Help me understand. I am 5 yrs out from sleeve surgery. There has never been a time I was able to overeat to a large extent, I feel very near the same restriction as about 6 months after surgery. I can eat more sweets than real food but even so there is a limit I cannot cross.

I see people taking about feeling no restriction and saying their sleeve has stretched and they have gained a lot of weight - a lot being more than 20-30 lbs.

On occasion I have gained a few pounds. Most notably gaining 12 lbs this past summer due to my consumption of coffee milk shakes from Whataburger. The scales hit 12 lbs over what I was comfortable with, I said to myself ' stop this s#@t before it goes any further". I quit the shakes and switched to strawberry protein smoothies from Starbucks and the pounds went away.

I do not understand 'my sleeve stretched'. Am I wrong in thinking that the only way this could happen is if someone stuffed it past capacity repeatedly? Over and over? And if that were the case then wouldn't the problem be that one has yet to conquer the mental demons that make us overeat in the first place?

Am I missing something?

I read on this site once the statement, "I used to eat a whole pizza in one sitting. Now it takes me 12 hours to eat a whole pizza." The point is, calorie consumption is calorie consumption. Grazing is certainly an issue for a lot of us. Also, I was told after the sleeve, no straws, no carbonation. I use straws daily, and drink a few seltzers a week with no issues. After 5 years, I've become used to my sleeve, so I don't really notice the restriction, unless I overdo it.

I think we get used to the restriction, and over time, it does loosen up some. At 5+ years out, there’s no where near the same restriction I had at 12 months. But as the others said, grazing allows you to eat way more than you should.

For me, it is a lifetime of diet and intentional restriction. I spent the last two years in an incredibly stressful and difficult situation, and part of the time, didn’t have the energy to devote to diet. My sleeve is relaxed enough to allow me to eat enough to gain. Even when I did manage to not overeat for a few weeks, the stress hormones must have been working overtime. I put on about 40 pounds in that time, and nothing I did helped. Now my stress level is down, and I am able to focus on diet and exercise, and the weight is coming off. Even though I know it’s a fact, I’m shocked at the way stress affects weight.

I am almost 3 years out. My restriction is almost exactly the same as 1 year. I really think people play mind games with themselves. I can still only eat 4 ounces of dense protein comfortably which is what I am supposed to be able to eat, that is a proper portion-ish.

I can however eat almost limitless amounts of mushy, moist or crumbly foods (sliders). The only reason why I would think that my sleeve had stretched would be that as time went on, I became more comfortable with my weight and my sleeve (I knew I was healed and it wouldn't bust open) and I incorporated different foods. My sleeve is still doing it's job as intended. What changed is how I utilize it.

People just have to be mindful of what they are eating and get real about their food.

I'm trying to hit some new personal goals and did a couple days of mostly liquids. My sleeve is still tight as a drum.

Overall people just have unrealistic expectations of how their surgery will work, set mostly by incompetent Drs and staff, or worse no expectations set by their team at all.

I had the same issue as @MichiganChic, super stressed out over life over the winter. Not watching what I ate, I just gave up. Gained weight. Just a couple weeks of eating right and it is flying off.

The rate that I gained weight didn't even make sense, so it had to be more stress than what I was eating.

Now that my life has calmed down and I am focused on my food, it is coming right off. My sleeve helps me still. I went from raging hunger, because I was stressed back to no appetite, and I have to force/remind myself to eat.

Edited April 4, 20188 yr by OutsideMatchInside

On 3/4/2018 at 3:53 PM, sharonintx said:

Help me understand. I am 5 yrs out from sleeve surgery. There has never been a time I was able to overeat to a large extent, I feel very near the same restriction as about 6 months after surgery. I can eat more sweets than real food but even so there is a limit I cannot cross.

I see people taking about feeling no restriction and saying their sleeve has stretched and they have gained a lot of weight - a lot being more than 20-30 lbs.

On occasion I have gained a few pounds. Most notably gaining 12 lbs this past summer due to my consumption of coffee milk shakes from Whataburger. The scales hit 12 lbs over what I was comfortable with, I said to myself ' stop this s#@t before it goes any further". I quit the shakes and switched to strawberry Protein smoothies from Starbucks and the pounds went away.

I do not understand 'my sleeve stretched'. Am I wrong in thinking that the only way this could happen is if someone stuffed it past capacity repeatedly? Over and over? And if that were the case then wouldn't the problem be that one has yet to conquer the mental demons that make us overeat in the first place?

Am I missing something?

i think the majority of people think the surgery is primarily successful because of restriction, which isn't the case. it is the hormonal balance and therefore the metabolic shift...this changes over time and appetite increases. This is why virtually ever surgeon has a recommended food plan/diet.

Clearly surgeons don't explain that people will be able to eat more over time and that it has nothing to do with pouch size because food doesn't stay in the stomach for very long it. Generally the pouch or sleeve empties in 30 seconds to a few minutes. That is what they see in xrays. It is stretch receptors in the stomach and intestines that send the "full" message.

Dr Matthew Weiner has a great video that indicates normal is a few bites at 1 month, 3 oz at 6 months, 1/2 plate at a year, 3/4 in 3 years and 1 plate at 5-10.

This is true for me. 18 months post op i can eat a salad bowl with 3 oz of protein (soup size) or 3-4oz of protein and a side of veggies 1/2 to a cup depending on the day. Guess what though, if I'm sitting with friends at a restaurant, over the 90 minutes we are there i could quite easily eat a french fry every couple of minutes and end up having eaten a half a plate of fries after eating my dinner (I don't, but I know i could). that would be eating around my tool, it hasn't stretched I just let my stomach empty and then refilled it over and over again.

Dr Weiner says weight regain usually has almost nothing to do with anatomy. Yes there are cases where people will force feed themselves over an over again and stretch out their stomachs or in the case of RNY, the stoma, research says it is not usually the case.

Like most other people I have had some regain, most recently I went away on a vacation for 10 days with my closest friends. it was a week in a ski chalet with wine and lots of cheese, fondue one night, cheese and pate in the afternoons, eating out. I put on 7 pounds. then lost the 7 lbs over the 3 weeks following the trip when i was back home and back to my normal healthy eating.

I know I have to be very careful and vigilant with my food choices if I don't want to become a regain statistic.

On 4/4/2018 at 6:50 AM, MichiganChic said:

I think we get used to the restriction, and over time, it does loosen up some. At 5+ years out, there’s no where near the same restriction I had at 12 months. But as the others said, grazing allows you to eat way more than you should.

For me, it is a lifetime of diet and intentional restriction. I spent the last two years in an incredibly stressful and difficult situation, and part of the time, didn’t have the energy to devote to diet. My sleeve is relaxed enough to allow me to eat enough to gain. Even when I did manage to not overeat for a few weeks, the stress hormones must have been working overtime. I put on about 40 pounds in that time, and nothing I did helped. Now my stress level is down, and I am able to focus on diet and exercise, and the weight is coming off. Even though I know it’s a fact, I’m shocked at the way stress affects weight.

absolutely agree that stress (and also sleep) have a huge impact on the metabolism and therefore can cause weight gain.