Golly gee.......I'm so embarrassed!!    Why do I look in the mirror and see a fat face, why does the waistband of my pants get tight when I gain weight, why can't I button the top button of a blouse when I get fat, why do rings get tight, and shoes?  What is it?  I feel as dumb as a toddler.    So kind......... 

really? you had a bad day or something? decarbing?  

MARY-will you pls hook LILY up, with an invite to a mature forum, where she can get non patronizing answers, to her sincere questions? I can't do it, from my phone.

I would think people regain by grazing and eating the wrong types of food. Not everyone dumps... so if you ate a cup of ice cream rather than a cup of yogurt ....may take up the same volume in your pouch, but it is not going to have the same effect on your weight loss... The pouch can stretch, there is a natural stretching that occurs, and I guess you could overeat and stretch it more than that, but it will never return to it's original size.

Thanks, for some reason I am picturing two stomachs and wasn't exactly sure how that could be possible.

In addition to what others have said, at the end of your pouch is an opening called a stoma.  The stoma is where the pouch attaches to the intestines.  Constant overeating and drinking with meals can stretch the stoma to the point where it is the same size as the pouch.  At that point, the food slides right through the pouch and into the intestines and you never feel a sense of fullness. You will constantly feel hungry and will be able to eat A LOT of food.

Choosing the right foods and following the rules your surgeon gives is what keeps you thin.  Grazing is usually the way weight is regained.  If you eat little bites all day long and you choose unhealthy food, you can eat thousands of calories in a day.

So the pouch never really turns into another stomach persay, but the stoma is what could be effected.  For some reason I'm picturing two large stomachs inside a person.

NO. What it turns into is something like ONE BIG INTESTINE>

The issue you should be focusing on is, once that happens you will NEVER FEEL FULL. That lack of satiety may drive you to eat.

I had hormonal issues and I never felt full. I could eat to the point of fullness and an hour later be hungry again. THIS is what carbs do to me. Constantly feeling hungry, leads to constant thoughts about foods, looking at receipieces, eating and weight gain.

Chew your food well.

Eat over the prescribed time period (i.e. 30 minutes)

Dont drink wiht your meals.

And YES you can regain all the WEIGHT and even more. Your intestiens grow more dense villi to absorb the calories after bypass. Your body is working had to keep you MO.

Even if the pouch could become as big as the natural stomach (which it can't), your remnant stomach is no longer in use at all after the RNY... So it doesn't contribute at all to how much you can eat (and it actually decreases a bit in size because of disuse).

As Rocky said, people regain by grazing, flat out eating too much, or eating foods that are too high in calories or have too many carbs.  Just like before surgery.  All the RNY guarantees is a permanently smaller pouch than stomach. Once people are more tha. A year or so out, though, it is easy to "out eat" the pouch.

Lora

This is a very non-scientific explanation...others can probably say it in a more technically correct way. It has to do with the absorption of calories from foods we eat. 

Initially, what helps us lose weight in our honeymoon period is a combination of restriction from the small punch and malabsorption of calories.

Over time, our body begins to absorb calories again. And if we eat a lot of calories our body absorbs them. And we gain weight. Unchecked, we can gain a LOT of weight back. 

So if we graze, we bypass the "restriction" part by eating a little at a time, but eating continually...and we put in a lot of calories.

And if we eat junk food...we put in a lot of calories.

And if we eat slider foods like crackers and chips...we put in a lot of calories.

And we can regain a lot of weight that way. 

So losing the weight? Yeah, it's work but we can do it. Keeping the weight off? That, my friend, is the war.