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To me, the important question is not, can our sleeve stretch or not. Seems like what we really want to know is, can we regain the weight? Unfortunately, the answer to that is, YES. Once you're several months out from surgery, you'll find that you don't have that much restriction when it comes to slider foods. You can easily consume enough low-quality, high-calorie foods in a day to gain weight, and to gain a LOT of weight. But if you use the post-op months to develop new habits, to change what and how you eat and not just how much to develop a new, healthier relationship with food, to find a form of exercise that you enjoy, you can be successful at this long term. Your new smaller stomach won't keep you from regaining weight, but it will help you be successful if you put in the effort, emphasize dense protein over slider foods, and sustain good habit.

Actually, I think this is just an old wives tale! Your sleeve is constructed from the non-stretchiest part of the stomach, with the fundus (the stretchy part) being discarded. Read some of this researches I made about it and few things I found out. Yes, you can gain weight by over eating etc. but even if the pouch stretch it won't be a lot. http://www.provostbariatrics.com/can-you-really-stretch-your-pouch/ This one Is from another forum. And this person had three pregnancy after her surgery. http://m.obesityhelp.com/forums/amos/4145194/It-is-VERY-VERY-VERY-hard-to-stretch-out-your-pouch/ http://www.carolinasurgical.com/life-after-bariatric-surgery/i-am-afraid-of-my-pouch-stretching-after-bariatric-surgery/

Day 6 of my pre-op diet has been difficult. With weird noises coming from--well, everywhere, sugar lows, weakness, headaches, and even envy as I watch my family munch down on mint chocolate cookies and milk, it has not been a good day. I'm almost watching the clock until I can say 6 down, 8 to go. It has always been difficult for me to diet. My stomach rumbles telling me that it wants food, any food, all food, and quick. I've always been able to lose 20-30 pounds as I diet, but eventually I would quit and then gain back everything plus some. I will not repeat that cycle this time, because I am not going to stop until I make my goal, and then my new way of eating will be habit and I won't go back. I am more committed to this plan than I've ever been to any of the other myriad of diets I've done. So while doing all the reminiscing of diets through the years, I am reminded of one in particular. One of my doctors graphically explained weight loss in the following way: He said it comes down to the basic fact of less calories in than you burn, and that he has never seen a picture of a prisoner of war who wasn't skin and bones. He showed me a couple of pictures even, and gave me a chapter of text to read where some POWs were starving to death, yet they still had to drag themselves to the local coal mine for 12 hour shifts with nothing but a handful of rice for the entire day. Then they drug themselves, step by step, sometimes crawling, sometimes pulling or pushing one another, back to the prison camps where they were lucky to get a small amount of water and another handful of rice. If they searched for a morsel of something else, or complained that it wasn't enough, they were tortured even more. Often these POWs prayed that they would pass during the night, knowing that their frail bodies just could not continue on. Others prayed for help to sustain them just one more day. As we are struggling through with our limited shakes or various different diets, I am reminded of those POWs and how they survived on a handful of rice for days, months, even years, all the while working hard labor in their camps. Tonight when I am hearing my stomach rumble, I'm trying to be thankful for what I have. With that in mind, 700 calories doesn't seem so small when compared to the lives of our brave prisoners of war in history.

I have a great ebay story for you. My son's friend use to work in Boston and would go to Filene's Basement, it was a famous mark down department store every day during lunch. He would buy 100 pairs of designer jeans, fur coats etc. and almost never lost money. He would make about $5000. a month from this. My son would go clothes shopping in his closet and spend 1-2 hours in there it was so big. I need to use ebay for a lot of stuff. Thanks for the idea.

well I was gonna name him George but saw someone else stole it already so I am back to the drawing board.

December 5, 2012. The first day of the rest of my life. The last few days have been very dark days. I've been in a stall for a about 5 days now, and this is my second stall in 8 weeks. My highest weight was 242.2 and starting weight was 239.8. I've been stuck at 205 + or - 2-3 lbs. Today is my 8 week surgiversary. Today I am feeling much different than the few weeks, even the last 5 days. I have learned so much about my body as well as food, nutrition, and life in these last few weeks. Today I hit 100 oz of fluids. Prior to today I might have hit 50-60 on a good day. Today I hit my protein. Today I walked over 2 miles in under 40 minutes. Today I ran on the treadmill. I haven't 'ran' in almost 10 years... Today I made healthy choices. I have had sooo many struggles. EVERY SINGLE MEAL is a challenge. (anyone else?) Every meal is a new opportunity to choose the best food for my body. I am sooo far from perfect, and have struggled every single day. Today I put the scale away. Today I will focus on being healthy. Today I will focus on exercise and going forward. Today I will focus on being happy and living in the moment. My hunger has NOT gone away, however I can say that it is NOT the same kind of hunger as pre-surgery. Music has been my healing power. I hate plain water, and most protein shakes. I have learned that I am a strong woman, but I have a lot of dark demons that haunt me, I have many issues that I am always going to struggle with, but I am NOT going to let them beat me or get me down...I have done that for way too long. Thank GOODNESS for the amazing people who post on this website as they are and have been extremely supportive and I have learned so much from the many others who are taking a walk on this journey. I don't always post, but I read others posts and comments daily. Cheers to the rest of my healthy life!

The rearview mirror is my best friend. I'm always consulting it, flicking between the road ahead and what has just passed. For me, I'm obsessed with understanding and learning. I never take "I don't know" as an answer. There ARE no mysteries, there is always a reason. Maybe we don't understand it at the time, but that's what rearview mirrors are for; they are the teacher's answer key. And the more I know, the better I get. So here I am one week from getting my band replaced and am glancing at the rearview of my band failures and successes. I feel very different than the first time I was banded, and it's made even clearer by the new people I am befriending here on LBT. All the questions and the anxiety and the excitement, it's like looking at a photograph. It makes me smile and I'm probably more excited for their journey than they are, knowing what's coming. I want to be a good leader, a great example, and most of all I want to not repeat my own mistakes (for I am still a human leader). I wasn't perfect on the band like many others I see. I have a food addiction. And the first step in anything is owning up to your misses. I remember the first few months with the "magic fill" - I was a kid in a candy store, eating cookies and ice cream or high fat stuff. I would MARVEL that literally, two squares of a Hershey's bar would satisfy me. I would fold up the candy bar and put it in my desk drawer. I'd open the drawer just to look at it and boggle at the fact that I didn't WANT it, and I could say no. That never, ever happened to me. I destroy food like Godzilla with a hangover. I would sneak ice cream as a 7 year old when my mom was in the shower. The taste of food was unparalleled joy, all the time. And I enjoyed my bad food for a while when I was newly banded, because I had power over food for the first time in my life. I did eventually get too cocky and the band would interrupt a nice dinner I'd made or purchased, and all the food was put away because I had to PB, or just felt awful. Try having something stuck on a date....ruins the mood. I needed to go through that embarrassment and wake up call to get back in balance. Play time was over, it was time to work. Then I got in line with the band; roasting chicken thighs and carrots for dinner, portioning things out. Talking more with whomever I was with and letting food fall to the background. I never felt deprived because my food choices were just that - MY choices. It was so empowering I cannot even describe it. I literally felt like a normal person because my relationship with food was changing. This time around, I'm not even interested in bad food, or the permission to have it in small quantities. I have tasted normal sized clothing, I have tasted normal relationships with food, and I absolutely hate where I am now. I'm 40 lbs less than my heaviest, but I feel worse than I ever have. For 6 months now I've been heavy (half the time with a baby...the last 2 months of pregnancy were awful!) or healing from a c section, and lugging around more fat with sleep deprivation. I used to feel GREAT! I want to feel GREAT again. The band makes me feel GREAT because I feel in control. I am out of control now. And rereading my past entries, I fought and fought for stability with a constantly failing band and a less than ideal mindset. I am blessed and lucky to have a second chance. I'm not squandering it. Open eyes, looking ahead and behind, changing the bad and repeating the good. It's not all daisies on the journey, but yeah, when you get there, it's a freakin' field of flowers

Thanks for the update. Great news! Have a great appointment on Tuesday... life is good!

Thank you so much for your insight. It's great to have a veteran in the February Group. We're sharing our surgery date, so I'll be needing your expertise and experience to help me through. I'm ready for that field of flowers .