How much can you eat years after the sleeve? how much does the sleeve stretch?

[iloveorganicmilk 4]

Hi,

I am getting my sleeve surgery in a couple months and am worried that all my joy in eating food will be gone.

How much does the sleeve tend to stretch couple years after surgery? How much can you eat? ( please tell me in cups! )

If I can only eat like a couple of bites for the rest of my life I'm considering asking the surgeon to make my sleeve slightly larger. But if the sleeve stretches a bit where eating a cup of food can get comfortable, I just want a normal sized small sleeve.

Watermelon is one of my favorite foods and I'm so sad that i'll be only able eat like 3 or 4 one inch cubes of it

I am a female 5'3", so if anyone can tell me how much watermelon they can usually eat, or how large of a portion they are capable of eating of different foods... please tell me!!

I heard the sleeve stretches so I'm hoping maybe 5 years after the surgery I could eat like 2 cups of food or so.

I had the lap band and my pouch stretched quite a bit after just one year. is this similar with the gastric sleeve?

Please tell me how much you are capable of eating as time after surgery passes!

Thank you so much!

[Havasumoma 250]

Really? Why exactly are you even considering doing this?

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[Bufflehead 6,358]

More than a couple bites. Much less than 2 cups.

Honestly I don't think your priorities are a good fit with this surgery.

[GinaCampbell 434]

I am 5ft 2 and four months post op. Despite quite a few post op issues and a recurrent c diff infection, my sleeve capacity feels very reasonable depending on the food I try and eat.

At first, for me, nothing much felt quite right. So the goal is Water, good quality broths and Protein of some fashion.

I can only speak for myself obviously, but my surgeon told me that he made my sleeve "very small" and I can eat watermelon reasonably. But in small portions.

You will only be able to eat tiny portions (mouthfuls, not cups) once cleared to move on from liquids.

If I try to eat a dense Protein (meat, eggs etc), I can still only eat a few mouthfuls.

Processed carbs are a waste of time for me to even attempt (think mashed potato, pasta). It sits like lead in my sleeve even a couple of mouthfuls.

But that's the point of this surgery.

Learning to eat smaller, well thought out portions of good, healthy food.< /p>

Learning to drink good quality liquids. To put nutrition in the body.

I have been told both that the sleeve can and can't stretch, so I don't know which is true.

I have been obsessively careful about quantities of anything going in because I want my sleeve to heal really well.

And if quantity and portions are concerning you, I am not sure that asking for a bigger sleeve is the right question.

Perhaps asking yourself about nutritional input, body "fuel" and what your relationship with food will look like might be a better question.

You can always postpone the surgery until your mind is straight about all of this.

Please make sure that your mind is settled before you actually have the surgery.

Good luck and best wishes!

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[sc101071 398]

My plan has us eating 4 meals a day between 3/4 cups to one cup in size. As for watermelon, when you chew it, it is going to compact so that's how you need to imagine your ability to hold the food.

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[Dairymary 533]

I don't know how much I CAN eat, I just know how much I do eat in order to maintain my loss. The latter is much less than the former. I also know from years of watching postop WLS patients come and go from my support group that those that let their surgeries dictate their portions never reached goal or always regained. And this is true for all surgery types. It's the mental work that determines long term success. In general, those that had revision surgery were not any more successful the second time around than the first unless they put the time and effort in with a therapist.

The best thing you can do, going into another surgery is work with a mental health professional to figure out 1) why and how you became obese in the first place....those answers will help you change what needs to change. 2) figure out why your pouch stretched and don't repeat those things with the sleeve. There is much debate whether or not a sleeve stretches, but even the smallest sleeve can be made useless with poor food choices, grazing, etc. The fact you are looking for an excuse to be able to eat larger portions isn't exactly a good starting point.

[AvaFern 3,516]

I can understand that it sounds horrible to only be able to eat a few bites of the foods you love. It really is awesome though because after you have adjusted to the sleeve, you will only really want a few bites, you will enjoy those few bites, and then you won't think about eating anymore because you'll be thinking about something other than food.

I love cake...I can have a few bites and then I am more than happy. I love ice cream...I can have way too much of that and then I get sick. In the end, I rarely eat either of them because I like being thin and since I know that I can have them if I want to, I don't feel any real urge to eat them. At three years out, I have no idea what my stomach capacity is because I haven't measured things for years. I do know though that when I look at chicken sandwich (think Chik Fil A grilled chicken) I can eat about half over the course of an hour, and I feel fine. I cannot eat more than a bite or two in a few minutes because my stomach pukes it right back out. I also generally put food I'm going to eat at home into a separate container, so if I have goldfish crackers, I scoop 1/2 cup into a paper bowl and then I munch on those for a little while.

If you are successful in your surgery, you won't care that you can't eat a lot of food and you'll be completely content eating small amounts. You'll also have made it a habit to only eat small amounts so you won't really notice that you don't eat as much. At three years post-op, my days are filled with worrying about deadlines for work and grad school, and rarely do I think a lot about what I am eating. I weigh myself everyday and if I see the scale go up a pound or two, I pay a little more attention to my food the next day or so and I go back to normal. A few years from now, the fact that you can't eat a lot of watermelon will be the last thing on your mind.

[staceface 38]

@@iloveorganicmilk

I think you've received a lot of good advice here. I'm super early on, just scheduled to see the Bariatric Surgeon for a consult in 2 days.

I hope you don't feel any judgment by the feedback you've had from the group; I think it's some seriously valuable honesty. Valuable for all of us going through this!!

Good luck and I'm interested in hearing what you decide to do!!

Stacey

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[OutsideMatchInside 10,166]

@@iloveorganicmilk

You might want to consider some counseling. You don't really have a mindset that is conducive to post-op success or happiness.

First of all everyone isn't in the 2 bites category. There are people that post here that they can only have a couple bites and they are full, but a bite isn't a scientific measurement so none of us know WTF a "bite" is so that information is useless.

I have always been able to eat more post-op than what a lot of people eat, but I use my sleeve more than a lot of people, and I made a point of making sure I got my Protein and Water goals. The more you use your sleeve the more "relaxed" it becomes.

I can eat about 4-6 ounces of dense Protein, but I try to keep it to 4 ounces, because that is a proper portion. It depends on what I am eating how much I can eat. I can eat 3 cups of spinach at a time. I don't eat watermelon so I have no idea on that.

@@AvaFern Put it well, about not wanting a lot of food post-op. I am very satisfied with small amounts of food and not only am I satisfied, small amounts of food feels like a feast.

[LipstickLady 25,682]

I am 3+ years out. I eat 1/2 cup to 1 cup food' max. If you are this concerned about eating in quantity now, this may not be the right option for you.

BTW...Sleeves don't stretch.

Best of luck to you!

[Sexy45 2]

Your sleeve does stretch which is your stomach which is a muscle. If you over eat you can and will stretch your sleeve.

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I am 3+ years out. I eat 1/2 cup to 1 cup food' max. If you are this concerned about eating in quantity now, this may not be the right option for you.

BTW...Sleeves don't stretch.

Best of luck to you!

Your stomach is a muscle so yes it will stretch.

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[LipstickLady 25,682]

Your sleeve does stretch which is your stomach which is a muscle. If you over eat you can and will stretch your sleeve.

Sent from my SM-G935T using the BariatricPal App

I am 3+ years out. I eat 1/2 cup to 1 cup food' max. If you are this concerned about eating in quantity now, this may not be the right option for you.

BTW...Sleeves don't stretch.

Best of luck to you!

Your stomach is a muscle so yes it will stretch.

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OK.

But I dare say you're wrong. When a sleeve is done correctly, the fundus (the stretchy part) is removed leaving the muscle (the non stretchy part).

But what do I know? I'm almost 3.5 years out and can still only eat 1/2 - 3/4 cup.

[Shells_Almost_There 357]

I've just passed my 3 year surgiversary, and I wish (WISH WISH WISH) that I had the same experience as Lipstick Lady! (who is one of my favorites of this site, btw) I'm guessing that I could eat a giant plate of food, if I wanted -- I don't seem to have any restriction at this point (not that I'm going to push it and find out exactly - I just can eat a lot of steak or whatever when I'm not being thoughtful about what's going in my mouth, etc - whereas at the start, I was done after 1/4 cup, then 1/2 cup, then a cup, then...and that's when I had to put the brakes on myself and make a conscious decision to retake control). In thinking about it, the actual way I first noticed it was when I worked out, I realized I could gulp Water - which was absolutely not possible early on. I would feel like puking after 3 small sips for at least the first year, and I had a lot of burping and hiccups for about 18 months (I'm kind of happy that part has stopped! LOL)

My surgery was outwardly complication free, but I barely felt restriction after just 5 months of eating my same post-op food plan items. It was disappointing, sure, but I've still lost a significant amount of weight, and I would do it all again in a heartbeat. I may not be where I thought I would be after this number of years, but I'm SO much better than I was. I'm healthier, I work out, and I sure enjoy life a lot more than before surgery. Plus, I have to own my successes and failures - in the same way I did prior to surgery when I lost the same 60+ pounds 3 different times - regaining it after a year or so each time -- right? As everyone tends to remind -- surgery is just a tool. So very true!

This is all to say that everyone has their experiences and interpretations of it (as noted by LL in large green font above ) and my sleeve experience was quite different. Almost 37 months later, I'm still pushing ahead in a "slow but steady" way, but it has some very serious ups and downs - the way life can be. My best advice is to make the most of the 6 month honeymoon period (or in my case, barely 5 months), as it will set you up for future success.

Edited October 5, 2016 by Shells_Almost_There

[Dairymary 533]

To the OP...I saw on another forum that you are actually wanting to get surgery because you have a serious binge eating disorder. I can't stress enough what a poor choice surgery is for that particular problem. I guess that explains why your pouch stretched when you had the band. And the same thing will happen with ANY WLS. This thread itself is proof that you are looking for a a way to continue to eat in excess by wanting a stretched sleeve.

The only real solution to your issue is professional psychiatric therapy. What you have is a mental disorder that needs psychological intervention, not physical alteration of your internal organs. Please get help, not surgery.

[LipstickLady 25,682]

@@Dairymary

She's been banned for trolling.