I'm sure it will still continue to shrink. Even if you are taking in the same volume of water as you would have food, the liquid will not remain in your stomach as long as the food would have. It takes 3-5 hours for food to pass through the stomach. Solely water would not just sit there for that long because it is not being digested. Shorter time would mean less stretch-age (not a word, I know). So, you're good to go.
Your bladder doesn't shrink because you drink less fluids, nor will your stomach shrink because you eat less. At least not in the sense that it will actually become smaller gradually. Sure it shrinks and expands if it's empty/full, but it still has a certain size.
lol that's like me saying my brain expands in terms of knowledge....
Anyways I was in the hospital for 4 days. I wasn't allowed to eat anything until my last day. So I kept looking at the menu and tryin to figure out what I wanted to eat for lunch before being released. I ended up deciding on chicken tenders, macaroni, mashed potatoes and gravy, a biscuit.
I swear to you, all I could eat was about 2 tbsp of Mac and cheese, 1tbsp of mash and a bite of my biscuit. THAT WAS IT! I was full. While I was in the hospital for 4 days I lost 11 pounds. For about 2 months after my release I lost another 17 pounds, because I couldn't eat as much food. I would get full so quick.
Sometimes I wish I could go on an IV diet for a week. Lol. Anyways, a stomach can shrink.....
Let's examine the implication of the statement "your stomach shrinks" - you are implicating that by some biochemical process your stomach cells are being eaten or 'destroyed' in such a controlled fashion as to perfectly reduce the circumference, or rather total area, of the organ.
How you can "know" from experience that your stomach shrinks is beyond me, unless you have your own MRI machine that you use to take images of it.
your right, I don't Know for a fact, but I do know what I experienced. Unfortunately, I don't own an MRI machine. But your stomach is an organ, just like your skin and if your skin can shrink, via elasticity then the notion of your stomach "shrinking" makes sense.
The notion makes sense because you say it makes sense. I can also say my heart shrinks and I know it does because I feel it being smaller in my chest cavity.
Hormones control your appetite, not the shrinking of your stomach, unless you get it surgically altered.
I agree with StephBlairF, I don't think the OP is wanting a smaller stomach per se, more like less of an appetite. Krystahle gave an extreme example on how one can have less of an appetite, and I doubt meant it more than just an example/experience to show yes, one can have less of an appetite. I find on this site: terminology and statements are not meant to be literal most of the time. Science and facts can be stated but I find it is more or just as much geared towards personal experiences and sharing it.
Original Post by maddyp1:
the more active your brain(more knowledge) is the easier it is to use and the smarter you appear so yes!:)lol but seriously it does happen. from experience i promise it happens.
I know for a fact that the stomach can expand-- not just temporarily, but permanently-- when you eat too much over a long period of time. It therefore seems like common sense that the stomach could also shrink permanently when you eat small portions over a prolonged period of time, but I'm not a doctor so I really don't know.
I AM a psych major (and got excited when the brain was mentioned above, even if it's not the OP's question). The brain literally does get bigger and smaller with use. For example, London cabbies (who have to memorize all the complicated streets) have increased hippocampi, and the auditory cortices of professional musicians grow over time. Synaptic pruning occurs as a regulatory process that reduces the number of neurons and synapses (connections between neurons) in the brain depending on what gets used and what doesn't get used. Your brain literally gets bigger or smaller depending on how you use it. :)
Original Post by butterfly_girly:
Original Post by maddyp1:
the more active your brain(more knowledge) is the easier it is to use and the smarter you appear so yes!:)lol but seriously it does happen. from experience i promise it happens.I know for a fact that the stomach can expand-- not just temporarily, but permanently-- when you eat too much over a long period of time. It therefore seems like common sense that the stomach could also shrink permanently when you eat small portions over a prolonged period of time, but I'm not a doctor so I really don't know.
I AM a psych major (and got excited when the brain was mentioned above, even if it's not the OP's question). The brain literally does get bigger and smaller with use. For example, London cabbies (who have to memorize all the complicated streets) have increased hippocampi, and the auditory cortices of professional musicians grow over time. Synaptic pruning occurs as a regulatory process that reduces the number of neurons and synapses (connections between neurons) in the brain depending on what gets used and what doesn't get used. Your brain literally gets bigger or smaller depending on how you use it. :)
i've studied those articles too! the brain does physically change depending on its use. this is also anecdotal based on experience but i believe your heart can also become enlarged depending on what your doing (happened to a cousin). and although hormones do play a large role in hunger/satiation signals the size of your stomach probably matters as well because it is the presence of food in your stomach that sends the signal to your brain that your full. yeah the people who get the surgeries physically can't eat as much because their stomaches are smaller, but doesn't that also cause them to feel full with that smaller amount of food? and I'm sure everyone has experienced the astounding phenomenon that after a marathon day of eating (think thanksgiving) you are starving the next day. the (non-science source) explanation I've heard is that you've temporarily stretched out your stomach so you feel hungrier.
