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[ivan]

Today I had a meeting with a former classmate. I mentioned politely that he has gained a lot of weight (he was was pretty much obese). He said he gained it after stopping lifting weights but he's still ok since he's 186 cm tall and 95 kg is not that much for his height. I was a bit surprised since I can tell if a person is that tall regardless of my shorter stature. However when my ~180 cm brother joined us he was barely taller than him, may be an inch at most and that's if the person is so obsessed with height (like I am).
I know it's typical for guys (and even women) to inflate their height but not more than an inch. I personally round 173.7 cm to 174 cm but adding another 5 cm to be almost 179 cm will be laughable.
What are you thoughts?

[myloginacct]

Men will generally always inflate what could be considered a positive aspect of themselves to others: be it height, penis size, muscularity, intelligence, etc.

In fact, I often see men rounding up their heights to 170cm and 180cm when they're shorter than that, but those numbers are around the average of the countries they live in. I'm talking about 3-4cm of rounding up.

I personally round 173.7 cm to 174 cm but adding another 5 cm to be almost 179 cm will be laughable.

Actually, this seems easier to pull off in the US (due to the Imperial system, maybe). I've read about users here who were 5'6 claiming to be 5'8~'5'9 in their online dating profiles, and not being called out on it. That's being 1,67m and claiming to be 1,73~1,75m in metric. I guess it's a combination of shorter people (than you) having a harder time estimating the height of taller people, the fact that most men inflate their height so most people don't have a real grasp of what the the real heights look like, and that inflating your own height in a country that uses the Imperial system skews people's perceptions even further from the truth. Some people might just not care as much after meeting in person, too.

[ivan]

I can see this is if the person is dating a shorter woman. For example my mother is 162 cm and she consider my brother very tall when he is only slightly above average here. However when sharing my height with a male friend I'm afraid to be called a liar so I'd even downgrade myself 0.7 mm to be safe. I guess if I was using imperial units I'll also be inclined to lie. 

[myloginacct]

I can see this is if the person is dating a shorter woman. For example my mother is 162 cm and she consider my brother very tall when he is only slightly above average here. However when sharing my height with a male friend I'm afraid to be called a liar so I'd even downgrade myself 0.7 mm to be safe. I guess if I was using imperial units I'll also be inclined to lie. 

By the way, that other thread I made about height changes over the world got me thinking. Ignore estimates of average height for this. When you consider that the average discrepancy in height between men and women has stayed 10~12cm around the whole world for a century, it seems like this could be an easy way to estimate the real average height in a country (at least in homogeneous societies).

If you consider Dutch women are supposed to average 170cm nowadays, adding 10~12cm to that will net you 180~182cm, the average for Dutch men.

By the way, I know it sucks being shorter than your brother, but I find 174cm to be pretty good. Of course one could always use more, but that's nice.

[ivan]

Thanks! It's really annoying being the short one but at least I'm the young one too so I can have some kind of excuse besides the fact that both parents are kind of short to begin with.

Yes, I do agree with this and I think Dutch people tend to be no more than 182 cm on average. They can get away with claiming 183 cm and higher due to the fact there are significant percentage of very tall people there. Most of the Dutch males I have seen are around 180 cm, give or take a few cms. It's as common to see a short Dutch male as a really tall one.

[Knik]

Women are also lying as men, and clearly no less than men

[myloginacct]

Thanks! It's really annoying being the short one but at least I'm the young one too so I can have some kind of excuse besides the fact that both parents are kind of short to begin with.

Yes, I do agree with this and I think Dutch people tend to be no more than 182 cm on average. They can get away with claiming 183 cm and higher due to the fact there are significant percentage of very tall people there. Most of the Dutch males I have seen are around 180 cm, give or take a few cms. It's as common to see a short Dutch male as a really tall one.

I'm the older one and the shorter one! And guess what: people always assume I'm the younger brother. Due to my height neurosis, I always assume it's due to our height difference. But I asked some friends about it and they said it's just because my face looks younger.

I also brought this point up because women tend lie about or inflate their height less than men. Self-reported height surveys are more common too. If you can grab the average female height in a country, then add 10~12cm, then you have a pretty good foundation for the average male height in said country, granted they're not currently like Japan or South Korea enough years ago, when their heights were skyrocketing.

If you get some measured surveys, even, telling you the average female height in a developed, homogeneous, first-world country, then I think that's as good as a basis can get to estimate the real average height of men in said countries.

[ivan]

Not that it's as good as being taller but being youthful is a still a decent trade-off in my opinion.

Recently I read that Latvian woman is averaging almost 170 cm - the same height as her Dutch counterpart which may put the average Latvian man at ~182 cm. However I can't find any statistical information regarding the male height in that country.

[Knik]

Not that it's as good as being taller but being youthful is a still a decent trade-off in my opinion.

Recently I read that Latvian woman is averaging almost 170 cm - the same height as her Dutch counterpart which may put the average Latvian man at ~182 cm. However I can't find any statistical information regarding the male height in that country.

I doubt that anywhere in the world female average can be as tall as 170, and the fact is that even people from baltic countries pretend that it is not the case

[myloginacct]

Not that it's as good as being taller but being youthful is a still a decent trade-off in my opinion.

Recently I read that Latvian woman is averaging almost 170 cm - the same height as her Dutch counterpart which may put the average Latvian man at ~182 cm. However I can't find any statistical information regarding the male height in that country.

Yep. I'd take being youthful looking, 176~178cm, with a good shoulder-to-waist ratio, over being any taller than that with an ogre face and a "thick" waist.

[myloginacct]

Thanks! It's really annoying being the short one but at least I'm the young one too so I can have some kind of excuse besides the fact that both parents are kind of short to begin with.

Yes, I do agree with this and I think Dutch people tend to be no more than 182 cm on average. They can get away with claiming 183 cm and higher due to the fact there are significant percentage of very tall people there. Most of the Dutch males I have seen are around 180 cm, give or take a few cms. It's as common to see a short Dutch male as a really tall one.

How tall is your father, by the way? In case you don't mind the question.

[ivan]

He is pretty much my height but he is in his early 50s so he might have been a good centimeter taller in his youth.

[myloginacct]

He is pretty much my height but he is in his early 50s so he might have been a good centimeter taller in his youth.

Ah, you did good still, then! I'm shorter than my father and younger brother. Our parents are also of very similar heights (my father is 175cm, maybe he was taller when younger), but I ended up shorter than you.

[ivan]

If you don't mind telling, how tall are you (totally ok if you do)? I know few people that are pretty shorter than their father due to their parents height difference. I already shared in another post of mine about a guy that's about 8 cm shorter than his father, even with a pretty average height mother (btw, his brother is pretty much the same height as his father)