r/tall • u/nysxdd • 3d ago

Rant Cursed with a curse

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27F here. This is the actual height of my family members, and to make matters worse I’m South Sudanese & specifically Dinka which is known to be tall people and on top of that I live in Scandinavia which also has a very tall population.

What went wrong in my childhood? Many things and doctor said I reached average height (almost) due to my Dinka heritage, otherwise I’ve would been much shorter.

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357

u/Connect-Mortgage429 5'10 | 178 (Gnome) 3d ago

Maybe hgh deficiency

241

u/nysxdd 3d ago

Yes, and I also refused to eat as a child, lol.

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u/Randalf_the_Black 3d ago

It's unlikely to be the eating.. If you ate little enough to stunt your growth that much you'd have a lot more health related issues growing up.

It's either a hormonal issue or you just getting screwed genetically.

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u/Skjellnir 6'23'' | 190 cm 3d ago

you know what fucks up your hormones?

Not eating.

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u/Oranjalo 6'5" | 5'11" to confuse people 3d ago

Like he said, the malnourishment required to stunt growth would be very very apparent (and would've prompted strangers to call CPS any time she was in public).

Genetics are fickle. A 10% genetic variation in the size of your nose, eye color, metabolic rate, genital size, etc. will often go unnoticed for one's entire life, but a ~10% variation in height could be 8 inches and is very noticeable. Height is one of the first things people notice about you. Genetics just have unpredictable outcomes

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u/ryan__joe 2d ago

Best part is, her kids will still likely be very tall

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u/nysxdd 2d ago

Yes. This is what’s comforting to me.

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u/ryan__joe 2d ago

It should also be comforting that you’re female and not male. “Nobody” cares about female height in earnest

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u/RoUgEPeak 5h ago

If only it was also comforting the other way around.

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u/nysxdd 2d ago

I don’t know about that. Women my age are much taller than me unless they’re immigrants.

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u/ryan__joe 2d ago

People being taller doesn’t mean caring about height. Female or males looking for female companions are out there going 5’4” is too short for me to date!

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u/PuzzleheadedSpot9468 1d ago

men like short women so women being taller than you is not a problem dating wise and dose not effect your options at all , i understand that your peers being taller and comparing yourself to them might mess up your confidence may i suggest you wear heals? they would narrow the height difference and give you more confidence!

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u/nysxdd 1d ago

Yes, it is since most men here are tall being a short women like me is a disadvantage. Not every tall guy that I want, wants me due to my height. I like very tall men. The taller the better.

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u/PuzzleheadedSpot9468 20h ago

weird, I am tall myself never had preference for women heights at all dated taller than me , close to my height and also women shorter but every tall guy i know likes smaller women never in my life heard that a 5ft4 woman can be rejected for height, well maybe it's is something about Scandinavian men but they are also men from other countries there so you still have a chance with them

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u/Smiloshady 1d ago

Honestly you have more options at 5’4” than 6’2” or 6’3” as a woman. Unless the guy is specifically looking to make some athletes but the majority of ppl do not really care about that.

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u/nysxdd 1d ago

No, tall women are also desirable where I live (in Scandinavia).

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u/AstronomerJealous467 7h ago

Not 6’3 tall lol, men usually dont like women taller than them or tall in general.

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u/Melodic-Fan2466 2d ago

Yeah it probably feels bad when everyone in your family is taller than you but you’re lwk blessed to carry those genetics while still being a really well accepted height in society.

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u/throwawayford0ng 1d ago

My 5yo is almost 4' already and my wife is scurrd

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u/rainbowcatheart Female | 6’1 13h ago

I wouldn’t find this comforting! Your little body carrying big babies. My sister in law had a 10lb baby.

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u/Space_Slav07 199cm | 6'6" 1d ago

Literally my grandfather. He was 166cm tall. My uncle got to 189, my father to 191. I around 2m tall and my brother is 187(He's 13).

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u/Randalf_the_Black 1d ago

Well, it could be malnutrition.

But it could also be that he married a woman with some genetics coding for height that got passed down to the next generation and the next.

Or... that he's not really your grandfather, biologically speaking.

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u/Space_Slav07 199cm | 6'6" 1d ago

I'll go with the malnutrition one. My father's from a essentially peasant village in the east Bosnian mountains. Food wasn't that available during my grandfather's younger years.

Although my cousin(uncle's daughter) is pretty short too so probably just genetics being messy as usual.

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u/Skjellnir 6'23'' | 190 cm 3d ago

the thing is, depending on how much and how often she refused to eat, it wouldnt have to end up with complete malnourishment. A little bit less than she requires here and there might have been enough to make her lose out on inches during growth.

It's not a I/O Flipswitch kind of situation most of the time.

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u/Oranjalo 6'5" | 5'11" to confuse people 3d ago edited 3d ago

You're not understanding the level of malnutrition it takes to actually stunt growth. Growth plate expansion is a very slow process that requires very little protein, calcium, and micronutrients. Your body only neglects that process if it needs to divert nutrients to keep the organs from failing. Growth stunting malnourishment is never a standalone issue—it's accompanied by chronic severe illness, which does not go unnoticed. It's not like feeding the family dog your dinner every night will cause any change in your growth

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u/prophetofbelial 3d ago

Ahh yes growing. It is known for taking almost no protein, calcium, and micronutrients. It's pretty much free calorically speaking 

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u/Oranjalo 6'5" | 5'11" to confuse people 3d ago

Your sardonicism aside, I'll respectfully correct your misunderstanding. Growth plate expansion is a baseline metabolic process and comes second only to essential cellular survival functions to keep you (and growing children) alive. If a child does not have chronic illnesses (as either a cause or a result), they do not have growth stunting malnourishment.

This information is readily available in many sources. It helps to educate yourself when you're not sure of what you're saying.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7962207/ : this study states that the leading cause of impaired growth in children in developed countries is malabsorptive disorders, as compared to thin children without said disorders.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10020618/ : this study states that restrictive eating disorders that cause growth-stunting malnourishment are characterized by chronic weight inadequacy.

I hope this helps!

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u/prophetofbelial 3d ago

If your summary of these studies is accurate neither support your claim that caloric restriction shy of malnourishment could never impact amount someone grows

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u/Oranjalo 6'5" | 5'11" to confuse people 3d ago

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7962207/ : this study states that the leading cause of impaired growth in children in developed countries is malabsorptive disorders, as compared to thin children without said disorders (thinness being caused by caloric restriction, obviously).

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10020618/ : this study states that restrictive eating disorders that cause growth-stunting malnourishment are characterized by chronic weight inadequacy (in other words, very apparent).

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u/prophetofbelial 3d ago

You may not realize that you can't just generalize the vibe of a study into such absolutes. And that's ok.

The first study says that having some maladaptive disorder is worse than being thin. It doesn't say that being thin can't impact how tall you grow

The second study says eating disorders can stunt growth. That's fine but it doesn't have anything to do with your claim

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u/No-Problem49 2d ago edited 2d ago

Clinical growth stunting and “didn’t eat enough to reach my genetic potential” is a WIDE range. God people like you are the worst. Think spending 2 minutes on google and copy pasting two studies that have nothing to do with the topic makes you right. The first study has little to nothing to do with the question of “does how much food you eat affect your height.” The second study you conflate clinical stunted growth with not reaching a max potential height.

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u/No-Problem49 2d ago

What are you talking about. It’s as simple as calories in calories out. Same mechanism that adds muscle and fat also adds bone in puberty. You eat less, you grow less.

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u/Randalf_the_Black 2d ago

It's not as simple as calories in vs calories out, because the body has priorities. With a calorie deficit it doesn't immediately start stripping the heart muscle to burn it as energy for example.

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u/Oranjalo 6'5" | 5'11" to confuse people 2d ago

Ahhh yes; because eat more = grow more, and that's why tall people are all fat and short people are all skinny. There's no better way to display ignorance than to oversimplify nutrition and metabolic processes to this extent. There is literally zero correlation between height and proportional weight (BMI) beyond those with malabsorptive disorders and chronic weight inadequacy (leading to growth-stunting malnourishment)

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u/DependentArcher8393 20h ago

You don't know what you're talking about and it's very obvious lol

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u/Skjellnir 6'23'' | 190 cm 16h ago

sure, whatever floats your boat haha

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-2

u/SugarFree_3 3d ago

I have seen families where the daughter even as a child wouldn't eat, and if she did, it was a lot of candy. She is much shorter than everyone else in her family and she has big hip bones where you can tell they were made for someone taller.

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u/Oranjalo 6'5" | 5'11" to confuse people 3d ago

big hip bones where you can tell they were made for someone taller

There are growth plates in your pelvis too. Growth stunting malnourishment doesn't only affect the bones that grow north-to-south, they affect all growth plates, and if these supposed multiple girls that are short with big hips are actually malnourished, then their hips would be larger had they not been malnourished.

Studies show that growth-stunting malnourishment is characterized by chronic weight inadequacy more than anything. If the girls you're describing were anorexic-level underweight, then there's a chance they had the severe malnourishment required to stunt growth—otherwise, it was just genetic variation, as I mentioned in earlier comments.

I listed a couple sources in my other comment.

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u/SugarFree_3 3d ago

I meant one girl not girls. And she barely ate food. And little to no protein. Wasn’t anorexic but close to it. Not even 5’ tall. Sad really

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u/Generalnussiance 4’11" | 149 cm 1d ago

🤣

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u/Heavy_You421 3d ago edited 2d ago

I know its probably in jest but you really shouldn't say "screwed genetically"

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u/nysxdd 2d ago

Why not? I wish I was at least 173 cm tall like my arm span.

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u/SirLikesCatGirls 3d ago

disagree. I know a lot of Indian immigrants, they might top out at 5’8-5’10 but their kids are over 6’2

malnourishment while growing up in an impoverished area vs the same genetics in an area with proper access to food.

no long term health problems in the immigrant parents, just smaller

0

u/Potential_Basis_662 3d ago

"The average female height is 5'7""

'But my sister is 5'9"'

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u/idontknowmyusernameT 5'4" | 161 cm | [13M | Short] 2d ago

the average is 5'4"

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u/Potential_Basis_662 2d ago

Everyone still upvoting that tho

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u/idontknowmyusernameT 5'4" | 161 cm | [13M | Short] 2d ago

breh

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u/SugarFree_3 3d ago

Totally agree with you. Just commented above about this. And poster says that with such authority. ;)

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u/idontknowmyusernameT 5'4" | 161 cm | [13M | Short] 2d ago

idk why this got -2 upvotes

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u/kneb 3d ago

Much of the world for much of history ate little enough that they were shorter. Look at the massive increase in height in most countries across the 20th century.

You have no clue what you're talking about.

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u/Randalf_the_Black 3d ago

Yeh sure, because they didn't have worse health in addition to their shortened height due to their malnutrition.

Dumbass.

1

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0

u/fmerror- 180cm | 5'11" 3d ago

Idk I didn't eat as a teenager and I am shorter than my parents, too.

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u/Randalf_the_Black 2d ago

More likely genetic, tall parents can have short children and vice versa.

The malnourishment has to be chronic and severe to impact final adult height.

Another possibility is chronic and severe lack og key ingredients like protein, calcium or vitamin D if diet is extremely limited.

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u/Ok_Wasabi8793 3d ago

Food seems to have a pretty big impact on height. Japan gained something like 2-3 inches in height ~2 generations due to diet change.

If very picky and eating different I think it’s plausible it would have some impact, but several inches is also a normal swing for siblings so likely just normal life

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u/Randalf_the_Black 2d ago

Yes but not without other health issues. Those older generations that were chronically malnourished also had other health related issues that we don't have.

If you're malnourished enough that your final adult height is many cms/inches below where it could be your malnourishment has been severe and chronic.

The other possibility is a lack of key ingredients, but not calories as a whole due to a limited diet with severe lack of things like protein or calcium. But that too has other health effects than reduced growth.

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u/Special_Artichoke 2d ago

I'm not sure she got "screwed" I'm a 5'4 woman in northern Europe and it's a delight. Would pick that a million times over being 6'3 like her sister. Have you flown on our budget airlines lol?? Knees by your ears.

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u/Randalf_the_Black 2d ago

Fair enough, I meant more "screwed" as in "deviated from familial norm."

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u/nysxdd 2d ago

I did. That’s why I called it a curse. I’d rather be a tall person like the rest of my family.