If you have had bariatric surgery, one of your biggest concerns may be that you regain weight. Can you gain weight back after gastric sleeve surgery?
How weight is recovered after bariatric surgery
In the first year after surgery, most patients maintain a proper diet and exercise. They eat appropriate portions of 3 to 6 ounces. If they eat outside, they bring most of the meal with them. But when they start to tolerate a wider range of foods, many start eating more and exercising less. Their weight loss slows down and plateaus before climbing.
When you weigh more, you need more calories to function. After bariatric surgery, metabolism decreases and calorie demand decreases with weight loss. You can’t eat the same number of calories at 150 pounds as at 300 pounds, otherwise you’ll gain weight.
How to reverse weight gain
There are 5 ways to reverse weight gain after gastric sleeve surgery:
- Change your diet and lifestyle
- Ask for additional support
- Ask for medication
- Perform gastric sleeve correction surgery (as a last resort)
- If there is a food addiction, seek treatment
What is the case reset?
The stomach is an amazing organ. It stretches to accommodate large amounts of food and then decreases to normal size when food is pushed into the digestive tract. Even after bariatric surgery, the stomach continues to stretch and then contract. Tissue folds in the stomach, called rugae, expand and contract in response to food (Rugae – Wikipedia).
Today we are flooded with food. And it is easy to eat until physically our stomach is able to contain more food (episode). Historically, this was OK because there was a shortage of food, because animals and plants were not available throughout the year. But when we continue to eat until we can keep more food and do it every day, our hunger and full signals are distorted. Soon it is only when our stomach reaches the stage “I can’t eat another bite”, we begin to say: “I am full”.
One theory is that when you overeat, the rugae in your stomach stretches, and with a constant flow of food, it never returns to normal size. This causes your stomach to take in more and more food before you feel the sense of “fullness”.
Resetting the pouch is a tool that restores the stomach to normal size. This is done by significantly reducing food intake.
How much to weigh for bariatric surgery to succeed?
Health hazards associated with weight recovery are proportional to the amount of weight recovered. In this respect, most bariatric procedures are successful.
Success is defined as maintaining 50% weight loss five years after the first procedure. Rarely patients gain weight back.
Although bariatric surgery is considered the only way to permanent weight loss, the variability of the surgical procedures themselves can affect success.
