While I was weighing in on the old doctor's scale, I fiddled around with the height ruler that extends frome the scale pole. Then I stopped playing and checked three more times. Then I ran home and got my 16 year-old to measure me against the bathroom door frame. The verdict remained unchanged: 5'4.1", meaning I have shrunk 1½ inches!

As my bemused bairn blithely informed me, men lose an inch every 30 years, so at 50 I am perfectly average. Yeah, thanks a lot, kid! You try to have a statistic ripped from you that's been your loyal friend ever since puberty, a height which stood by you steadfast and unchanging even as your width violently careened out of control and back again. Wait… oh no… my weight!

I ran to the computer and recomputed my BMI. Sure enough, my universe had been knocked off it's axis once again. At 5.5½, I was looking at a BMI of 22.2… but my newly calculated " height" bumped me up to 23.1! No fair! I didn't do anything wrong, officer!

Now I'm not going to get myself seriously out of joint about this, considering that before surgery 2½ years ago I had a 47 BMI to my name, but still, something of a bummer, no? I suppose I have to find me some serious stretching excercizes, right? Really, though: does this mean I'm calcium deficient, or what? How do you contend with unintended shrinking?

Edited August 15, 201015 yr by bandpal

Interesting thoughts...but I have no idea "how to stop shrinking"..... :-)

I think it would be a great idea for you to talk to your doctor about this and maybe get an xray. Loss of height can be incredibly abnormal. Sure, some shrinkage is normal with age, but if your loss was 1.5 inches in a short amount of time then it might be a symptom of something more sinister. Vertebral crush fractures will cause height loss, these can happen if osteoporosis runs in your family or for a number of other reasons.

In any case, call your primary care physician and get seen. Don't sit on it.

One thing to consider is have your feet shrunk? A person could have a very thick fat pad at the bottom of their feet, and as they lose weight, that fat pad shrinks as well as the rest of the body. I'm not sure if this would account for a loss of 1.5 inches, but it's possible. Have you noticed your shoes getting looser or going down a shoe size?

I was 5'11" 29 years ago when I was 17 years old.

I'm lucky to get a 5'9" these days.

I attribute it to age and my spine setting. I've always been flat-footed but that sounds like another acceptable reason.

I'm sure there are some quacks out there willing to stretch you for a price.

The average person is taller after a good nights sleep. Did u measure yourself in the am. or pm? I was told there could be a 1/2inch difference.

I seem to have Decompressed. At 22 I was 6'6". At 35 I barely hit 6'5". With 34 less pounds, my postures has signifigantly changed and maybe my spine straightened and has decompressed. I have almost made up that inch I lost. I lost fat from the tops of my feet, which make all my shoes fit funny.