Pouches don't really stretch, but the stoma can. If you think that's the case, get an appointment with your surgeon to get scoped. They'll know for sure that way.

Some days I THINK I can eat as much as pre-op. I can't. What I CAN do is eat slider foods endlessly and drink with my meals to wash the food out of my pouch. If I eat a grilled chicken breast, I can eat about 6oz and I'm full.

I remember back to pre-op when I'd go out for dinner, I'd get a 20oz steak, yes TWENTY ounce, a house salad, mashed postatoes and another side dish and a dessert and be hungry an hour later. That is still and entire day's worth of food, maybe a day and half even. I also remember cooking the entire 16oz pack of spaghetti noodles and making 2lbs of meat sauce with it and eating half the whole thing. Not a snowball's chance in HELL of that now.

I bet if you really get down to it, it's the same for you. We can eat normal servings now, and eat the way the we see other people eat and so after eating 3oz of food for a couple of years, we think we're the same as pre-op. I don't know about you, but I NEVER ate only one serving of ANYTHING pre-op. But then, I didn't think I was overeating pre-op either. I could eat "a little more" than others, but I didn't realize I was probably eating 5x as much and only scaling back while in the company of others so I didn't look like miss piggy. Check your perception before assuming it's the same as pre-op.

Measure an 8oz chunk of meat -- chicken, steak, pork, whatever just not fi**** has to be dense. Then eat it. No drinking 30 minutes before or 1 hour after. See what happens. I can't eat the full 8oz and I've broken all the pouch rules and for long periods of time.

The 5 Day Pouch Test is a good tool. I refuse to do the 2 liquid days though. So I just go back to eating protein first, then veggies, then a good carb. Which is what we're supposed to be doing for life.

I tried Phentermine pre-op and all I got was heart palpitations. It would've been safer to buy Adderall off the ADHD kid that was selling it.

I'm being completely serious and I don't suggest it. What issues are you having reaching goal? Diet is almost always 80% of the problem, barring health problems. What are you doing?

 

have anybody had to take adipex to help reach goal.

the website is 5 day pouch test , its 2 days of liquids, then soft proteins. Back to the beginning right after your wls. Its to tighten and reset the pouch.

I received my Unjury vanilla protein powder on Monday, and tried it yesterday... it's delicious! By far the best I've had, so far :)

I haven't been perfect, but here's what I tend to live by.

- Lean proteins (turkey, chicken, fish, egg whites)

- In the past few months, nearly 5 years after my surgery, I could at last eat a salad with leafy greens! I'm enjoying this and never thought I'd miss it, so I try to have a salad as part of my lunch or dinner daily now.

- I can't physically eat and drink at the same time. Gotta pick one over the other, or I feel sick from the combination.

- I try to eat my proteins and veggies first. Then if there are any carbs on the plate, I literally take a tablespoon, 2 at most. I've learned to be OK with throwing away leftover carbs. I'm OK refrigerating leftover proteins and veggies for later.

- It was rough, but I've cut coffee back down to 1 a day. No longer 2. If I need caffeine, my 2nd cup can be tea... otherwise, only 1 trip to Starbucks.

- More water, and started adding lemon to mine - tastier and healthy.

- Exercise - 5-6 times a week, for 40-60 minutes a day. Weights and cardio to build muscle, endurance and this process helps tighten up some of the lose skin over time.

- Keep an overall eye on carbs and sugar - an ongoing battle since these are hidden in many foods and can quickly add up.

- Weigh in twice a week. Log my food daily (I use LoseIt app, there are so many to chose from out there). I even chart my progress since I'm trying to drop back down some weight. I chart my pounds, inches (various body measurements) and week to week look at my overall calories spread from carbs, fat, sugar, protein, fiber, sodium, etc. 

- I don't refuse something I crave, but I take care to limit how much of it I have. A bite, or a small serving. I can feel fulfilled and not make exceptions a daily occurrence. 

- It helps to have someone in your life remind you to be accountable. For me, it's my trainer and sometimes my spouse. I don't want to disappoint them, so it helps keep me honest.

- I visit this site or look back on older photos to remind myself where I came from and why it's important to stay healthy and not feel that the money and energy spent on the surgery was for none.

Happy to see everyone else's responses. Thank you for sharing!

I need to get rid of my carb cravings and carb intake , can you explain the  5 day pouch test or advise where I can find it? Way to go on losing 5 lbs!!! 

I use BSN Lean Dessert. I have tried samples of everything and that's my favorite. Go to some place like vitalady.com or Nashua Nutrition. They have sample packs. I ordered $50 in samples once!

I'm 6 years out and I've learned plenty of tricks to "out eat" my surgery. I could probably eat 3000 calories a day if I wanted to. I bet I did once or twice.

Follow your pouch rules. No drinking with meals (and wait 30 minutes to an hour after them) and eat your protein first. About 50% of my calories are from protein and I eat between 50 and 80 grams of carbs a day. I tried low carb like Atkins, but I had no energy. I do need some, but they don't come from bread or pasta.  I eat some low glycemic fruit or root vegetable like sweet potatoes. Despite the name, they don't have the effect on blood sugar that regular potatoes do.

If you can remember back to surgery, we were told not to have bread or to have it only occasionally. Because of what it does to blood sugar and how that contributes to not only how I feel but also to metabolic syndrome and weight gain, I don't eat bread. I follow a paleo diet because it so closely resembles our post op diets and there's alot of support for it and science behind it.

Anyway, even though I could eat 3,000 calories a day I live on 1200 a day unless I exercise, and then my calorie level is proportional to the calories burned (and I have a hard time even reaching those calorie levels eating lean protein and vegetables all day!). Being off breads and sugars, I have almost no hunger except real hunger. I am an addict and I will always drool when I see a donut, but following this diet I know a craving from real hunger. Real hunger is rare unless I forget to eat. Head hunger, as we know, can rage all day and all night even after eating. That's not hunger.

Exercise is so beneficial. I do strength training and for two reasons: It burns more calories than aerobic workouts and lean muscle mass is a calorie burning engine I can "install" in my body through strength training. You raise your metabolism and the amount of calories you can eat everyday. Some guys that are muscular with 5% body fat eat 4,000 calories a day to maintain that muscle! Some of them believe in "carb refeeds" and they don't do it cleanly, either -- they eat pizza and burgers and ice cream and junk once a week for their carb load. Can you imagine?!

Building lean muscle is important, and there's some research that too much aerobic exercise does more harm than good. When I say too much, it generally refers to running for more than an hour everyday. Three days a week for 45 minutes or less is fine. I hike and take long walks. In the winter, I use the treadmill at the rec center for interval training. That's also a good tool where you walk slowly for a bit and then continually increase the speed and then jack it way up to your maximum for 20 or 30 seconds and then bring it back down for a few minutes and repeat. It's fun. Paleo folks refer to it as running from the tiger or the bear. Short bursts of extreme energy were necessary for humans back then and the philosophy goes that we're still genetically engineered for it and it activates those genes. But interval training has been used long before the Paleo thing got popular.

I feel so much better when I exercise. I can start out grumbling, feeling like I don't have much energy and 20 minutes later I'm suddenly a pro athlete ready to run to the moon and back. Endorphins feel better than a sugar high ANY day and doesn't crash your metabolism, either.

In short: Pouch rules and exercise. There's just no magical formula other than that. You get to tweak it to your needs, that's the only magic of it. I've had to do that many times and you'll have to do it repeatedly too. We all do as we age and our needs change.

For my story, I had a major health crisis and gained some flab this winter because when you're anemic, working out is nearly impossible. Everything feels so exhausting. Lost muscle mass (worst thing ever) and replaced it with a little ab, hip and thigh fat (to the tune of an extra inch in each place -- but NO gain on the scale! See how useless that thing can be?!) and now that my levels are better I'm on the war path to correct that and not only correct that, KEEP GOING and end up alot better at the end of the year than the beginning. I am extremely pear shaped and my collar bones are already sticking out more -- but dammit, that's not where I want the weight to come from! I wear a size 10 on top and 14 on bottom. Sheesh! I can't fight genetics, though. Belly fat is generally considered "metabolically active" and that means its burned off more easily. Being a pear, it usually does come off easier. FAR easier than fat in my hips and thighs. I noticed a difference in my body after a week and I'm 6 years out. I have little restriction (if I choose not to have it, that is) and no more malabsorption and weight loss is as hard for me as it is for everyone else.

Speaking of malabsorption, how's your vitamins? That impacts your body too. If you're deficient in something important, your body will want to hold onto weight. I bet if my iron were better, I'd lose a little easier. To your body, deficiency is the same thing as starvation and it'll hold its fat stores, or thinking there must be a famine, add even more.

Hi, I have regained weight and was wondering if there are any words of wisdom on how to get back on track.  Surgery was in 2004.  Unfortunately I have gone back to my bad habits and my "all or nothing attitude" has crept back.  Once I eat something I shouldn't i just give up.  What is the 5 day pouch test and how can I get this so I can follow this and hopefully get back on track.  Any and all suggestions are welcomed.  Thanks!