Expert: Ryan Hale - 10/6/2010

Question
Hi,
I'm am a 19 year old guy and when I was about 17, I had an eating disorder. I am now past it, but I was wondering if it could have stunted my growth. I would eat very little, sometimes a meal a day. I was 150 pounds, 5'10, when I started and was about 110 when I stopped.

It lasted about 6 months, maybe a bit more. If it did stunt my growth, can I still keep growing even though I'm 19? I'm now back at 150.
Thank You  

Answer
John-  there's good news and bad news.  First, the longer you've been experiencing the disorder, the longer lasting the effects and the better the possibility that irreversible damage can occur.  Your experience lasted months rather than years like some.  It will take a while for your body to "get back to normal."  By that I mean for your metabolism to stabilize and for your growth to take place at the rate your body wants to grow.

Which brings us to my second point, males can often keep growing into our twenties.  Although we are pretty much grown by the time we hit 20 or 21, we can still grow in height and around the mid twenties we can really fill out with lean muscle (if we are eating healthy and exercising).  There's a reason guys win the Mr Olympia body building competition when they are in their early and mid thirties.  It's also the reason I've seen football players recruited as a fast position player out of high school end up as a defensive end or line backer by the time they graduate from college... they've gained the ability to put on size (and not just size, lean muscle weight).

At 5ft 10 in and 150 lbs and age 19 you have the ability to grow taller (though typically at this point we're talking 1/2in to 1 in if at all), and you can fill out to a larger size but through healthy eating and exercise, you can also make sure that size is a healthy body composition and not just body fat.