Does The Size Of Your Stomach Shrink When You Eat Less?

Most of us know that the secrets to weight loss depend greatly on what you eat. But can eating smaller meals actually reduce the size of your stomach? We aren’t talking about your belly or mid section here, we specifically mean the organ that holds your food. Some people believe it is possible.

The idea is that if you eat less food, your stretchy stomach will shrink, fit less food inside and you will no longer feel like your stomach will never be full. You will fill up easier, feel less hungry and lose weight!

Amazing, right? Maybe not.

To put this theory to work, you’d have to eat a ridiculously small amount of food. A study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, found that obese patients were able to reduce the size of their stomachs by 27% over the course of 4 weeks by eating 600 calories a day. That is half the number of calories experts say women should eat when trying to lose weight.

 

Even if you do pull this off and manage a smaller stomach, it is highly unlikely that you will feel less hungry during the day, says James J. Lee, M.D., a gastroenterologist with St. Joseph Hospital in Orange, California. He says that the chemicals that control hunger, like the hormones leptin and ghrelin, are increased in people who follow deprivation diets. This means that you may actually end up feeling hungrier!

What’s worse, the efforts you made to shrink your stomach will likely backfire. “Only five to 10 percent of individuals who undergo fasting diets maintain their weight loss in the long run,” says Lee. Most regain everything they lost and more.

Besides, “stomach size is not the most important factor in weight loss,” says Lee. In fact, the stomach size in obese people isn’t really all that different from the stomachs of healthy weighted individuals.

Lee suggests that instead of fighting against your anatomy, make those hunger hormones work for you! Eat fibers and proteins as they are linked to increases in satiety-boosting peptides and hormones. Preventing your stomach from becoming completely empty can help you avoid overeating, says Lee. “Eating small meals frequently and getting at least seven hours of sleep each night will help control your levels of hunger-related chemicals.”

Hmm, eating protein, fiber and getting enough sleep or living off 600 calories a day. Sounds like a no brainer to us! How about you?

Source: Women’s Health

 

1. Prev:16 Easy, Science-Backed Ways To Continue Losing Weight
2. Next:4 Healthy Weight Loss Snacks That Aren’t Fruits or Vegetables