Can your stomach 'get used' to smaller portions?

[raffyandted]

It may seem a silly question, but DH is adamant that if you eat smaller portions than normal for long enough, eventually your stomach will 'shrink' a bit and you won't feel hungry. I can see the logic, in that if you consistently over eat, your stomach stretches to accommodate the amount of food. So if you eat less, it should shrink back?

But I'm not convinced because whenever I try to cut my portion sizes I really notice that i get hungry much quicker, and it doesn't seem to get easier the longer I do it.

you may be hungry for a few days but you do get used to it (IME)

My anorexic friend assures me that the stomach shrinks.

When I was in my early twenties if I got really stressed (university/boyfriend) I would lose my appetite and after a while find that I could not eat more than a half portion. Even if I was hungry or wanted to comfort eat. I think it works the other way too. It wasn't permanent for me, but I wanted to eat more.

I think so. I've always eaten a lot but found I couldn't manage it whilst I was pregnant. This was down to nausea at first and then just not having the room!

It took several weeks after ds was born before I wanted to eat the portion sizes I was used to previously.

I have found this to be true. I don't diet often, but when I do I find it always work best if I cut down gradually for the first couple of weeks, then I don't get so hungry.

Thanks for all your replies. Guess I just have to persevere then (sigh)

I just remember several years ago when i did Slimming Magazine's Fat Unit plan, I lost weight & kept it at a healthy level for about a year, but I was always 'peckish' only 1 or 2 hours after having my meal.

I never seemed to be really satisfied for very long, and that was for over a year. And i wasn't having ridiculously small portions either; just small changes like having 3oz of rice instead of 4 or one sausage instead of 2. My stomach just didn't seem to adjust.

I'm doing Sliming World at the minute, started it a few weeks ago.

The first week I was really hungry, had to snack on "free" food a lot. Was costing me a fortune in fruit.

But it has got easier. I'm not needing a mid morning or a mid afternoon snack anymore.