Occasionally, \u00a0we see gastric bypass and gastric sleeve patients who, after some time post-surgery, has started to regain weight.\u00a0 Understandably patients are concerned, and often their\u00a0 concern is that they can eat more than they did immediately after surgery.\u00a0 This frequently leads to questions about the \u201cpouch reset\u201d diet.<\/p>\n
Even with gastric bypass or gastric sleeve surgery, the volume of food a patient can consume after surgery will increase over time.\u00a0 What you tolerate at one week will not be the same as it is at one month or at one year after surgery.\u00a0 It does not, however, keep increasing until you can eat the same as before surgery.\u00a0 The stomach is naturally a stretchy organ.\u00a0 Surgery drastically reduces its ability to stretch but it does not eliminate it altogether.\u00a0 Post-operatively, recommendations are generally to eat a high protein diet of foods that require chewing because this is what has been demonstrated to provide the most satisfaction for the longest amount of time.<\/p>\n
The concept behind the pouch reset diet is a return to the strict liquids of the immediate post-operative period and then advancing to regular food over a shorter period of time (usually 5 days).\u00a0 Advocates of the pouch reset suggest that this will shrink the stomach back to its original smaller size.\u00a0 Not only is there no scientific evidence to support this theory, it doesn\u2019t work.\u00a0 Liquids do not provide the same satisfaction that a solid meal does.\u00a0 You can expect to be hungrier during this diet, without achieving any weight loss benefit for the long-term.\u00a0 If the pouch reset was a truly effective technique, it would be well-described in the medical literature, discussed at bariatric conferences, and widely used with bariatric patients, which it is not.\u00a0\u00a0 The solution to post-operative weight gain is to get back to basics with the food habits taught from the very beginning.\u00a0 Think of it more as a mind reset.<\/p>\n