There’s always at least two totally different sides to every story, and typically the best solution is for both sides to compromise and meet in the middle. This philosophy applies to training to increase your stomach capacity too. Before reading this article, make sure that you have read and understand both How To Expand Your Stomach Using Food and How To Expand Your Stomach Using Water. Each article explains how to train to increase your stomach capacity using each particular method. While both methods can be effective in their own way, and each side has different pros and cons, the safest and most effective way to increase your stomach capacity is to combine both methods and train using both food AND water. So that you can better understand why combining both methods is most effective, and to help you decide how you will train, here are the pros and cons of each:

As mentioned in How To Expand Your Stomach Using Food, the best way to train your body to be able to eat more food is by training with food. While strictly using liquids can help increase your capacity, it won’t help your body adapt to all of the other body processes that are required to hold, digest, and process all of that additional food, in addition to the stomach being able to expand further. By training with food, your system can begin to adapt to the changes you are trying to make, and you will notice that you will begin to not feel the fullness effects as quickly as time goes on. The major downside to training with food though is that you typically take in extra calories, and calories that your body does not use end up being stored as fat. If you continually take in excess calories, you will gain weight which can be damaging to your health and figure, and also your performance.

As mentioned in How To Expand Your Stomach Using Water, the reason that many competitive eaters train with water and other liquids is that water is typically free financially, calorie-free, and it digests and gets processed through your body much faster which means that you won’t have a very long feeling of discomfort. The major downside to water training though is that it can be dangerous, and you can drown yourself if you are not careful. Also, as mentioned above, your stomach may get used to expanding, but your body will not get used to processing the increased amount of food if you only use water, and it adds excess stress on your kidneys.

To basically sum up how to effectively combine both methods, simply follow the one week plan that is referenced in How To Expand Your Stomach Using Food, but then finish each large training meal by drinking a significant amount of water that increases the stretch of your stomach muscles. For example, eat the one large meal on days 1, 2, and 3, but then try to drink an additional 1 or 2 quarts (liters) of water afterwards. The larger meal will help your body begin to adapt to the increased amount of food, and the extra water will help increase the expansion of your stomach so that you can get an increased stomach stretch while avoiding additional calories and a longer period of discomfort. Plus, the water will help digest and metabolize the food you just ate. On days 1-3 during the one big meal referenced, do not go overboard on the water stretch, but do drink enough to feel the additional stretch. You don’t have to worry about drinking too much water because your body is full of food and therefore you are not at risk of drowning yourself. You do not want to go overboard though, because if you try to drink too much water on top of the food, your body may throw up both the water and the food, which will diminish some of your training efforts. Start by drinking a quart, if you even have that much room. You may even want to start off with a pint (16oz) and just keep drinking pint glasses of water until you have reached capacity. It is ok to drink 1 pint, take a break to burp up air, and then continue drinking until you are finished.

Eat your two meals each day on days 4 and 5 just like you would if you were training with food only, and don’t decrease the size of your meals just because you know that you are drinking water right afterwards. Days 1-3 were for preparing you to get more serious on days 4 and 5, so feel free to push your body a little harder on days 4 and 5 with the water stretch after your meals. As mentioned previously, don’t push too hard though. Your body will do the exact opposite of what you are wanting to accomplish if you push it too hard. This will help prepare you to max out on day 6. For more information about the max out meal on day 6, along with what to do right afterwards up until the time of your competition on day 7, please make sure you have read The 24 Hours Before Your Eating Competition in the Before The Challenge section, which also contains helpful guidance and tips.

The stomach capacity training tips are meant to serve as guidelines to help you establish your own training regimen for your own competitions based on your lifestyle, schedule, and personal capabilities. There is absolutely no way to establish a set schedule for everyone to follow with a set amount of food or liquid to consume because every single person is different, and therefore what works for one person may not work for other people. Establishing a preferred training regimen takes a lot of trial and error, and you will not get everything right on the first try no matter how much research and planning that you do. That is why you need to start slow and build your stomach capacity gradually. Train smarter and not just harder. Using all of the many tips throughout this Stomach Capacity Training section and the Before The Challenge section will definitely help you prepare your plan of attack so that you can dominate your food challenges and eating competitions, and continue to get better by learning from each & every experience. Learn. Train. Conquer. #feedthemovement

Thanks for reading expanding your stomach using food and water and using FoodChallenges.com!!

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