After eating too much, have you ever felt like that dude from Alien whose stomach explodes? Like somewhere in the meat and potatoes, a baby alien snuck in?

We all have. But, baby alien explosion aside, how much can the human stomach hold?

It's tempting to equate your stomach to a balloon. Both start out small when empty. Both get bigger when stuff goes in them. And, yes, both have a breaking point.

The difference? If you blow up a balloon, pressure and volume have a fixed relationship—as pressure goes up, so does volume. That relationship in the stomach, though, isn't necessarily so. That's because the state of the stomach is determined not only by what you put into it. Instead, it's mostly controlled by nerve inputs (oh, and hormones, but it's harder to measure their effect on the gut).

A resting, empty stomach can hold six and a half to just over 10 fluid ounces. That's not even a full can of Coke.

That volume can more than double the instant you start eating—even if you're just salivating and thinking about eating. A brainstem reflex through the Vagus nerve tells the stomach, "INCOMING!" and as the food goes down the hatch, the stomach relaxes to make room.