Question:
What exactly is the cottage cheese test, and how do you do it? Thanks

   — tatterpuddin (posted on September 6, 2002)

September 6, 2002
hiya i got this from the internet: How big is my stomach pouch? Just about every patient asks this question on occasion. 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. i hope this helps...good luck! kate open rny 6-14-01 pre op: 268lbs goal: 135lbs current: 130lbs
   — jkb

September 6, 2002
I know it helped me. Thanks for responding to the question KATE. I'd heard of the cottage cheese test and was wondering what the heck that "test" was myself! :)
   — [Deactivated Member]

September 7, 2002
Kate, you did an excellent job on explaining the cottage cheese test. Dr. Latham Flanagan, Who invented the test, as my surgeon. The only thing I would add is he told us to put milk in the cottage cheese hole, then dump the milk back out into a measuring cup to get the amount. I belive the reason to use milk is so the cottage cheese that is left is not watered down any and good to eat. It is a nice way to give a person a pouch size idea. LisaMarie
   — Lisa Marie D.

September 7, 2002
For the test, can you weigh the cottage cheese on a kitchen scale, then eat what you can, then weigh the cottege cheese again. Whatever the difference is would be the answer right? Would this be more accurate?
   — Cheri M.

September 7, 2002
What is you HATE COTTAGE CHEESE? Can I do this with Ricotta?
   — heathercross

September 7, 2002
This is to a previous poster (Cheri). What you propose would give you the <b>weight</b> of the cottage cheese eaten. What the cottage cheese test does is to provide you with the <b>volume</b> of the cottage cheese eaten and thus the volume that your pouch can hold.
   — John Rushton

September 7, 2002
Well dummy me...wasn't thinking, please forgive me.
   — Cheri M.

September 8, 2002
I posted a few done (Lisa Marie). This is in answer to "What if you hate cottage cheese?". I do hate cottage cheese. It is awful stuff. I made myslef eat it my first required cottage cheese test but felt it was not accurate because I did not eat much (just wanted to be done with it.) Thank God there is an alternative. Oatmeal. Very thick oatmeal. I do not know why ricotta cheese is not a satisfactory alternative.
   — Lisa Marie D.