Does your actual stomach really shrink?

Your stomach is a network of smooth muscle cells that can expand to hold the food you eat. In it's "relaxed" state (empty), the lumen of the stomach (inside the 'sack') has a smaller volume than when the stomach is full of food and gastric juices.

So... you could say that your stomach is shrinking and expanding all the time.

HOWEVER, I suspect that you're really asking whether the total mass of the stomach changes based on your eating habits... and my best educated guess is: Nope. I seriously doubt the stomach shrinks just because you eat smaller meals. For the stomach to change size, it would have to increase or decrease total stomach muscle mass. Muscle tissue would have to die and be removed for the stomach to decrease in size.

The changes you are experiencing regarding fullness are likely due to neuronal, hormonal, and/or phycological changes

TLDR: I think the 'shrinking stomach' stuff is a myth. You've trained yourself to feel full with smaller meals.

Maybe you're more satisfied cause you're eating more nutritionally dense foods?

Physically, no. But a lot of us get to the point where we need fewer calories to feel full.

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I think maybe you are just adjusting to eating less, learning to recognize the feeling of being full, being more conscious about calories having an influence on you, and maybe other factors such as the food you are eating causing fullness (maybe because of being nutrient dense or high fiber).

I get full easily, so tend to need to eat fairly frequently because I need to time to digest before I eat more. I don't like feeling full. I just like feeling fed.

Also are you drinking more water? Because water will fill up your belly and cause you to feel more full during a meal (temporarily).

No, but the stretch and density receptors in your stomach get more sensitive, because it adapts to the lesser volume, so when you're eating more, the receptors are going off, and signaling their full quicker and faster, so the body can get to work.

The stretch and density receptors are why drinking warm water before a meal will let you naturally eat less without feeling hungry. It'll stretch your stomach.

Also, vegetables fill up the stomach faster than protein and faster than oil, the healthier the foods you eat, the denser they are in nutrition, and the quicker you fill up.

I have no scholarly information, but my feeling is that it probably can. If your calf and hamstring muscles can shrink I don't see why your stomach can't. My doctor has me doing calf and hamstring stretches to lengthen hem back up because mine have shrunk.

Sigh

When you measure, log and pay attention to what you're eating you're focused and I think more dialed in and conscious of your body's messages. You probably were always full long before you stopped eating but now you're paying attention to feelings of being satisfied and know that you've had enough. At least that's how it's worked for myself.

I just read an article about this and they took a control group and another group restricted to under 1000 calories a day. Both groups were obese and they measured their stomachs with some type of ballon. After a month the restricted calorie group shrunk their stomachs 20-38%, the control group had no change. It might be because they were overstretched to begin with but the study didn't specify this. Either way it sounds good to me!!

Please provide a post showing this study!

As far as i know the only way to "shrink" your stomach is with surgery and staples.

There is some evidence that people who have consistently overeaten (think binge eaters, competitive eaters, morbidly obese) have over time trained their stomachs past their normal elastic capacity allowing it to hold more food, and that when these behaviors are stopped, elastic capacity returns to normal (i.e. the stomach shrinks). If those specific conditions do not describe you however, what you are experiencing is a combination of negative feedback controls between your brain and hormones released from your stomach which are signaling satiation faster and with less food than what it used to take.

TL;DR Nope, your stomach hasn't shrunk.

ETA: actually I *think* the hormones get released from the duodenum region of the small intestine, but don't quote me on that.

Reposting because.

There is some evidence that people who have consistently overeaten (think binge eaters, competitive eaters, morbidly obese) have over time trained their stomachs past their normal elastic capacity allowing it to hold more food, and that when these behaviors are stopped, elastic capacity returns to normal (i.e. the stomach shrinks). If those specific conditions do not describe you however, what you are experiencing is a combination of negative feedback controls between your brain and hormones released from your stomach which are signaling satiation faster and with less food than what it used to take.

TL;DR Nope, your stomach hasn't shrunk.

ETA: actually I *think* the hormones get released from the duodenum region of the small intestine, but don't quote me on that.

Reposting because.

me too...

I know I am fuller on less food now too but I do not think an organ can change size in such a permanent manner...temporarily maybe it can get bigger with lots of food or Milk...(gallon contest) but it doesn't stay....

When you measure, log and pay attention to what you're eating you're focused and I think more dialed in and conscious of your body's messages. You probably were always full long before you stopped eating but now you're paying attention to feelings of being satisfied and know that you've had enough. At least that's how it's worked for myself.

BINGO. It's not physiological, it's psychological shrinkage.

GuitarJerry wrote: »

It may be possible to stretch your stomach from constantly eating large volumes of food. I was watching a show about bariatric surgery (weigh loss surgery) on morbidly obese patients and it showed how this ladies' stomach had stretched to a very large size which allowed her to eat huge volumes of food. I know that is just anecdotal evidence but I thought that was interesting. I assume if your stomach can stretch, it should be able to shrink over time. I know I can't finish a foot long sub without being in pain; however, I used to have no problem finishing a sub with a bag of chips on the side.

Maybe in an extreme case, but no, the stomach does not change size. This is an easy quick google question if you don't believe us. Here, I did it for you: http://women.webmd.com/features/stomach-problems

I wish people here would do a quick check before just barfing on their keyboard whatever comes to mind. This isn't directed at the OP, but rather at some of the "answers".

This is not the supportive environment I have come to expect on this site, Jerry. Behave yourself please, and OP - I think your stomach's ability to stretch - like any other under-used muscle - will degenerate over time if you are not eating large amounts of food. So yes and no both - total mass does not decrease, nor potential, but the ability to achieve that large size without pain will decrease.

I really don't know the answer but if you consider a pregnant woman, her mid section increases significantly and shrinks again after birth.
So logic tells me that as the stomach is like a bag of flesh, if you over fill repeatedly it would expand, and shrink back if you only half filled it for a period of time.

I find it very hard to believe that the stomach of an 80 stone man hasn't stretched, and would not shrink back if that same person ate healthily for a prolonged period of time. The whole body would loose weight/shrink back. Does expanded skin returning to it's previous state not count as shrinking?

I know from my own personal experience, now that I am used to eating a lot less food, I get full much quicker. I physically could not eat a meal the size I used to eat, but I could eat bigger over a period of time and train myself to eat that size meal again...the question is why? Expansion and shrinkage? Or signalling to the brain?