If you go to the gym you do it for two main reasons. You want to look good and you want to train your muscles. And by training muscles in any part of your body, legs, arms they will become bigger and harder with continued training. In some ways, it’s the same we do with our stomach but it’s a kind of reverse thing.

The stomach is an organ like any other. It has its average size based on your sex, age, and habits. But there are some things specific to it. By ingesting food every day, a couple of times a day it stretches to accommodate it. The more you eat the more it stretches. After it’s empty, it should go back to its original size. But what if you eat again? What if you don’t like the feeling of your stomach being empty? Will it remain stretched? And the larger portions you eat the more it will stretch so when you decide to have smaller portions will it be full? These are all the questions we will answer together step by step.

Does the size of the stomach really matter?

The average size of an empty stomach is approximately the size of your fist. But when we ingest food and drinks it stretches. The maximum amount it can take is an average of 2 to 4 liters. For comparison, the amount of food that a newborn baby can take is around 30 ml. No wonder they need constant feeding.

So how do you go from 30 ml to 2 liters? Of course, we grow. But nobody starts eating 2 liters full of food and drink. It takes time. From eating half of a pizza to eating a whole one to eating a whole pizza and a large soda and so on. As I mentioned before the main purpose of your stomach is to stretch to accommodate all the food. There is nothing wrong with that. Once it’s empty it will go to your original size of a fist. But let’s think about it a little more. Imagine you have a small elastic band. Once you stretch it and release, it will easily come back to its original size. It’s elastic. But if you stretch it 100 times until its maximum strength you will notice that it’s not so elastic anymore. It will lose its shape. The elasticity will be fading. And you will end up with a larger elastic band that is not going back completely to its original size. Can the same happen to your stomach?

How the problem starts?

Filling your stomach with food and drinks to the brim may not be a problem in the short term. I mean, we all love big meals around the holidays and during vacation times. But there will be a problem if you do it regularly. As you start eating, it takes your brain 20 minutes to give signals to your stomach that you are full. That is why nutritionists always suggest slow eating to give the body time to read those signals. But the modern way of life, busy lifestyles, and especially eating in front of the TV will make it hard for you to be aware of those signals. And this is where the problems happen. Since you don’t feel full, people usually continue eating until the food is finished. The plate is empty.

Not to mention the size of the portions. The size of the plates and glasses in which food is served today is part of the ongoing battle against overeating. And even if you start with smaller portions, your stomach and brain are so accustomed to larger amounts of food that you will feel hungry after a smaller meal because less space is being filled in your stomach, which is used to being stretched to 2 liters. It’s like you are stuck in a cycle of overeating.

What to do about it?

There is no easy solution to this problem. But with time you can train your stomach to recognize a smaller amount of food and be happy with it. Having smaller portions doesn’t happen overnight. So please don’t do a mistake like cutting all your food portions in half. It will just make you give up from hunger. Training your stomach to smaller amounts of food is a process. Take it step by step. Cut your portions by a fourth for a start and have them with a large glass of water. Eat slowly. Focus on the taste and the feel of the food without distracting yourself by watching tv or playing with your phone. Listen to the signals of your body and stop when you think you are full. Even if there is some food left on your plate you don’t have to finish it. You can finish it at some other time later.

Try to fill your stomach with more nutritious food like fruits and vegetables. Even if you get hungry faster you still get more vitamins and minerals and fresh foods are more digestible than processed ones. Plan your meals in advance so you are not too hungry before a meal to grab almost anything. Trust me after one week you will notice that you can’t really eat as much as before. You will feel more full and the fullness will last way longer than before.

Why is it so important to do this?

We all know about the health risks of overeating. Today we are plagued with high cholesterol, diabetes, heart conditions, high blood pressure, and obesity. And these are all symptoms of overeating for a long period. It’s not only what we eat but how much we eat and how often.

One of the main surgeries that help to solve this problem in obesity cases is the gastric bypass where the doctors will divide your stomach into small parts to limit the amount of food that you can ingest resulting in weight loss.

But you don’t have to wait for the situation to become as serious. And not all of us can afford to have surgeries. You can try to deal with the problem if you feel that this is something that you can benefit from. To be honest this will not help you to shrink your stomach. There is no available tool out there to shrink your stomach without surgery. And anyone who promises you that is not being honest. But this can provide you with tools that will help you to reset your eating habits and help you to have a different approach to eating. Committing yourself to having smaller portions over a longer period could help with any digestion problems that you may have and by decreasing the amount of calories that you digest every day it could possibly lead to weight loss. Try to give it a week. Let me know how it works. Even if you don’t commit at least you learned something new about your body.