Photo: Anna Shvets

How long does it take to naturally shrink your stomach?

If you have a big meal, your stomach doesn't magically get bigger and stay that way—it shrinks back down to its previous size in about four hours or less as your food is pushed along to the small intestine, Staller says.

womenshealthmag.com - Does Your Stomach Really Shrink When You Eat Less?

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When you're trying to lose weight, you might feel like your stomach actually shrinks during weeks when your healthy-eating habits are on point—and seems to physically expand to allow for more eats during times when you've indulged in an extra cheat meal (or three). But can your stomach actually stretch to allow more food—or shrink when you're cutting back?

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Kind of, but the process is a little more complicated than that, says Kyle Staller, M.D., a gastroenterologist at Massachusetts General Hospital. “The stomach is an organ that’s made to stretch,” he says. When you eat food, it doesn’t just plop into a big bag, he explains—it goes into something called the fundus, the upper part of your stomach, first. The fundus stretches out as much as it can to accommodate the food you put in, but everyone’s fundus has different thresholds. Some people can fit in a lot in (think: competitive eaters) while others don’t have as much space to work with. This explains why you may legitimately be able to always have room for dessert but not another entree—you're actually working with less volume. If you have a big meal, your stomach doesn’t magically get bigger and stay that way—it shrinks back down to its previous size in about four hours or less as your food is pushed along to the small intestine, Staller says. But if you’re regularly eating more than usual and at a faster pace than your stomach can signal to your brain that you’re full, it’s possible for you to train your fundus to accommodate more food. (Torch fat, get fit, and look and feel great with Women's Health's All in 18 DVD!) On the flip side, if you don’t eat as much as usual for a while (like when you’re trying to lose weight), you stomach won’t necessarily shrink, but it won’t be able to fit in as much food as before right away, Staller says. That explains why you tend to feel fuller faster when you eat a big meal after dieting. “It’s like your muscles—you’ll be able to do less and less each time when you don’t use it,” Staller explains. So, next time you want to make room when you spot a tasty-looking flan on the dessert menu, know this: Your fundus is probably up for it—and provided you pick up your clean-eating habits in the a.m., it'll shrink back to normal in no time.

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How can I regain my waist after menopause?

Work your whole body. The magic formula for blasting body fat is combining cardio, weight lifting, and core work. The trick with the cardio is to do intervals -- alternating high- and low-intensity bursts within one workout -- and work up to burning 400 calories per workout, four to five times a week.

webmd.com - Menopausal Muffin Top: Getting Rid of Belly Fat in Menopause - WebMD

Ask any woman about her least favorite body part, and most of us will point to our middles. And in my experience, bellies can become especially anxiety-provoking when excess fat spills over the top of our jeans. Yes, the dreaded "muffin top." Any woman can get a muffin top. But women are more likely to gain excess belly weight -- especially deep inside the belly -- as they go through perimenopause and into menopause, when their menstrual cycle ends. That's because as estrogen levels drop, body fat is redistributed from the hips, thighs, and buttocks (where it used to be stored as a fuel reserve for breastfeeding) to the abdomen. Developing a pooch of subcutaneous (below the skin) fat -- what I call the "menopot" -- is perfectly normal. But if you gain more than 2 to 5 pounds, it's likely to go deeper into the abdomen, creating too much visceral fat. You need some fat in your belly, but when it becomes excessive, I call it "toxic fat." That's because excessive amounts of visceral fat increase inflammation in the body and ultimately contribute to several conditions, including heart disease, diabetes, and cancer.

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