No estimates directed towards me, the person will usually make one of the standard tall comments like -- You're tall, did you play basketball? How tall are you? My answers are straightforward, I'll say something like--Yes, I'm tall, I'm a member of the tall club. I did play basketball, and my height is 6' 6". To try a different response, I'll return a question with a question -- how tall do you think I am? Hope to get some data soon for this thread.

TallPoppy · 2010-07-26 04:46:36

Usually under, I think - maybe cos they don't expect a girl to be over 6'...

jheri · 2010-07-26 10:51:07

I usually tell less out of force of habit -actually I rarely give a number. As for guesses, men usually guess taller and women shorter. One little boy came up with an excellent phrase, so I sometimes use it "you know how tall ten oranges are if you stacked them on top of each other?Well, I 'm taller than that."

My two meter friend says many short people put her height at six feet or over six feet.

Jimna · 2010-07-27 00:15:00

jheri wrote:

I usually tell less out of force of habit -actually I rarely give a number. As for guesses, men usually guess taller and women shorter. One little boy came up with an excellent phrase, so I sometimes use it "you know how tall ten oranges are if you stacked them on top of each other?Well, I 'm taller than that."
My two meter friend says many short people put her height at six feet or over six feet.

Do you mean her height is guessed to be 6' or over 6' or did you mean 6'6? I mean that's weird I'd recognize a 6'6-6'7 women out of 6' women.

I hope I didn't all misinterpret

Last edited by Jimna (2010-07-27 00:15:58)

DosMetros · 2010-07-27 02:03:32

A missed opportunity today to start a personal tall question survey, and to relay that info to this thread. I was asked "how tall are you?" and I told him, out of habit, I'm 6'6". Rats, I'll try to remember next time to return the question with a question.

jheri · 2010-07-27 03:23:52

Jimna wrote:

jheri wrote:
I usually tell less out of force of habit -actually I rarely give a number. As for guesses, men usually guess taller and women shorter. One little boy came up with an excellent phrase, so I sometimes use it "you know how tall ten oranges are if you stacked them on top of each other?Well, I 'm taller than that."
My two meter friend says many short people put her height at six feet or over six feet.
Do you mean her height is guessed to be 6' or over 6' or did you mean 6'6? I mean that's weird I'd recognize a 6'6-6'7 women out of 6' women.
I hope I didn't all misinterpret

Short people will say "you must be six feet tall" or say "you must be over six feet tall" to her. It is like that is a magic number meaning very tall.

LT-1 · 2010-07-27 20:04:10

Everyone always over estimates my height. If I had a dollar for every ignorant person that has said to me, 'are you 7 feet somethin'? I'd be rich!

Jimna · 2010-07-28 02:28:00

LT-1 wrote:

Everyone always over estimates my height. If I had a dollar for every ignorant person that has said to me, 'are you 7 feet somethin'? I'd be rich!

May ask are you M/F?

"Bad News" Bob · 2010-07-28 04:03:24

This is one of those times that I don't really have a dog in this race, as one of the shorter guys on this forum and don't tend to get many people asking me about my height or guessing it for that matter. In fact in the past month I've had several people ask me how much I bench press, but only one person ask me about my height.

flatlander · 2010-07-28 04:27:50

I work in retail. My manager told me that a mystery shopper had come in and had given my a good evaluation, but that I had not been wearing my nametag. When I asked how they could tell I was the person who had helped her the manager referred to the description which involved a woman with short brown hair who was 6'3"! I guess the shopper was short.

jheri · 2010-07-28 11:33:02

"Bad News" Bob wrote:

This is one of those times that I don't really have a dog in this race, as one of the shorter guys on this forum and don't tend to get many people asking me about my height or guessing it for that matter. In fact in the past month I've had several people ask me how much I bench press, but only one person ask me about my height.

This is a positive thing. I get asked about my running times and sometimes people will make a guess on my time. The most common is guessing my 10k time. People over and underestimate. I'm not upset with any of this. Most of the people are probably runners too. No one is going to ask how much I lift:-)

LT-1 · 2010-07-28 12:55:30

Jimna wrote:

LT-1 wrote:
Everyone always over estimates my height. If I had a dollar for every ignorant person that has said to me, 'are you 7 feet somethin'? I'd be rich!
May ask are you M/F?

Of course you can! I've been around so long, I just assume everyone knows I'm a female. I get so offended when people say -- what are you seven foot? I don't know, it just feels demeaning in some way. I guess if they were being more accurate or a little closer to my correct height, I wouldn't feel so badly and certainly this is no commentary on those of us who are actually 7 feet tall. It just feels like a put down when people say it to me.

Jimna · 2010-07-28 21:26:47

LT-1 wrote:

Jimna wrote:
LT-1 wrote:
Everyone always over estimates my height. If I had a dollar for every ignorant person that has said to me, 'are you 7 feet somethin'? I'd be rich!
May ask are you M/F?
Of course you can! I've been around so long, I just assume everyone knows I'm a female. I get so offended when people say -- what are you seven foot? I don't know, it just feels demeaning in some way. I guess if they were being more accurate or a little closer to my correct height, I wouldn't feel so badly and certainly this is no commentary on those of us who are actually 7 feet tall. It just feels like a put down when people say it to me.

Okay, cuz I'm quite new here And yeah, it's definetily from the down-under perspective.

And I mean i hate all those people who slowly turn their head and then quickly turn away when you look at them or are close to you and look up to you, and then I usually act like I'm not noticing them, but cry inside .

I mean what the hell are they thinking? Just because we are taller than them doesn't mean we are blind, deaf and emotionless giants. Driving me crazy

flatlander · 2010-07-29 03:49:04

If people over-estimate heights, do they have trouble guessing your weight too? I've had people guess that I weigh what an average height woman of my build would weigh (too low to be accurate), on the other hand my spouse was surprised that I weigh forty pounds less than he does. (I'm a smidge taller than he.)

jheri · 2010-07-29 04:05:37

flatlander wrote:

If people over-estimate heights, do they have trouble guessing your weight too? I've had people guess that I weigh what an average height woman of my build would weigh (too low to be accurate), on the other hand my spouse was surprised that I weigh forty pounds less than he does. (I'm a smidge taller than he.)

People guess my weight too. They almost always guess too high. I've had some people try to guess my hair color even though I don't dye and am very pale. That happens mostly in the orient :-)

Starshine · 2010-07-29 11:06:31

I purposely over-state my own height to be 6'. Yes, I get a kick out of being intimidating. But seriously, I primarily work with men, in blue-collar jobs, and as their superior, I kind of have to be confident to the point of intimidation. As some of the other engineers and I joke, I couldn't perform my job as well if I were 5'2" and "cute".

tj_610 · 2010-07-29 12:27:03

Ha ha this is a fun topic. I'm 6'10", and always ask people to guess when they ask my height. I get everything from 6"5 to 7"2. Taller people (6' 4" and up) are more accurate since they have a better gauge.

Two observations:
1) Inaccuracy is partially from the warped perspective created by outright lies and exaggerations of people's own height. How many of you have met people with a cousin/brother/neice/etc. who was way out on the bell curve, but in the hundreds of thousands of people you see in a year, these people are invisible? How many of you know a man who will proudly proclaim he is 5' 11", not 6'?

2) Men who love basketball are far and away the most accurate guessers. Since I never played hoops, we joke about my wasted height and how they could steal a few inches LOL. Is this maybe b/c they play against tall guys often? I doubt it's from watching TV; I can't tell how tall people someone is on TV, and those guys lie more than anyone. I met Charles Barkley once, he was maybe 6' 4".

tj_610 · 2010-07-29 12:28:26

Oh, I forgot about the weight thing.

I'm fairly lean but not skinny, I weigh 240 lb and people are usually shocked that I weigh that much. They usually guess around 200.

Jimna · 2010-07-29 21:58:53

Yeah ppl usually guess my height to be less than it is. Probably because my upper body is very lean but my massive legs add the weight So I'm about 200 lbs but ppl guess me to be 20-30 lbs kg's lighter.

Last edited by Jimna (2010-07-29 22:17:09)

"Bad News" Bob · 2010-07-29 23:02:43

I suppose it's a good thing when people under estimate how much I weigh. It certainly makes me feel good when people say, 'you don't look like you weigh that much'. It happens all the time it's not just one or two people. The triage nurses at my doctors office like playing a guessing game similar to the one at the fair where they guess your weight; only they guess by pre-weighing the scales before you step on them. Then they see how far off their guess is when you step on the scales. The loser each day has to buy lunch the following day. I guess it takes their mind off of what seems like a fairly boring job. They normally miss my weight by thirty five or forty pounds.

TallPoppy · 2010-07-30 04:26:48

People are always shocked when I say how much I weigh ("healthy" weight for my height - around 79kg, generally, for just over 6 foot) - I often weigh more than my male friends and much more than my female friends of a more average height and the same proportions as me.

"You don't look that heavy!"

It is almost saying "oh, you're fat! I didn't notice!"

BadKarma · 2010-07-30 12:48:16

TallPoppy wrote:

People are always shocked when I say how much I weigh ("healthy" weight for my height - around 79kg, generally, for just over 6 foot) - I often weigh more than my male friends and much more than my female friends of a more average height and the same proportions as me.
"You don't look that heavy!"
It is almost saying "oh, you're fat! I didn't notice!"

Well, I guess that's better than people saying, "Oh! I would have guessed 60 lbs. heavier!"

I am usually underestimated... I don't look that tall because I'm pretty stocky (not to mention that I like my pizzas a lot, and it shows!), but then again people are surprised that I weigh as much as I do... maybe the second is a function of the first?

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