible to increase your height unless you opt for some surgical procedures.

Is There a Way to Grow Taller?

As mentioned already, you are not going to see any significant change in your height after the growth plates have closed. Before that happens, you can try a number of techniques and use exercises to help improve your height. Here are a few suggestions:

1.    Sleep More

Studies have found that your body grows when you are asleep. In your teen years, you need at between 8.5 and 11 hours of sleep per night. When you are resting, your body uses this time to regenerate tissue. Your body also releases the human growth hormone (HGH) during sleep, which helps promote growth, including your height. Be sure to create comfortable sleeping environment to get adequate sleep. It is a good idea to keep your body straight while sleeping as it helps keep your spine in an elongated position, which improves posture and helps improve height at the same time. Moreover, you should avoid using a pillow while sleeping because it can push your neck forward and leave you with neck and upper back pain. And of course, your mattress needs to be comfortable yet firm enough to keep your spine in a neutral position.

2.    Pay Attention to Your Diet

Do you grow taller when you lose weight? Not likely but you can improve your chances of getting better results by paying attention to your diet. Be sure to increase your intake of important minerals and vitamins. You need to ensure that you are getting enough carbs and calories to provide your body with energy to handle day-to-day tasks. Here are some other steps to take:

  • Be sure to include green veggies and dairy products in your diet to increase your intake of calcium. You can also take a calcium supplement if you are severely deficient in this mineral.
  • Include a niacin supplement in your diet to help increase growth hormone levels.
  • Include alfalfa, fish, and mushrooms in your diet to get enough vitamin D. You should spend more time out in the sun to get vitamin-D, which is essential for muscle and bone growth in children.
  • Increase your intake of lean protein, such as tofu, beans, eggs, cheese, meat, and legumes. Without enough protein, your body just cannot grow in a healthy way. You may consider taking a protein supplement or protein powder if you think you are not getting enough from your diet.
  • Get more zinc from foods like eggs, peanuts, chocolate, oysters, and asparagus. Stunted growth is often the result of a zinc deficiency, so it is important to get enough of it daily.
  • Maintain a regular eating schedule. Ensure that you are eating at least three meals a day with small snacks in between those meals. It is important to take your last meal of the day at least 4 hours before going to bed. Getting enough protein will keep you from feeling hungry and help you manage your weight as well.
  • Eat something after regular intervals. When you are still growing, you should not think of dieting as a way to manage weight. Getting enough of right types of foods will help your body grow in a healthy way and prevent stunted growth. You can certainly limit the amount of sugar, fats, and carbs, but you will still need enough of these to fuel your body. Therefore, it is better to lose weight with exercise than dieting, especially when your body is still growing.

3.    Exercise More

Do you grow taller when you lose weight? This may not be the case if your growth plates have already closed. If that is not the case and you are still growing, exercise like biking, swimming, yoga, and running will help promote growth. You can also do all sorts of stretches to help feel better and improve your height. Here are a couple of exercises that are going to help you a lot when you want to increase height. Be sure to perform them twice a day: once in the morning and once before going to bed.

  • Swimming is one of the best exercises to do. It may help increase your height because it elongates your muscles. Therefore, a few laps twice a day will work wonders.
  • Tickle massage is another good option. It involves massaging your knees for 10 minutes. The process will trick your body into releasing growth chemicals that will help increase growth of your bones.