I am a nurse in the ER, and occasionally I have to eat fast, or I have to wait until I am STARVING to eat. When either of these occurrs, I take bigger bites and chew less and don't wait between bites. Not intentionally, it just happens as a result of rushing. I'm afraid I have or will stretch out my new stomach pouch. I wonder how much bad behavior your new stomach can take before it is stretched. Anyone got any info on that? I don't want to screw up...

Technically speaking we don't have a pouch. Our goal is to give our food time to go through the band between bites

Usually it's people with excessively tight bands who end up dilating their pouch or esophagus. Both seem like it would be very uncomfortable and you would have to do this day after day. Just a few times here or there shouldn't affect it.

The troubling part of dilation that I've found is that people don't know they're dilating their pouch or esophagus? That's always concerned me. Some people just don't have the sensitivity down there that most of us do?

If you eat too big and too fast and you can feel that buildup just under your sternum, does it make you stop? If not, that seems like it could be problematic. For me, I think I'm fine since I still get that hard signal that I'd better wait a few minutes before I take that next bite. It's the pressure under the sternum. Not the golf ball sized bolus of food backing up, but it's more like an uncomfortable pressure that says whoa!

<p>Usually it's people with excessively tight bands who end up dilating their pouch or esophagus. Both seem like it would be very uncomfortable and you would have to do this day after day. Just a few times here or there shouldn't affect it.</p> <p> </p> <p>The troubling part of dilation that I've found is that people don't know they're dilating their pouch or esophagus? That's always concerned me. Some people just don't have the sensitivity down there that most of us do? </p> <p> </p> <p>If you eat too big and too fast and you can feel that buildup just under your sternum, does it make you stop? If not, that seems like it could be problematic. For me, I think I'm fine since I still get that hard signal that I'd better wait a few minutes before I take that next bite. It's the pressure under the sternum. Not the golf ball sized bolus of food backing up, but it's more like an uncomfortable pressure that says whoa!</p>