We're all aware that bodies change drastically throughout our lives — as we go through puberty, have babies, get older, what have you. What we don't talk about enough, though, is how totally normal it is for your body (including your weight and your shape) to change within a single day.
Fitness blogger Sara Puhto, a.k.a. @saggysara, just issued a friendly reminder about one of the most normal yet most frustrating changes people experience on the daily: post-meal bloating. Puhto often gets extremely real on her Instagram, opening up about how much work goes into some of the photos she posts and why the scale isn't the best measure of health. And the day after Thanksgiving, she took up the topic of the "food-baby tummy," Hello Giggles reports.
She shared three pictures of herself that were taken within a day: one in the morning after she worked out, one after a meal, and one the morning after. Her stomach looks bigger in the second one than in the first, and then it goes back to its original appearance.
"I just wanted to remind you that it's normal for your stomach to get bigger after large meals and that our bodies don't look the same throughout the day!" she wrote. "I know I get pretty bloated-looking after I eat a lot and that used to really upset me because I thought there was something wrong with me and that nobody else's tummy looked like this after eating, but I realized it's just not shown or talked about a lot."
It's common for people to complain about feeling or looking bloated after a meal, but if you don't have any other symptoms, such as gassiness, abdominal discomfort or pain, or constipation, then it's probably nothing to worry about. Your stomach is designed to expand a bit to make room for your meals, and for some people it's more noticeable than it is for others, gastroenterologist Felice Schnoll-Sussman, MD told Refinery29. "Your belly is going to get distended during the day normally," she says.
So don't worry if your pants fit differently after your holiday meals — or any meals, really. It's all just a part of being a living, breathing, eating human.