LifeStarts WLS
The Infamous Cottage Cheese Test ...
I recieved a PM requesting this, I resent it back but wanted to share it here with you as well
COTTAGE CHEESE TEST
How big is my stomach pouch? Just about every patient asks this question onoccasion. It is expected and appropriate that the stomach pouch will enlarge
somewhat as the months pass after gastric bypass. Some of this enlargement
is an actual increase in size, and some represents a softening (regaining of
elasticity) of the pouch and its outlet.
The real answer is that the FUNCTIONAL size varies with many factors such as
time of day, the amount of time taken to eat, mood of the patient, other
medical issues, and (most importantly) the type of food eaten. It is
expected and appropriate that the pouch will handle a much smaller amount of
solid food (chicken) than mushy stuff like mashed potatoes or soup.
The cottage cheese test is a technique that was presented at the June 2000
meeting of the ASBS (and many times before that) by Latham Flanagan, MD
(website is at The Oregon Center for Bariatric Surgery). It is meant to be
a standardized, reproducible measurement of the physical size of the stomach
pouch in a person who has undergone a gastric bypass procedure.
Purchase a container of small curd low-fat cottage cheese. Begin the test
with a full container, and perform the test in the morning before eating
anything else (this will be your breakfast on that day). Eat fairly quickly
until you feel full (less than five minutes). Note that the small soft curds
do not require much chewing. The idea with the rapid eating is to fill the
pouch before there is much time for food to flow out of it.
After eating your "fill" of cottage cheese, you will be left with a
partially eaten container that has empty space where cottage cheese used to
be.
Start with a measured amount of water (16 ounces, for example), and pour
water into the container of cottage cheese until the water is level with the
original top level of the cottage cheese.
Voila - the amount of water poured into the container is the functional size
of the pouch.
If this is your first time doing the test - DON'T PANIC. You are likely to
find that the "cottage cheese" size of your pouch is way bigger than your
surgeon told you he/she made it at the time of surgery. Dr. Flanagan's data
indicates that the average size of the mature pouch by cottage cheese test
is 5.5 ounces. He has also found that sizes ranging from 3 to 9 ounces have
NO IMPACT on the person's success in weight loss.
COTTAGE CHEESE TEST
How big is my stomach pouch? Just about every patient asks this question onoccasion. It is expected and appropriate that the stomach pouch will enlarge
somewhat as the months pass after gastric bypass. Some of this enlargement
is an actual increase in size, and some represents a softening (regaining of
elasticity) of the pouch and its outlet.
The real answer is that the FUNCTIONAL size varies with many factors such as
time of day, the amount of time taken to eat, mood of the patient, other
medical issues, and (most importantly) the type of food eaten. It is
expected and appropriate that the pouch will handle a much smaller amount of
solid food (chicken) than mushy stuff like mashed potatoes or soup.
The cottage cheese test is a technique that was presented at the June 2000
meeting of the ASBS (and many times before that) by Latham Flanagan, MD
(website is at The Oregon Center for Bariatric Surgery). It is meant to be
a standardized, reproducible measurement of the physical size of the stomach
pouch in a person who has undergone a gastric bypass procedure.
Purchase a container of small curd low-fat cottage cheese. Begin the test
with a full container, and perform the test in the morning before eating
anything else (this will be your breakfast on that day). Eat fairly quickly
until you feel full (less than five minutes). Note that the small soft curds
do not require much chewing. The idea with the rapid eating is to fill the
pouch before there is much time for food to flow out of it.
After eating your "fill" of cottage cheese, you will be left with a
partially eaten container that has empty space where cottage cheese used to
be.
Start with a measured amount of water (16 ounces, for example), and pour
water into the container of cottage cheese until the water is level with the
original top level of the cottage cheese.
Voila - the amount of water poured into the container is the functional size
of the pouch.
If this is your first time doing the test - DON'T PANIC. You are likely to
find that the "cottage cheese" size of your pouch is way bigger than your
surgeon told you he/she made it at the time of surgery. Dr. Flanagan's data
indicates that the average size of the mature pouch by cottage cheese test
is 5.5 ounces. He has also found that sizes ranging from 3 to 9 ounces have
NO IMPACT on the person's success in weight loss.
Proud Obesity Help Bariatric Life Coach
Proud Obesity Help Support Group Leader
Fighting Daily the Disease We Call Obesity !
www.obesityhelp.com/group/LifeStartsWLS08
www.vawlsevents.com
Helping Others Find Their Way to a Life They Deserve!
