Question:
fluid intake

This may sound like a stupid question but here it goes. I had gastric bypass and I am so frighten of streching my pouch that I don't think I am getting all my fluids in during the day. I am almost threes weeks out this Friday. I am on Phase III on the diet plan I know during phase II I was suppose to drink 4oz fluids every half hour but what about now. Do you just sip on your drinks all day can you over drink streching your pouch out. I know to quick drinking half hour before and after meals and hour before bed time. Do you still follow the 4oz every half hour? But I am just so frighten of streching that pouch out. I hope I don't sound to silly.    — iwilllose (posted on January 10, 2008)

January 9, 2008
Drinking fluids will not stretch your pouch. They go through your pouch relatively fast, about 15 mintus. Food, however, does stay there longer, and if you constantly overeat, you could stretch the pouch. My surgeon recommends to take two sips of a water bottle every 15 minute. This works out to about the 48 required minimum amount of fluid intake you need. A sip is about one ounce.
   — Dave Chambers

January 9, 2008
Extra water taken slowly will just run or overflow out of the pouch. This is why they ask you not to eat and drink or drink for one hour after you eat. When the pouch is empty, the water just goes in and out smoothly, if not gulped. I can take a sip every 30 seconds and finish 16 oz. in 15 minutes and not ever have a problem. More water the better you weight loss, I have found.
   — William (Bill) wmil

January 9, 2008
I constantly fear the same thing. I've been told repeatedly that drinking won't stretch the pouch, just don't put any food in front of it (hence the .5 hour rule). It was explained to me in the terms of the pouch being similar to a funnel (when empty), that the fluid passes through pretty smoothly and quickly. Good Luck to you, Leslie
   — LuvNSummer

January 10, 2008
Congratulations on your surgery! As you've read, no you won't stretch your pouch and ruin everything with fluids. On the flip side of that, drinking your daily amount of fluids helps with weight loss, and other things like bowel movements. So drink up! You don't want to get dehydrated, and it's easy to do; I ended up in the ER 3 days after coming home. Good Luck!
   — Shirley D.

January 11, 2008
To add to everyone else I have been told we need a minimum of 64 ounces of fluid per day and in hot summer months more. I usually am able to get in about 8 cups of herbal tea plus other fluids per day- I keep a 16 oz mug on my desk full of tea and sip on it till its gone- usually do 2 + those at work and then more when I get home. Hope this helps. Just a hint- since I have a cold right now I have found that using the individual Crystal lite lemonade in hot water is very soothing. Donna DOS4/18-6 286-130
   — dabby

January 11, 2008
At this stage of the healing process, if you dumped a really HUGE amount of fluid down there, you MIGHT do bust open a staple or two, but at the amounts that you are consuming, it's not very probable. You are doing well to be "preloading" with water before meals. This causes the sensors in your pouch to feel a bit of a stretch but that small stretch is not parmful. It gives you a "I getting full" sensation so that, when you consume the real food soon thereafter, you won't want as much. Neat trick huh? It works for me -- and many other RNYers too. (I'm don't know whether or not water preloading works for Lapbanders but my logic tells me that it does NOT.) Lastly, I do not think your question was stupid. If you don't ask questions, how are you going to get answers?
   — [Deactivated Member]