You truly can't make your feet shrink naturally—at least not in the way some people may think. Losing weight or treating certain long-standing medical conditions may help you drop half a shoe size at most. But that is not because your feet are shrinking in length, it's because your feet are losing width.
Larger female feet are not only literally regarded as a sexual turn-off but, when referred to in proverbs, they usually stand for something else. Metaphorically women's small feet indicate “the right measure” in marital relationships.
American women's feet are getting larger than they were decades ago. Even so, there's no abnormal foot size. Whatever size foot you have is normal and appropriate for your height and weight.
A vast majority of both men and women favored small feet in women, but large feet in men. One's own foot size appeared to correspond to evaluations of attractiveness; particularly, women with small feet preferred small feet in women in general.
Feet are apparently the biggest turn-off in a partner with two fifths of women finding it the least attractive part of a man's body.
The formula for a perfect woman's foot is a size five, wearing three inch heels and red toe nail varnish, according to the study. A study discovered men find size five feet, such as those belonging to Loren, Victoria Beckham, Kim Kardashian and Sophia Loren, are the most alluring.
BIG FEET HELP YOU TO BE A BETTER ATHLETE
It's like having your own built-in pair of flippers! If you're a runner, it's been shown that you're better able to sprint if you have larger feet. It has to do with the size of your toes. Prominent feet may also support better balance, especially on uneven terrain.
Some people are simply born with wider feet. If you have flat feet, you're also prone to having wider feet. Age. As you get older, the ligaments and tendons in your body loosen a little, and your foot tends to grow longer and wider.
In most cases, yes. While it may not be noticeable for everyone, weight loss does tend to result in smaller feet, says Lauren Wurster, DPM, a spokesperson for the American Podiatric Medical Association and a foot and ankle surgery specialist at Foot & Ankle Clinics of Arizona.
When do our Feet Stop Growing? Feet usually stop growing a few years after puberty. In girls, the “normal” age for feet to stop growing is around 14 years, while in boys, it's around 16. However the final closure of growth plates in the feet occurs between 18 and 20 years of age.
A situation where feet can become shortened is with neuropathic joints (Charcot joints), where there is damage to the nerves and the bones crumble. This most common reason for this in the United States is diabetes mellitus (sugar diabetes), where there is a metabolic problem in handling sugars (carbohydrates).
There are several factors that can cause someone to develop wide feet, but by far the most common factor is simply genetics! Less common contributors of developing wide feet are long term obesity, hereditary or developed flat feet, or not wearing shoes often during early childhood development.
Feet don't like extra weight
But gaining weight also can cause structural changes in your feet. With gravity and the extra weight putting stress on your feet, they enlarge as your supportive tissues lose strength.
Weight gain can cause feet to get bigger
If you are carrying extra weight, you are going to carry extra fat everywhere including around your feet with the result of larger feet.
Runners often wonder if having big feet is an advantage. The mechanics of having large feet to provide more leverage and longer strides seems to make sense, but the research shows that any additional weight at the feet can slow a runner down. In fact, a heavier midsection will slow a runner less than bulk at the feet.
The most common foot size for the average American female is somewhere between an 8.5 and a 9, which might surprise some people since in the 1970s the average foot size used to be 7.5 until only recently.
The easiest way to tell if a shoe is too big or too small is to take a look at how much room there is in the toe of the shoe. Generally speaking, there should be about one finger's width of space between your longest toe and the end of the shoe.
Overall, the record for shoe size is widely believed to have been located in Venezuela. This is where the Guinness Book of World Records says the man with the biggest feet is located.
While it's hard to say what's truly normal for something that can vary so greatly between everyone, one thing we know for sure: wide feet are not considered normal. It's okay to have wide feet, but with wide feet can come additional struggles to find proper footwear and have a comfortable experience with shoes.
Shoe size is relatively proportional to height in males, especially after puberty. Tall men tend to have larger feet than average-height or shorter men. Of course, variables can affect this, including age, activity level, and weight.
The genetics of height
If they are tall or short, then your own height is said to end up somewhere based on the average heights between your two parents. Genes aren't the sole predictor of a person's height. In some instances, a child might be much taller than their parents and other relatives.
Substantial foot differences between geographical regions have been reported by previous studies9,10,11. This study confirms that male and female Asian customers have significantly wider feet than European and North American customers, who have very similar mean widths.
Significant weight loss can result in going down a full shoe size. When you lose weight, you lose it all over your body, including places like your hands and feet.
Cosmetic foot surgery can help by firstly eliminating the sources of chronic pain or deformity and secondly, reshaping the feet for aesthetic appeal, often resulting in smaller, slimmer feet with a reduced shoe size.