Dawn Crippen

I had my surgery in February of 2008 and lost 65 lbs. I still need to lose 30 lbs but I got on the scale and I GAINED 4 lbs :-( I am beside myself. I swore I would never gain, I learned my lesson but guess I havent. My question is this: How big can my pouch get? I have always tried to eat only a cup at most but I have been really hungry lately. Dont know why but I do think I ate over a cup...but I always eat the right foods. I have not had any real sugar, no cake, cookies, goodies-nothing. I drink my water and tea (sweaten with splinda) every day as well as my protein. Im confused because if my stomach is smaller and part of my intestines are gone, how can I possibly gain weight? I would have to eat twice as much as I did before, would I not?

Is Splinda OK or does it make us more hungry?

Please help me to understand so I can quit HATING myself!!

Dawn

Dr. Callery

You are gaining weight because you are eating more calories than your body is using. Since your bypass, your volume of food per meal is probably down, but you may be consuming foods which are richer in calories. Or you may be eating more frequent smaller meals. What about snacking or comfort eating? These activities are sometimes the culprit. What about calorie containing liquids, juices, booze, wine?

Keep a food diary and check one of the diet web sites or iPhone app to get a calorie count.

If you think your pouch has enlarged, you could ask your surgeon to do an upper GI x-ray while you are eating some food. I'll accompany my patient to the x-ray suit. My patient will bring a tasty sandwich. We'll coat the sandwich with a little barium (yum!), and then she'll eat some bites of the sandwich. Together with the radiologist, we'll all see how big the pouch is, how fast the food passes through, and experiment with drinking a little barium, to see how the liquid pushes the food through. Such a study is always educational, and sometimes pretty surprising.

Hope these tips are helpful.

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