The cause of obesity is often a distended stomach, which increases with the consumption of large amounts of food. Read this article to learn how to restore the physiological state of this organ.
The stomach is an important digestive organ, the increased size of which is often the cause of excess weight. By eating more and more food, you can stretch the stomach to an impressive size, but returning the natural size of this organ is not so easy. We'll talk about how to shrink your stomach in this article.
Normal stomach volume
The stomach is a muscular organ that can stretch significantly. On average, the volume of the stomach is 0.5 liters, but if you have a heavy lunch, the size of the organ will double. The transformation of the stomach will not end there - if your meal is long, you begin to overeat, then the stomach will continue to increase in size.
Overeating causes stomach distension
The maximum volume of the stomach can be 4 liters . This is an extreme case, which does not threaten everyone, because in addition to overeating, other factors also affect the size of the stomach:
- age
- floor
- body type
- genetic factor
It is necessary to understand that excessive food consumption leads to systematic stretching of the stomach. Because of this, the amount of food consumed will also increase, which will cause excess weight . Experts identify the following causes of stomach distension:
- eating large amounts of food
- habit of washing down food
- poor chewing of food, in which a person swallows it in large pieces
- no breakfast
- incorrect diet
Excessive food intake is the main reason for stomach enlargement
In addition, the size of the stomach is influenced by the quality of food consumed . So, too heavy fatty food can stay in this digestive organ for up to 12 hours, while during this period you will consume more and more new food, which will lead to stretching of the stomach.
Causes of compulsive overeating
No one can name the exact cause of the development of eating disorders. Today there is an opinion that the disorder occurs as a response of the body to a stressful situation. The following factors can give impetus to the onset of psychogenic overeating:
- Uncontrollable hunger can be caused by problems with the hypothalamus. This part of the brain is responsible for the feeling of fullness - when it stops sending signals, a person experiences constant hunger. Among other biological causes of overeating, experts call a decrease in serotonin levels.
- Often the reasons for overeating are the characteristics of the cultural and social environment. From birth, the child gets used to the idea that food can serve as a reward. Or the norms accepted in society can lead to the development of nervous disorders in people who do not comply with them. A compulsive eater feels his inadequacy, and against this background he develops secondary depression, leading to another attack of gluttony.
- Overeating can also have psychological reasons. The relationship between uncontrolled eating and depression has been identified by researchers for quite some time. People with low self-esteem, suffering from loneliness and misunderstanding are prone to gluttony.
In addition, it was noted that the tendency to psychogenic overeating may be hereditary.
How to reduce stomach size at home with diet?
You can reduce the size of your stomach and stop the uncontrolled process of weight gain with the help of a special diet . It is important to follow all recommendations, otherwise the result will be far from expected.
Diet to restore stomach size:
- when there is a clear feeling of hunger (and not the habit of eating something), prepare 150 g of porridge. You can fill it with oil
- it must be consumed with a teaspoon - the smallest one you can find
- you need to eat the porridge within 20 minutes , chewing each spoon thoroughly 40-50 times
- while chewing, concentrate completely on the taste of the porridge and its consistency
- Don’t be distracted by talking or watching TV - listen to your tastes and your feelings
To lose weight and shrink your stomach, you need to eat small portions and chew your food thoroughly.
Chewing the porridge thoroughly for 20 minutes will give you a feeling of fullness, while a small amount of food will be consumed. When eating small portions, your stomach will shrink and excess weight will quickly go away.
This diet is based on the principles of the functioning of the stomach. At the same time, such absorption of food acts like meditation - slow chewing and a sense of taste will allow you to get enough and perceive such meager food as a kind of delicacy, to find new flavor facets in ordinary porridge.
Recognizing overeating due to psychogenic causes
Diagnosis, as well as treatment of this type of eating disorder, requires the participation of several specialists. The examination is carried out on both psychological and somatic profiles. Doctors will conduct a general examination of the patient and study his entire medical history. Predisposing factors are identified, such as stress, hormonal imbalances, psychogenic disorders, and a period of prolonged fasting (voluntary or forced).
Instrumental studies are also needed. In the laboratory, cholesterol levels and blood sugar levels are determined, and gastric secretion is examined. Using special equipment, the stomach, intestines and other organs involved in the process of digesting food are examined.
The diagnosis will be made if there are persistent symptoms of overeating and other types of diseases that can lead to loss of appetite control are excluded.
Diet 5 tablespoons
A diet called “5 tablespoons” will also help reduce the size of the stomach. With its help, you can lose up to 6 kg of excess weight, more than 15 kg per month, and at the same time you can eat according to the diet throughout your life, because its essence is healthy nutrition in the amounts that your body needs.
The 5 tablespoons diet allows you to eat any food, but in limited quantities.
The 5 tablespoons diet consists of changing the amount of food consumed. So, according to her instructions, the food can be any , but at one time you should not consume more than five tablespoons, that is, no more than 200 g . You should also not wash down your food with water - liquid is also included in this allowed 200 g.
How to deal with the problem yourself
If the disorder is in the early stages of development, you can try to overcome it yourself. This will be the first step on the road to recovery. If alarming symptoms appear, you should:
- ask for help. This is not about visiting a psychotherapist. Tell a loved one about your problem. In some cases, speaking out about a problem allows you to find ways out of it. In addition, the support of loved ones gives us strength and confidence in success, relieves us of feelings of insecurity and loneliness;
- Don't stigmatize yourself. The negative labels that sick people place on themselves interfere with recovery. Even if you eat too much food, you do not become bad. Overeating is not a crime, but a disease that requires treatment;
- There is no need to classify all foods as good or bad. It is important to understand that you can eat everything, but in small quantities. If you adhere to this rule, then you can allow yourself some French fries or a piece of cream cake;
- try to pause while eating. Take a break and evaluate your feelings. If a person uses food as a sedative, he may miss the satiety signal sent from the brain;
- change habits or environment. What surrounds us has a great influence on our lifestyle and food culture. A compulsive eater should try to eat in company as often as possible. Go to a cafe or invite friends over;
- give yourself the right to be weak. Many people who suffer from gluttony and excess weight make a list of prohibited foods. This should not be done, because it is unlikely that you will be able to cope with the temptation. And after a while of abstinence, you will again indulge in gluttony. If you want something, then eat it now, but just a little. In this case, there will be no feeling of guilt, which is the key trigger for compulsive overeating;
- a person suffering from this psychogenic disorder can have only one prohibition - dieting. It is necessary to forget about dietary restrictions once and for all, since they only lead to additional stress. It would be better to create a balanced diet. If you can’t do this on your own, you can seek help from a nutritionist.
These methods of getting rid of eating disorders are quite effective. But only in rare cases can sick people cope with bouts of gluttony on their own. In severe forms of the disorder, the help of specialists is simply necessary. Only with a combination of psychotherapy and self-control can sustainable results be achieved.
How to reduce stomach size without surgery?
Reducing the stomach without surgery is a difficult process that will require strong endurance and a great desire to become slimmer. In addition, this is a long-term event , which is not calculated in several days or a week, and long efforts will go down the drain if you return to overeating again.
People who want to reduce their stomach and thereby lose weight should follow the following rules:
- meals should be fractional - portions should be small (200-250 g), and food consumption should be frequent - 5-6 times a day
- food should not be washed down with water, tea or coffee - they should be taken only two hours after a meal or 20-30 minutes before it starts
- Chew your food more thoroughly - food that enters the stomach in large pieces stays there for a long time, because it takes more time to chew it. If the digestive process takes a long time, then the stomach does not have time to contract before the next meal arrives and a new one is added to the old food
During therapeutic fasting, the stomach quickly restores its normal size
For those who want to reduce their stomach as soon as possible, there is therapeutic fasting . Its essence is to refuse food for a period while the stomach contracts. After this, even a small portion of food satiates you, which will prevent you from overeating and gaining weight.
How to shrink your stomach by reducing your appetite?
The feeling of hunger provokes a person to consume more and more food, while the body needs significantly less to provide nutrients. Overeating provokes a stretching of the stomach , which in turn “demands” more and more food. This mutual responsibility will be endless if you do not calm down your appetite in time and return your stomach to normal size.
It is known that many vegetables, fruits and seasonings affect appetite, fueling the feeling of hunger or, conversely, eliminating it.
Increased appetite is caused by many foods and drinks that contain various flavor enhancers and additives that make you eat more than you actually want. Among them, the most dangerous for your figure are:
- fast food
- snacks - chips, crackers, etc.
- carbonated drinks
- sweets
- sausages and smoked meats
- semi-finished products
- alcohol
Fast food, alcohol and snacks cause appetite
By excluding this list of foods from your diet, you will not only get rid of the habit of overeating, constant hunger, and reduce the size of your stomach, but also do a great service to your body, because most of them contain dangerous carcinogens and trans fats.
There are many ways to satisfy the feeling of hunger, the safest and most effective among them is the use of traditional medicine:
- kelp algae - inside the stomach, the algae swell giving a feeling of fullness. Take a tablespoon of this seaweed before each meal.
- juniper - when you feel hungry, grind the juniper in a coffee grinder and pour a glass of boiling water (you can drink the decoction after a few minutes, but no more than 3 glasses a day
- ginger - grate the ginger root and pour in cups of boiling water. After 10 minutes of infusion, pour in a liter of mineral water, lemon juice and honey. This drink will help ward off hunger for a long time.
- fennel - 1 tsp. Dried or fresh fennel, pour a glass of boiling water and drink 1-2 times a day
- magnesia - 1 l. drink the product every morning (with a small amount of water)
- flaxseed - can also swell in the stomach, bringing a feeling of fullness. Drink a teaspoon of seeds in the morning (before meals)
- black tea - very strong tea with lemon (without added sugar) will eliminate appetite for a long time
What are the dangers of psychogenic overeating?
Some people may think that gluttony is not the worst psychological disorder. But problems with excess weight, which arise as a result of eating a huge amount of varied food, is the most harmless consequence of this pathology. A sick person is more often than others in a state of depression; he is constantly tormented by feelings of anxiety, worry and fear. In some cases, people resort to alcohol or drugs in an attempt to cope with binge eating, but this only makes the situation worse.
Obesity can also lead to physical health problems. Most often, obese people suffer from diabetes; their risk of cancer is several times higher, their heart rhythm is disturbed and hypertension develops. Other problems include joint diseases, snoring, thyroid pathologies, and various diseases of the digestive and intestinal organs.
How to reduce stomach volume: exercises
You can pacify your appetite and reduce the size of your stomach with the help of special exercises. They are based on diaphragmatic breathing and form a complex that must be performed.
Exercises based on diaphragmatic breathing will help shrink your stomach
Breathing exercises:
- While lying on your back, bend your knees. Draw your stomach in as much as possible as you inhale and relax as you exhale. Repeat the exercise 10 times
- Sit down, control your posture - your back should be as straight as possible. Alternately inhale and exhale through your mouth and nose
- Get into a plank position - place your palms and toes on the floor, keeping your body in one line absolutely straight. Take 10 slow breaths , alternating them with multi-stage ones (mouth-nose)
- While lying on your back, inhale and exhale as much as possible, then draw in your stomach and stretch towards your knees (hold your arms bent at the elbows behind your head). Repeat the exercise 10 times
Surgery to reduce the volume of the stomach: benefits and harms
If diets and exercises do not bring the expected effect or you are unable to adhere to certain eating rules, then the only way to reduce your stomach size is through surgery . Such a radical method of treatment is considered extreme and is avoided in every possible way.
Gastric reduction surgery is a last resort
Surgical stomach reduction has its advantages:
- the patient loses weight quickly
- the load on the cardiovascular system and other organs is reduced
- general condition improves
I distinguish between the following types of surgical reduction of the stomach:
- bypass - creates a small reservoir in the stomach that can reduce a very small amount of food. In this case, food does not enter the main part of the stomach, but goes along a bypass route
Bypass surgery
- banding - placing a ring on the stomach, which tightens its cavity, forming two cavities of different sizes and a small gap between them
Bandaging
- ballooning - insertion of a balloon into the stomach, which fills a larger volume of the stomach, leaving a small space for food
Ballooning
- longitudinal resection - removal of the side of the stomach
Longitudinal resection
All of these methods can help eliminate excess weight, but they have their negative consequences . Often, an incorrectly performed operation can lead to the death of the patient; at best, you may encounter unpleasant disadvantages of such intervention in the body:
- sharp pain in the stomach area
- when the sutures diverge, peritonitis may develop
- long and difficult recovery period
- during ballooning, the balloon may burst and an operation will be performed to remove it from the stomach
- disorders of the gastrointestinal tract
- dumping syndrome, which is characterized by the occurrence of a number of symptoms after eating: rapid heartbeat, nausea, dizziness, tic
- inflammatory process
Gastric reduction surgery is a radical method that is best avoided. There are many ways to shrink your stomach without surgery, and it is better to show willpower, endurance and try diets, proper eating and drinking habits, and exercises than to risk your life and health on the surgical table.
How to stretch
Is it even possible and how to stretch your stomach? Let’s not torment you and say right away: achieving a persistent increase or decrease in the size of the stomach through overeating is not particularly realistic .
The stomach is a round, hollow, crescent-shaped organ located below the diaphragm on the left side of the abdomen between the esophagus and duodenum. Its inner layer is wrinkles (or folds).
It is these folds that allow it to stretch to accommodate large portions of food, which subsequently quietly moves during the digestion process. Yes, our stomach tends to stretch, but it also tends to shrink in size after .
The volume of an empty stomach of an adult is about 50 to 500 ml, and after a heavy lunch it usually stretches to 1-2 liters, and after a very heavy lunch even up to 4 liters.
This is what a “stretched” stomach looks like in the photo
Thanks to special stretch receptors (of which at least 14 are found in the human stomach ), the volume of the stomach increases without any increase in pressure.
Stretch receptors located in the stomach allow you to control the process of filling the stomach with food, sending a signal to the brain when to stop and stop stuffing food into yourself.
How to stretch your stomach to gain weight - eat a lot and eat deliciously through force
