Your feet may shrink for various reasons, such as weight loss and even several diseases. Feet don’t necessarily change their bone structure but may change slightly due to aging. While wearing smaller shoes may seem practically pointless to make your feet smaller, there are other reliable options for you to try out, such as losing weight. If you’re looking to reduce your foot size, be warned. Cinderella surgery, while helping you achieve ‘just the look’ you’re going for, can have various risks to it.
Feet are just as important as any part of our body. But, most of us don’t prefer to showcase our feet. Feeling insecure about feet can make you want to make them smaller, but what options can you explore?
What can cause your feet to shrink? Do feet shrink as you grow older? If you wear smaller shoes, will your feet shrink? How to make your feet smaller? Is the Cinderella surgery worth it?
What are possible reasons for shrinking feet?
When it comes to feet shrinking in size, you don’t need to be concerned most of the time. The main reasons why you would be going through this are given below.
- Weight loss – When you gain excess weight and become overweight or obese, you would feel an extra weight on your feet as the whole body will be supported mostly by your feet. But once you lose all this weight, you may feel your shoes becoming much looser. This does not mean that your feet have shrunk but means that there is a loss of fat in your feet.
- Leprosy – This is an infectious disease commonly found in Brazil, India, Indonesia, and Nigeria. Because of neuropathic joints, you will feel like your feet are shorter than usual. However, you shouldn’t have to worry as this condition can be treated with special antibiotics.
- Systemic Rheumatic Illness – This condition affects your skin and blood vessels through scleroderma. It may shorten the distal bones of both your fingers and toes.
Does aging cause shrinking feet?
Your feet, just like any other body part, will change with the aging process. But it doesn’t always change in size. Instead, you might feel your feet getting wider as you grow older. It does not grow longer or shrink in size.
What’s important to know is that your feet will stop growing in length once you stop growing in height.
So, what kind of changes can you expect as growing older? First, you may experience skin changes in texture and dryness. Dry soles are the most common skin changes that people experience.
Apart from these, you can expect thick and brittle toenails and hammertoes, which means that your toes bend and develop calluses. You may even develop Arthritis which occurs after years of using your feet.
Can your feet shrink if you’re wearing smaller shoes?
The best response to this is a flat-out no. To entirely shrink your feet, you may have to opt for surgery.
Apart from this, it isn’t possible to change your bone structure, which entirely depends on hereditary factors. What exactly happens when you try to fit your foot into a small shoe is merely a forceful squishing of your feet, rather than a shrinking.
It is not only impossible to shrink your feet through smaller shoes, but it is quite unhealthy as well. It would result in a whole lot of painful muscle knots, sprains, and even spasms in your feet.
How to make your feet smaller
Some of us may feel uncomfortable with our feet being too big. If you are searching for ways to make your feet seem smaller in size, the best and easiest way to achieve this would be to make your feet ‘look’ smaller.
Wearing much looser pants or denim, such as bell bottoms, will help bring your feet more proportionate with the rest of your body.
You could also try avoiding tight clothing and dress in outfits that highlight your upper body more than the lower. You can also avoid wearing rather decorative shoes as it will bring other’s attention to your feet.
Avoiding sandals that expose your feet more, and sticking to boots, would certainly help you feel more confident and distract the unwanted attention onto your feet.
If the ‘look’ isn’t enough to satisfy you, the best way you could make your feet shrink would be by losing excess weight. If you are overweight, your feet may swell and look larger than how they would naturally be. Keeping to a diet and maintaining some daily exercise you could easily achieve to shrink out a bit of your foot size.
The ultimate option if none of the above works would be the Cinderella surgery.
Pros & Cons of the Cinderella Surgery
As its name hints, Cinderella surgery is a cosmetic foot procedure that slims down your toes and shortens your feet.
| Pros of the surgeryCons of the surgeryComfort– The improved comfort of wearing your heels out without having to worry about your feet. | Risks – You may be prone to infections, nerve injuries and scars that may form. |
| Better choices – You can now be open to a wide variety of shoes. | Post-surgical complications – This can reduce your comfort levels drastically. |
| High self-esteem – Your confidence in your body will be boosted as you won’t have to feel self-conscious wearing your sandals. | Need for a highly skilled foot surgeon – Not picking wisely might end up in quite a big blunder. |
How to maintain foot health?
By maintaining your feet and tending to them daily, you will find yourself being rather accepting of them instead of trying to change them.
- Check your feet regularly – It’s always best to inspect your feet for any redness, cuts, cracks, or blisters. Especially if you have diabetes you will need to confront your feet daily. Using a hand mirror will help you inspect the bottom of your feet.
- Moisturize feet at night – By keeping your feet soft and healthy you can prevent any itching or cracking of feet soles.
- Maintain your blood sugar – Diabetes can affect your feet by causing nerve damage and making it difficult for your feet to heal after an infection or injury according to the National Institute of Health.
- Cut nails regularly – Make sure that your toenails are not trimmed too short as it could lead to soreness. Cutting straight across once and filing the edges steadily would help this process.
- Wear fitting shoes – If you wear smaller shoes than your proper size, it can cause blisters, spasms, and various irritations. So, it is important to use shoes that can very well support your feet and ankles.
- Clean feet daily – The best way to do this is to wash your feet with lukewarm water. Make sure that you’re gentle. A soft washcloth or sponge would be recommended for this.
Conclusion
There is a traditional view that “smaller feet are more attractive”.
It’s about time we replace this term with “healthier feet”. Unwanted complications in your feet can arise if you try to force shrink your feet.
Instead, it’s always much wiser to stick to sanitary ways of shrinking your feet or making them ‘look smaller’. By maintaining the overall health of your feet, you will be much confident in yourself rather than trying to physically change your anatomy.
