Reducing Stomach Size Without Surgery? Here's How to Do It Healthily and in Six Simple Steps

In recent years, more and more people with excess weight are turning to stomach reduction surgeries, after various diets they have tried throughout their life have failed.

Like any other surgery, there are also risks here and situations that could become complicated later, such as kidney stones, depression, post-meal hypoglycemia, poor absorption of medications, vomiting, diarrhea, pulmonary embolism, and more.

If you are hesitant and afraid of surgery but still want to shed the extra kilograms and understand that this will require you to completely change your approach to food and adopt a healthy lifestyle, here are several ways to reduce your stomach capacity without needing life-threatening surgeries.

The First Step Towards Change - Strong and Firm Will

Willpower is our channel for any change we want to implement in our lives, especially when it involves such a fundamental change in our patterns of thinking and behavior around food. 

Many of us have failed to shed excess weight not because they lack the strength to overcome the 'mountain,' but because they gave up somewhere along the way. The willpower was no longer the same after one or two failures, which is the problem. Most of us want to devour the cake entirely, but that's not how it works in life. Healthy stomach reduction takes time, and you need to check with yourself whether you are built for a lengthy process. If you wait patiently, the results will not be long in coming. But patience is the keyword, whether you chose surgery or a natural, non-invasive process.

The Second Step Towards Change - Pay Attention to Timing and Eat Like a Baby

In the natural stomach reduction process, as in surgeries like sleeve or gastric bypass, patients are required to reset their clocks and adopt different times for meals. Most requirements revolve around waiting two to three hours between meals, where a 'meal' is considered a small serving like fruit, yogurt, proteins (such as a chicken portion), and vegetables.

Many people fail in this pattern and, due to daily overload, skip meals and reach the main meal when they're hungry. This is detrimental because when the stomach is hungry, it persuades us to eat more than we really need, making weight gain and the lack of weight loss inevitable.

The Third Step Towards Change - Consumption of Dietary Fibers

The consumption of dietary fibers is crucial as it regulates bowel movements and cleanses the body of toxins and waste. In the stomach, these fibers swell and create a feeling of fullness for a long time, thereby reducing our feelings of hunger. Foods rich in fibers are oat bran and ground flaxseeds - which can be added to salads or as porridge with a cup of boiling water.

The Fourth Step Towards Change - Give Up Sweets, Fried Foods, and Other Dangerous Foods

Any diet we've done in our lives could have succeeded if we hadn't often, perhaps too often, fallen into the traps of fat, sugar, and oil-rich foods. Yes, they're very tasty but also terribly unhealthy for us - so if you really desire change, it must start in your mind. Attend workshops, consult a dietician, and start working on yourselves. Learn to rethink food and its purpose, and avoid what harms you in the long run.

Prefer fresh vegetables and fruits and eat lots of them. Fruits and vegetables provide vitamins, minerals, and other substances that help fight everything that needs to be fought against and also give a sense of satiety for a long time. Learn to enjoy fruits and vegetables and create delightful dishes from them.

The Fifth Step Towards Change - Water, Water, Water

Start your morning by drinking a glass of water and drink again half an hour before meals throughout the day. Water not only detoxifies the body but also signals to the body that 'everything is okay' and it is not facing a global hunger crisis. Sometimes the body is thirsty, and the brain 'confuses' thirst with hunger, signaling that it’s time to eat when a glass of water could actually calm that hunger.

The guiding principle between food and drinking is that drinking and eating together is absolutely forbidden. Hence, even coffee with a cake or cornflakes with milk is out of bounds for anyone wanting to see real results in reducing stomach volume. 'Sleeve' and 'mini bypass' surgery patients follow this directive immediately post-surgery and for life.

And if you want to see real change, remember to separate food from liquids. You can drink a quarter of an hour before the meal or half an hour after, but never during the meal or within a few minutes after.

The Sixth Step Towards Change - Joy, Faith, Patience, and Gratitude

Any long process takes energy, and it’s important to know how to replenish it to continue without giving up halfway through. Sometimes the task is hard and seems impossible, but anyone made of the victorious stuff never gives up. The difficulty is just another stage towards the fulfillment of the goal, for the purpose for which they 'suffer' so much right now.

During the process, it’s important to connect to our source of light - Hashem, and to strengthen our spirituality. It is no coincidence that our sages said, 'A healthy body in a healthy spirit.' Body and soul always go together, and only real inner work on both can succeed in the goal for which we embark on this journey.

The steps do not end here. There is always more to add and more to learn. There is always more to improve and aspire towards...

Knowing the way is half the walk on it.

It’s important to reinforce ourselves in this process, not letting despair translate the numbers on the scale into the only thing existing in our rich internal world. We are much more than just 'walking excess weight,' and we should remember this. Self-worth is essential in this process, no less than other things that need attention. Do not underestimate who you are or who you want to become and have not yet - with a little patience, a pat on the back, and plenty of gratitude and patience, you’ll get there. You’ll accomplish stomach reduction and be happy with your achievement.

But as long as it hasn’t happened yet, take joy in who you are. Because only this is the way to all existing goods!