Terminology for Vomiting After Eating Too Much Too Fast
There is no specific medical term for vomiting that occurs simply from eating too much too quickly in an otherwise healthy person. This is a mechanical phenomenon rather than a defined clinical syndrome.
What This Actually Represents
Acute gastric distention is the underlying mechanism when rapid food intake overwhelms gastric capacity, triggering the vomiting reflex as a protective response 1, 2.
The stomach becomes mechanically overdistended, and vomiting occurs as a normal physiological response to decompress the organ 1.
This differs fundamentally from pathological conditions like gastroparesis (delayed gastric emptying), cyclic vomiting syndrome (stereotypical episodic vomiting), or dumping syndrome (post-surgical rapid gastric emptying) 3.
Critical Distinction: When It Becomes Pathological
Binge eating with acute gastric dilatation can progress to a life-threatening emergency if the stomach dilates to extreme proportions (>30-40 cm), potentially causing ischemic necrosis, perforation, or vascular compression 2, 4.
This severe complication is most commonly reported in patients with eating disorders (anorexia nervosa, bulimia) who engage in extreme binge eating after prolonged fasting 1, 2, 4.
Fatal outcomes have occurred from reperfusion injury after decompression, disseminated intravascular coagulopathy, and aortic/mesenteric vessel compression 4.
Clinical Context
In routine practice, isolated vomiting after overeating rapidly is considered self-limited acute emesis without a specific diagnostic label 5, 6.
If this pattern becomes recurrent or stereotypical (≥3 episodes annually with acute onset lasting <7 days), consider cyclic vomiting syndrome as a differential diagnosis 3, 7.
Persistent meal-related vomiting warrants evaluation for structural causes (via endoscopy) and functional disorders like gastroparesis (via gastric emptying scintigraphy) rather than attributing symptoms solely to eating behavior 8, 9.