Feels odd starting one of these when I'm usually the one answering, but here we are.
Sleeved spring 2024. Year one I could manage a saucer. Year two, a side plate. This Sunday I ate a proper dinner plate of roast, meat, veg, a potato and a Yorkshire, and only realised afterwards that I'd cleared it. I'm up about half a stone from my lowest, which I know is normal, but combined with the HbA1c creeping up (other thread) it's put the wind up me.
Has my sleeve stretched? Is that a thing? Can it be undone? And be honest, is this the start of it all coming back?
Donna, I've read every one of your posts in this forum and you are the least likely person on here to let it all come back. You noticed. That's the bit that matters.
Not that far out myself, but my dietitian told me at the six month review that capacity going up over the first couple of years is expected and planned for. It was never meant to stay at a saucer.
Year one I was the same, couldn't finish a sandwich. Now I can eat a full fish supper if I let myself, which I mostly don't. What I found was the speed. When I eat slowly I fill up on half. When I'm eating with the lads and talking I can get through the lot before my stomach's caught up.
#4October 4, 2026, 10:15 am Donna, the short answer is that some increase in capacity in the years after a sleeve is expected, and on its own it isn't a sign that anything has gone wrong. The swelling settles, the sleeve relaxes somewhat as it heals, and your eating habits adapt. Some degree of dilation of the sleeve over years is also recognised. It rarely means the operation has failed, and in most people it isn't something that needs, or is helped by, another procedure.
What decides the long term is less the size of the sleeve than what goes into it and how. Alan has put his finger on the most useful thing: speed. Eating slowly, protein first, stopping at the first sign of fullness, and keeping drinks away from meals all make a modest increase in capacity much less important. Some regain from the lowest point is also common; the time to involve your team is when the trend keeps going rather than levelling off.
Given the HbA1c as well, I'd suggest asking your bariatric team or GP for a dietitian review now rather than waiting for the annual check. Bring a food diary of a normal week. The site's guide to weight regain after a sleeve goes through the causes and what helps, and the long term diet guide covers the habits that keep capacity from mattering as much.
Reading this at the bakery at 6am with a protein yoghurt and taking notes. Slow down, protein first. Got it.
Update. Did a week's food diary like Mr Calloway said (humbling), saw the dietitian on Friday. Verdict: portions creeping, but the bigger thing was that I'd stopped eating breakfast, so I was starving by tea and eating fast. Back to three small protein meals and a timer on the dinner table, which my husband finds hilarious.
Half a stone stays where it is for now, and I'm fine with that. Thanks for not letting me spiral.
