How can a teenager grow taller fast?

by   |   Dec 08, 2022
5/5 - (1 vote)

It is a fairly common desire to want to change your physical appearance so that it matches what society considers beautiful, especially for young people. Of all our physical attributes, our height is one that can cause serious concern. Teenagers going through puberty are even more subject to worrying about how to grow taller and what their adult height will be. This insight has led to a deluge of tips on how to increase height for teens across various media platforms. However, are any of these tips authentic? Read on to find out!

Get enough sleep

There are many factors influential on your adult height. Aside from genetics that most people believe to be the only determinant factor, nutrition, exercise, living environment, and sleep also contribute significantly to height growth. Therefore, the first and easiest step to increase height for teens is to get enough sleep.

Get-enough-sleep-to-grow-taller-fast

Occasionally skimping on sleep will not affect your height in the long run but if you regularly sleep less than the recommended amount during adolescence, you might risk slow growth or even failing to reach your genetic potential height.

The reason is that your body releases growth hormone during sleep, and obviously, the production of this hormone will go down if you do not get sufficient sleep. The recommended amount of sleep for all teens are 8-10 hours [1]. Besides, getting extra sleep may even increase growth hormone production, so go ahead and take that power nap.

Eat plenty of nutritious food

Needless to say, good nutrition is pivotal to our bodies at all stages of life. Throughout the growth spurt of puberty, nutrient and calorie requirements are at one of their highest points in our entire lifespan; as a result, it is important to pay attention to the food going into your body to increase height for teens.

Although no magical foods can make you taller instantly, there are some foods that your body needs to grow during your growth spurt, including:

  • Fresh fruits
  • Fresh vegetables
  • Whole grains
  • Proteins
  • Dairy.

Get enough protein, but not too much

Of all the major nutrients, protein is the most important contributor to height growth. Proteins are the building blocks for all muscles, organs, bones, and other tissues that grow and develop during the growth spurt.

Including a good amount of foods from the protein food group into your diet is another quick way to increase height for teens. Some protein-rich foods are eggs, meat, fish, poultry, nuts, nut butter, and seeds.

Most teens in puberty need at least a half gram of protein per pound of bodyweight. However, it should be noted that getting enough protein does not mean pig out on protein. More than one gram per pound of bodyweight does not seem to make a difference in height growth and is probably associated with dehydration.

Focus on Calcium and Vitamin D

Calcium and Vitamin D are vital ingredients in helping you grow stronger bones and promoting muscle growth for children and teenagers. A deficiency of Calcium and Vitamin D can lead to stunted growth and notwithstanding this, many teens make light of these bone-forming nutrients and fail to consume sufficient amounts for bone growth during puberty.

Focus-on-Calcium-and-Vitamin-D

Fortunately, it is better late than never. You can still ameliorate this by incorporating sources of Calcium and Vitamin D into your diets. Most of your Calcium consumption comes from dairy products. Teenagers are advised to consume the equivalent of three cups of Calcium-rich dairy foods a day.

If you are lactose intolerant, there are plenty of alternatives to dairy products that help increase height for teens, such as leafy greens, canned fish, soy products, Calcium-fortified juices, cereals, and bread.

On the other hand, foods rich in Vitamin D include mushrooms, oily fish, and fortified cereals. Besides, sunlight is the best way to get Vitamin D naturally. A few minutes of sun exposure a day and you can get the right amount of Vitamin D your body needs to grow taller.

Build healthy eating patterns

Bad eating patterns are pretty popular among teenagers, which unfortunately gets in the way of their reaching maximum height. Arguably, the most common bad eating pattern is skipping meals.

It can lead to either overeating or too much hunger. With this in mind, all teens should try to eat three meals per day without skipping, even a light meal such as a banana or a smoothie is better than skipping altogether. To build healthy eating patterns, try to spread your daily food intake evenly throughout the day and time your meals in a rhythmic way (every 3-5 hours).

Reign in snacking

Reign-in-snacking-to-grow-taller-fast

As part of their erratic eating habits, teens make up for delayed eating or skipped meals with snacking. Snacking has many harmful effects on the teen’s body such as potential overeating or undesirable food choices, and eventually hindering your maximum height growth.

Hence, in order to increase height for teens, it is advisable to be thoughtful and strategic with snack choices. But snacking is not entirely bad if you are a bit underweight or a slow weight gainer. In this case, you can enjoy some healthy bedtime snack as it provides your body with a few extra calories that cannot be burned off by the day’s activities.

Promote physical activity

The last but not least way to increase height for teens is to exercise more. Exercise is crucial for not only your height growth during puberty but also your overall health. If you want to make the most of your teenage years to reach your maximum height, get in the habit of exercising your body.

Although there is no particular exercise to increase height instantaneously, all exercises are good, especially those that involve jumping and stretching such as basketball, skipping, and swimming as they help lengthen your spine. Whatever you do, try to do an hour of exercise a day to be healthy.

Cut down on sugar

Eating too many sugar-packed foods or drinking sugary beverages instead of nutritionally-rich foods will affect the height of your kids remarkably. If their tummy is full of sugar, they might not have room for loading more lean protein, whole grains, veggies, fruits, and dairy products that they need for proper growth and development. However, that does not mean you cut down on sugar totally. Make sure you still supply an adequate amount of sugar for kids every day (less than 6 teaspoons of sugar or 25 grams).

Reduce body weight

For some, losing weight is not going to make any difference in your height. The improved posture attained from exercise might make you look noticeably taller. But if you are overweight, losing a significant amount of weight will leave you a taller look. Studies have shown that obesity might contribute to weakened bone structure and metabolism, thereby leading to osteoporosis and causing height loss.

Expose yourself to the sun frequently

As mentioned above, getting vitamin D produced by sunlight might enhance stronger and larger bones. When your skin is exposed to sunlight, the UVB rays hit cholesterol in your skin cells and then give the energy for vitamin D synthesis to happen. To synthesize enough vitamin D, you should spend between 5 and 30 minutes a day or at least twice a week, preferably from 10 a.m to 4 p.m. Make sure you let your face, arms, hands, and legs be exposed directly to sunlight without sunscreen.

Take height growth supplements

There are some cases where using supplements can help improve height in children. These height-increasing pills can provide the necessary nutrients such as calcium, vitamins, proteins, etc., which are important for boosting height and the natural growth rate. But all claims are sometimes not true, especially those that promise to increase your height in a short time. Remember that it must be advised to take on doctor recommendations. Importantly, it requires a consistent use to help your body absorb the necessary nutrients to grow.

To give yourself the best chance of growing taller, try to follow all these tips and make them a part of your daily routine. The bottom line is that once you have reached adulthood, you cannot grow any taller. Therefore, it is vitally important that you take good care of your health, including your height growth, during your teenage years so that you do not have to regret later in life.

[1] https://www.sleepfoundation.org/articles/how-much-sleep-do-we-really-need

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