Is it possible to naturally shrink your stomach

What's more? The big-bowlers underestimated just how much they were eating by 7 percent! Getting a good night's sleep has various health benefits for your entire body, and the belly is no exception. According to Wake Forest researchers , dieters who sleep five hours or less put on two and a half times more belly fat, while those who sleep more than eight hours pack on slightly less than that. Though that might not sound like much, when you have a regular bedtime and stick to it, you set yourself up for day-in, day-out weight loss.

Too little sleep leads to poor food choices, largely due to increased levels of the hunger hormone, ghrelin. Too little sleep also decreases levels of leptin, a hormone that helps satiate your appetite. Lack of sleep also clouds judgment and causes impulse decision making, which inevitably leads to poor food choices," adds founder and Certified Sleep Science Coach at SleepZoo , Chris Brantner.

As it turns out, there's something to be said for being a creature of habit and eating the same foods day in and day out, especially if you're on a mission to shrink your belly. When researchers looked at the diets of 6, people, they found that the more diverse one's diet, the more likely one was to experience weight gain.

In fact, those who ate the widest range of foods showed a percent greater increase in waist circumference compared with those who had the least diversity. It takes twenty minutes for your stomach to tell your brain that it's had enough, so if you eat slowly chances are you will consume less and see your belly shrink. A study in BMJ Open found that slow and normal-speed eaters were less likely to be obese than fast eaters!

A simple trick to slow your pace: Place your fork down on the plate after each bite. Munching on the right snacks throughout the day is one of the best ways to shrink your waistline. Need proof? According to one study , researchers found participants lost significantly more body weight when they incorporated low-sugar, high-protein snacks into their daily food routine. Fitting in healthy, high protein snacks such as a handful of unsalted almonds helps to maintain blood-sugar levels—which keeps your brain from triggering hunger pangs—and stops your body from indulging in unhealthy foods after what feels like a long day of starvation.

When you're continually stressed out, it's bad news for your belly. Stress triggers the release of a hormone called cortisol, and because cortisol is evolutionarily linked to alerting your body to external dangers like that buffalo headed straight for you and low blood-glucose levels, it forces your body to store fat and makes you feel hungry. In other words, if you're stressed, you'll start craving that afternoon candy bar even if your stomach is actually full.

To avoid stress, try simple things. It can even be just taking deep breaths and meditating for a few minutes each day. According to a study, sipping 16 ounces of water before each meal can lead to substantial weight loss. Researchers enlisted 84 obese adults for a three-month experiment and broke the participants into two groups. The first group was told to drink 16 ounces of water half an hour before each of their meals while.

When the study concluded, the water group lost about 9 pounds, while their imaginative peers shed approximately three fewer pounds. According to the researchers, loading up on H2O before meals is an effective weight loss strategy because it helps increase satiety. If you're less hungry when meal time rolls around, then you're more inclined to make smarter food choices. Since we've already established that H2O can help ward off misunderstood hunger pangs, it's not a bad idea to carry a water bottle around with you everywhere—just make sure it isn't plastic.

Plastic bottles are made with Bisphenol A BPA a harmful chemical which can negatively impact fertility in men and women and has been linked to obesity: A study found that adults with the highest concentration of BPA in their urine had significantly larger waists and odds of being obese than those in the lowest quartile.

With your BPA-free water bottle in hand, head out on an early morning stroll to shrink your waist. A study published in Scientific Reports found that exposure to sunlight in between the hours of 8 a.

Though the exact reason why is unclear, researchers believe the morning light synchronizes your metabolism and undercuts your fat genes. Burning calories before you eat means you're exercising in a fasted state—the energy you burn comes from your fat stores, not from the food you ate. One of the easiest things you can do to flatten your belly is to replace simple carbs with high fiber foods, which include whole grains, wheat bran, berries, vegetables, nuts, and seeds.

Including more high fiber foods in the diet is not only important for weight loss but also may help with the prevention of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and some cancers. As you may have guessed based on the tip above, cutting sugar helps flatten your belly. In a review of 68 clinical trials and studies, New Zealand researchers reported in the British Medical Journal that increasing sugar intake meant increasing body weight while reducing sugar meant reducing body weight.

Similarly, increasing fiber is another way to keep your belly lean. In a study of 1, people over five years, researchers reported that for every 10 grams of soluble fiber people ate, their belly fat accumulation was reduced by nearly 4 percent—even if they did nothing else to lose weight.

Eat more soluble fiber with these overnight oats recipes. Speaking of sugar, the type of sweet stuff you ingest can have a negative impact on the size of your belly. In one study, Princeton University researchers fed subjects beverages sweetened with either glucose or fructose. Though both groups gained the same amount of weight over a two-month period, the fructose group gained its weight primarily as belly fat because of the way this type of sugar is processed in the liver.

In other words, if you want to shrink your belly then stay away from fructose, including high-fructose corn syrup! Simply put, artificial sweeteners cause belly fat. A study in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society found that increasing diet soda intake is directly linked to greater abdominal obesity. In the study of older adults, researchers found those who drank diet soda each day experienced more than triple the increase in waist size over the course of nine years, so put down the Diet Coke and don't even think about reaching for some Equal to put in your morning coffee.

Though eating fats seems like a counterintuitive way to shrink your stomach, flat belly fats such as olive, canola, avocado, and walnut oils, plant-fat rich foods like avocados and olives, and nut and seed butters like peanut butter, almond butter, and tahini, can help you get the job done. However, as with any packaged food, make sure you're looking for one with less sugar than fiber.

It's quite possible you've never heard of the amino acid tyrosine—a building block of protein—but it's an important one to know if you want to get rid of a bulging belly. Tyrosine has been shown to prevent belly-bloating sugar cravings by encouraging the brain to release dopamine and another neurotransmitter, norepinephrine.

As tempting as a frozen margarita might be once happy hour rolls around, it's most likely filled with viscous syrups made predominantly of high-fructose corn syrup remember that belly baddie? To keep your belly in shape, ditch the marg and instead choose a cocktail made with club soda and lime, or stick with nutrient-packed red wine which has about calories per glass. In a study in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition , researchers found that those who drank diet beverages had higher fasting glucose, thicker waists, lower HDL good cholesterol, higher triglycerides, and higher blood pressure.

In other words, sugar-free cookies, soda, and the like may seem like the healthier option, but they contribute to a bulging belly and negatively impact your health in multiple ways.

Speaking of avoidance, another food group to keep away from is refined grains, such as crackers, chips, pretzels or 'white' carbohydrates like white breads or white rice. There's some truth to the old adage that breakfast is the "most important meal of the day," and if you're looking to blast belly fat, what you eat at the start of each day can make all the difference.

According to a recent study from the University of Missouri in Columbia , a high-fiber, high-protein breakfast may be the most important investment you can make in your waistline, because the study showed that eating breakfast triggered women's brains to release dopamine, a feel-good chemical that helps to control impulses.

Never skip meals and save up for a big meal later. Eat at regular intervals and never consume more than one pint per sitting. What you eat is important, but even healthy food can stop you from losing weight if you eat too much of it.

Your brain is easily fooled by shifts in perspective. Understanding these influences can show you how to tilt them in your favor. Usually we eat more than we should because of the mindless margin, but you can use the same principles to subtly influence your behavior and mindlessly eat less.

Over time this calorie difference can help you drop weight. If you have those smaller plates mentioned above, serving yourself a little less should be just as satisfying. Just like less food looks like more food on a smaller plate, height makes things look larger than width, even when the volumes are the same. You can cut down on your liquid calories by choosing taller glasses rather than shorter, fatter ones.

People love to hype breakfast eating as a miracle weight loss cure, but only breakfasts high in protein have been proven to suppress appetite and reduce subsequent eating throughout the day. Skip the waffles and head to the omelet station instead.

I bet you thought eating many small meals was better than eating three bigger ones throughout the day, but the data tells us otherwise. Though skipping meals can make controlling your appetite more difficult, eating more than three meals a day has not been shown to have any benefit , and may even be worse for appetite control. Research has also demonstrated that the harder food is to get to, even if the extra effort is just removing a lid or walking to the cabinet, the less likely you are to eat it.

The extra work forces you to question the value of your action, and this gives you the opportunity to talk yourself out of a decision you may regret later. To avoid extra snacking keep tempting foods out of sight, or better yet, out of the house. On the flip side, keep healthy foods prominently displayed and easy to reach. Slow down, chew each bite counting your chews can help develop the habit and watch as you fill up faster on fewer calories.

For the vast majority of us, distracted eating is overeating. The end of a show or movie is another powerful cue signifying that a meal is over, so parking in front of the TV with your plate for a Battlestar Galactica marathon is probably not the best idea.

In theory, yes. But truly healthy food—vegetables, fruits an other unprocessed foods—rarely have labels at all. Instead foods with health claims tend to be processed junk repackaged as better for you alternatives. People also tend to eat more food overall as a result of this miscalculation. For real health, stick to humble foods without labels. Come feel the energy for yourself at one of our Mind Body Fitness Conferences. It's a doggone good time! Thank you!

Click here to see more information on our referral program. Eat Breakfast One of the simplest ways to control hunger is to eat breakfast regularly. Eat Vegetables and Whole Grains A common way for you to control hunger is by eating high fiber foods.

Eat Slowly In general, eating slowly is a good strategy when you are trying to lose weight. Drink Water Another way to control hunger is to drink enough water. Sleep Enough Studies show that when you do not sleep enough, your body sees an increase in the ghrelin hormone, which increases your appetite. Curb Emotional Eating One way to control hunger is to pay attention to what your body is telling you. The same amount of food looks like more on a smaller plate Using smaller plates and filling them up is a proven way to eat less without noticing.

Use taller glasses Just like less food looks like more food on a smaller plate, height makes things look larger than width, even when the volumes are the same. A vertical line looks longer than a horizontal line and tall glasses look bigger than wide ones You can cut down on your liquid calories by choosing taller glasses rather than shorter, fatter ones.

Eat protein for breakfast People love to hype breakfast eating as a miracle weight loss cure, but only breakfasts high in protein have been proven to suppress appetite and reduce subsequent eating throughout the day. Eat three meals a day I bet you thought eating many small meals was better than eating three bigger ones throughout the day, but the data tells us otherwise.

Cleveland Clinic is a non-profit academic medical center. Advertising on our site helps support our mission. We do not endorse non-Cleveland Clinic products or services. Some studies suggest that neurons surrounding and within our stomach wall actually control receptive relaxation.

After losing weight , they may cause our stomachs to have less elasticity. This is also related to hormonal changes that affect our feelings of hunger and thirst, namely changes in the hunger hormones ghrelin and leptin.