I like to compare the stomach capacity in rest as one's own fist. And a nice meal can add another fist to it, without over stretching. Put your own two fists on a plate and you see a normal serving size of food for an adult. Who needs more food would rather take more of these servings and not increase serving size. With Christmas or Thanksgivings many people try to stuff their stomachs like they do the turkeys with as much as 4-5 fists of food or more. An then feel miserable.
2-4 liters I think is as far as a stomach will stretch if you try hard. Ofcourse a lifelong task of increasing meal size will help achieve this goal.

Warmly,

Gonneke, IBCLC, LLLL in souther Netherlands at age 51 still battling the urge to be a good girl and finish my plate whatever is on it and concurrently fighting the overweight that comes with it.

Susan Burger <[log in to unmask]> wrote: Dear all:

I've been searching  online with no great success and I don't have that great of physiology 
texts at home.  Does anyone have a reference for the normal (unstretched and distended) 
capacity of the adult stomach?  I found a reference for 2-4 liters which sounds enormous to 
me. I'm doing a comparison of the newborn and the adult stomach graphically and when 
you compare even a day 3 stomach capacity to 2-4 liters --- the newborn stomach size 
almost doesn't register on the graph!  Which makes it really good for showing why infants 
need to feed frequently.  But I really don't think the 2-4 liters is something normal adults 
drink at one time.  Its making me feel bloated just thinking about that quantity of liquid.

Best, Susan Burger

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