Does the pouch grow the more you put in it? or does it stay the same size?

Yes. It stretches. It starts out able to hold 1-2 ounces and then is "supposed" to level out around 8-12 ounces.  If you overeat repeatedly, force food through the stoma you can stretch the pouch.  A lot of people gain weight from grazing all day and making poor choices, drinking while eating and flushing food directly through. So a stretched pouch doesn't have to be the source of regain.

The pouch does expand, but it would do that even if you only ate 2 ounces at a time forever.  It is intended to.  Once we lose the weight, we would all either starve to death or have to eat every hour if we could only eat 2 ounces at a time for the rest of our lives.

The pouch, however, is difficult to actually stretch (no matter how many people are freaked out by the prospect of doing that).  It is made from the top part of the lesser curvature of the stomach which is the least stretchy part of the stomach (and what is used for the sleeve).  You are FAR more likely to stretch the stoma which, if stretched a lot, turns your pouch and intestine into one giant stomach and defeats the restriction portion of the surgery.  Stretching the stoma requires overeating on a regular basis, BTW, not just occasionally eating a little too much.

Lora

HI!  I am a freaker about stretching the pouch and the stoma.

It has been suggested on unrelated websites and forum that not chewing your food adequately MAY stretch one's stoma.

HOwever, I cant find hard evidence from a medical journal about this.

But ...be aware. I used to only chew my food about 3 times before swallowing pre-op. Now, I fletcherize!

Just wanted to thank you for your reply. I keep having ds people trying to freak me out about the stoma stretching. And making it sound like it just does it easily. I already have the sleeve but am revising to rny and some don't get why I don't want the ds.  After researching it's just not for me. So again thank you.  It really helps to hear from someone who has been living rny already for a number of years. 

Next week will be my 5 year anniversary and I am sad to say I have stretched my stomach out. I gradually started eating more and more and now I can eat the amount I used to. I went from 215 to 93 pounds in 5 months. This last year I have gone up to 149. I'm actually going to the doctor to see about diet pills. So from my experience you can stretch it out !!!

My surgeon told me the stomach DOES STRETCH with repeated over-eating. I asked because there is so much conflicting info out there. The trick, I was told, is to stop eating when full and not to stuff yourself. Repeated stuffing WILL stretch the stomach, according to the surgeon.