How to Shrink Your Stomach

Co-authored by Laura Flinn

Updated: October 31, 2019

Shrinking your stomach is a weight loss method that involves controlling your diet and exercising to make the size of stomach smaller. Scientifically, you can’t permanently shrink the size of your stomach without surgery. However, with diet and exercise, you can train your stomach to stretch less to accommodate food, making you feel “full” more quickly when you eat. To accomplish this, you have to stick to a strict, balanced diet, commit to exercising regularly, and avoid creating unsustainable habits.[1]

Method 1 of 3:
Creating Healthy Eating Habits

  1. 1
    Eat a balanced diet. Eating a balanced diet is important for making sure your body gets all of the nutrients in the right amounts to keep you feeling satisfied while eating less. Try to eat a diet comprised of 30% healthy carbs, 20% each of fruits and vegetables, 10% each of dairy and meat, and as little fat and sugar as possible.[2]
    • Healthy carbs include rye, quinoa, oatmeal, brown rice, and other nutrient-rich grains.
    • Choose fruits and vegetables that are rich in nutrients and low in sugars, such as citrus fruits, kale, arugula, and spinach.
    Laura Flinn

    Laura Flinn

    NASM Certified Personal Trainer
    Laura Flinn
    Laura Flinn
    NASM Certified Personal Trainer

    Our Expert Agrees: You can shrink your stomach without exercising by trying to lose body fat. To do that, eating a balanced, nutritious diet is a must. Try to eat lots of fresh fruits and vegetables, lean protein, and healthy fats such as avocados, nuts, and olive oil. Also, eat at least 25g of fiber daily, and limit sugars and simple carbs.

  2. 2
    Keep track of everything that you eat. Many people don’t realize how much they eat or how often they’re eating during the day. Keeping a food diary for a few days can help you realize what parts of your diet need adjusting.[3]
    • Some people also choose to keep track of how they’re feeling and what they’re doing when they eat to notice patterns in emotional eating.
    • Additionally, you should keep track of how long it takes you to eat each meal or snack. Eating slowly can help you feel full quickly.
  3. 3
    Drink plenty of water between meals. Water can help you feel full between meals and curb cravings while not expanding your stomach like food would. However, you can also get water from vegetables like cucumbers, broccoli, carrots, and fruits such as watermelon, plums, and apples.[4]
    • Alternatively, if you don’t like the taste of water alone, you can drink tea or flavored water.
  4. 4
    Eat fewer unhealthy fats and empty calories. Check the label on the back of the packaging for saturated and trans fats, which are unhealthy and can cause you to gain weight. Empty calories include almost no nutrients and they should also be avoided.[5]
    • Examples of empty calories include white bread, chips, cookies, jam, fruit juices, soda, and most sugary breakfast cereals.
    • Foods high in saturated and trans fats include margarine, chips, crackers, store-bought baked goods, many frozen foods, coconut, butter, and processed meat.[6]
  5. 5
    Practice portion control when preparing and eating meals. At home, you can make sure you’re not overeating by placing leftover food in the refrigerator after putting a serving on your plate. You can take control of your portions while eating out by splitting an entree with someone, or only eating half of what is served on the plate and taking the rest home.[7]
    • Store tempting foods out of the way so that you’re not able to access them easily.
  6. 6
    Eat slowly and only until you start to feel full. Many people overeat because they don’t know when they feel full, causing their stomachs to expand temporarily to accommodate the food before digesting it. Take your time when you eat, chew each bite thoroughly, and drink water between bites. Your body will signal your brain when you’ve eaten enough.[8]
    • The normal capacity of the stomach without any food in it is 200 mL, but when it comes time to eat, some people’s stomachs can relax to accommodate 1 liter of food or more.[9]

Method 2 of 3:
Committing to an Exercise Routine

  1. 1
    Practice aerobic exercise 75-150 minutes per week. Aerobic exercise is great for burning calories and helping you lose weight because it raises your heart rate. Running, swimming, hiking, biking, and dancing are all forms of aerobic exercise engage your body to help with all-over weight loss.[10]
    • Aerobic exercise helps to complement the work that you’ve done by maintaining a healthy diet, and makes your body utilize the energy that you’re getting from your food, rather than storing it as fat.
    • To start out with aerobic exercise you can run, jog, or even just walk to raise your heart rate and get your body moving. After your stamina is stronger, you can move onto more high-impact activities.
  2. 2
    Start weight training to tighten your core muscles. Weight training can help you focus on toning specific areas of your body, such as the stomach. Training with weights increases your balance, stamina, and flexibility while also helping to build muscle and burn fat.[11]
  3. 3
    Rotate the types of activities that you do. Commit to doing aerobic and weight training exercises throughout the week, rotating between the two types of activities each day. This will provide your body with some rest in between activities and allow you to focus on specific areas of your body on different days.[12]
    • Alternating workouts can also prevent your body from adapting to different exercises, allowing you to get the full benefits of each exercise.

Method 3 of 3:
Avoiding Common Mistakes

  1. 1
    Resist the temptation to “crash” diet. Extremely restrictive diets that don’t allow for the consumption of specific food groups are unsustainable. Although these diets might cause your stomach to look and feel smaller initially, the results won’t last due to constant hunger and your body not getting the nutrients that it needs.[13]
    • Restrictive diets can cause you to “binge” once the diet is over, which can make you feel sick by filling your stomach past its normal capacity in one sitting.
  2. 2
    Allow yourself an occasional indulgence. Much like crash diets, a healthy diet can become unhealthy when you begin to restrict yourself from all sugars, fats, and “bad” foods. You might find it helpful to allot yourself one time per week when you can indulge a craving or eat your favorite unhealthy meal.[14]
    • Remember to always practice portion control to not gorge yourself or make yourself feel sick.
  3. 3

Community Q&A

Add New Question
  • Question
    What kind of exercises can I do if I am morbidly obese?
    Community Answer
    Start slowly. Stand up and sit down, walk up and down stairs, walk around your garden or up and down your street. Check with your doctor before starting a new exercise program. He may have some additional suggestions for you based on your body.
  • Question
    How many days will it take to shrink my stomach?
    Community Answer
  • Question
    Community Answer
    Go to a therapist. Thinso is a dangerous thing and, more often than not, leads to eating disorders. If you're legitimately binge eating, you need to talk to a mental health professional about this.
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      • Exercise with a friend to keep you motivated!
      • Check with your doctor if you want to change your diet and are pregnant, diabetic, have digestive issues, or have any other medical issues that might affect your weight loss.
      • It takes around 20 mins for your stomach to tell your brain it's full, eat slowly.


      • If you aren’t active currently, slowly integrate exercise into your daily routine to avoid injury.

      About This Article

      NASM Certified Personal Trainer
      2 votes - 100%
      Co-authors: 22
      Updated: October 31, 2019
      Views: 295,447
      Categories: Losing Belly Fat
      Article SummaryX

      Shrinking your stomach involves controlling your diet and exercise so that your stomach stretches less and you feel full quicker. To do this, try to eat a balanced diet with lots of fruits and vegetables and healthy carbs, like oatmeal, brown rice, and rye, which fill you up quicker. Cut down as much as you can on foods with unhealthy fats and empty calories, such as white bread, chips, cookies, and sugary breakfast cereals, which can easily cause you to gain weight. Try to eat your meals slowly, since it takes your body about 20 minutes to start to feel full. It’s also important to drink plenty of water throughout the day, which fills your stomach and makes you feel fuller. As well as maintaining a good diet, aim to exercise for 75-150 minutes a week, doing something you enjoy, like walking, swimming, biking, or dancing to help you burn calories. For more tips, including how to stay motivated while you shrink your stomach, read on!

      Did this summary help you?

      Thanks to all authors for creating a page that has been read 295,447 times.

      Reader Success Stories

      • LS

        Lilian Smart

        Feb 28, 2018

        "The fact that eating just fruits can make me lose weight in a month helped and another thing that's of great importance is that I learned from your article that eating slowly helps me to get full quickly. That's a lot, thanks."..." more
      • DV

        Dixie Van Zuilen

        Apr 5, 2016

        "Recognizing how much and what I eat and eating smaller meals more often. High protein, low carbohydrate, and a lot less sugar. Good for rapid weight loss!"..." more
      • NS

        Natasha Swinnerton

        Jun 15, 2018

        "Drinking plenty of water and eating slowly helped."
      • MJ

        Matthew James

        Jun 28, 2016

        "The article was very helpful."
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