How much do you think this affected my growth?

I already have quite a long thread in this forum already, but I wanted to ask this specific question in a separate thread.

I was having a discussion with my parents about eating and the subject got onto breakfast. I regularly would never have any breakfast, between the ages of about 12 and 18. During the school day, my lunch consisted of a few sandwiches, a bag of crisps and some biscuits/some chocolate. I'm actually amazed I could concentrate at school. Evening meals would vary but usually a decent sized portion with meat and some carbs. So I regularly went from 7pm one day, to 12pm the next day without any food. I also didn't drink milk during these years either, nor would I eat many (if any) fruit and veg, if that's any relevance.

Your body obviously gets accustomed to a pattern. At the time, I don't remember feeling that bad, but maybe I was a bit under-nourished? Maybe it affected my growth? My parents don't think it caused any loss of growth. They said they encouraged me to eat breakfast but I didn't want to, and they didn't force me. I've even asked a doctor before but they said I fall within the average range so it's no concern (also they said there's no way of knowing if I could have grown more).

Honestly how much do you think something like this affected my growth? Even if it didn't necessarily affect my height, could it have affected other areas? Any other information you need, feel free to ask.

Holy s**t. Exactly the same you wrote could've came from myself. I too was somewhat thin during many years in puberty, and I too skipped breakfast during the week, and I too blame my parents for that. Adding to that, I'm a guy who naturally stays up late and gets up late, but during my school years I had to get up early, so I slept until the last minute and then rushed to school, without having eaten anything. On top of that, my parents were divorced so it was just me and my mom or my dad living together, so there was no breakfast table where the whole family eats together in the morning, which is probably usual for normal families. Like you I didn't feel any bad during those years, I never suffered hunger, but as you said, the body adapts to many situations.

All I can tell you is that your parents/your doctor are right: There is no way of knowing if or how much this affected your growth, and every doctor will confirm this. Everybody's body type is different and it's really hard to tell if something was wrong in the past. All you can do is make estimates and guesses, but you will never know for sure. Which, logically means: Stop making yourself crazy and stop thinking about it - I know that's hard, because I can't stop thinking about it either. If you ask me, I say it couldn't have a big effect, because you weren't suffering hunger or malnutrition.