If you are here, you have probably Googled “pouch reset.” You may feel like:

• you have stretched your sleeve or pouch


• you can eat more than you think you should be able to


• your portions are creeping (or racing) up


• you are hungry sooner


• you are experiencing weight regain


• your gastric sleeve or gastric bypass has “stopped working”.

Plot twist.


It is probably not your sleeve or pouch.

WHAT IS A POUCH RESET DIET?

A pouch reset diet (sometimes called a bariatric pouch reset or reset diet) usually means going back to a short phase of liquid diet, pureed foods, then soft foods, similar to the early stages after weight loss surgery.

People often try this when they feel their sleeve, or pouch has stretched and they want to “shrink it again.”

Here is the important part.

There is no good evidence that a short-term reset diet changes the size of your pouch long term.

Yes, weight often drops during a reset.
But that is because food intake and calories drop dramatically for a period of time. When normal eating returns, so do the old patterns - and often the weight regain.

It becomes a band-aid, not a solution.

YOUR POUCH PROBABLY DID NOT "FAIL"

As Associate Professor Michael Talbot has said, “If you measure the size of the stomach five years after surgery, it's the same in those who have kept weight off and those who don't.”

Long term successful weight loss is not just about the size of the pouch. It is about what happens on your weight loss journey with your eating habits, food choices, meal structure, and patterns over time.

When people come to us worried about weight regain after bariatric surgery, we usually see changes in how they are eating - not a sudden change in anatomy.

Below are just two common examples.

1. Texture of food - soft vs solid foods

Not all foods behave the same after bariatric surgery.

Meals made up of softer, easier-to-eat or liquid foods can move through your pouch or sleeve faster. You can eat more of them, more easily, and they often do not keep you satisfied as long.

Watch this short clip from our FREE online workshop, Halt the Weight Regain Train, where we explain how two meals with similar calories, protein, and overall nutrition can feel completely different in your body, depending on texture.

2. How long you spend eating

It is not just what you eat, but how you eat it.

For example, if a meal stretches out for a long period of time, food is already leaving the pouch or sleeve while you are still eating. That creates room for more food to keep coming in.

This can mean you can eat larger portions, even though your pouch size has not changed.

In this clip from our FREE online workshop, Halt the Weight Regain Train, we explain why we guide people to keep meals and snacks within a defined time frame and how this can be a game changer for portion control and satiety.

THESE ARE JUST TWO PIECES OF THE PUZZLE

Texture and meal timing are only two of the common culprits we see when people feel like their weight loss surgery has stopped working.

Other culprits we see include:


• gradual changes in eating habits


• easy-to-eat foods replacing more structured meals


• excessive restriction and dieting behaviour


• slider meals and snacks

• drinking too close to meals.

That’s why a brief pouch reset or reset diet might seem useful in the beginning, but it typically doesn’t deliver lasting results. They do not help you pinpoint how you may accidentally be working against your surgery, so it can’t work for you.

If you don’t tackle the reasons you regained weight in the first place, there is a strong likelihood that you will face weight regain again.

BEFORE YOU TRY A POUCH RESET, DO THIS FIRST

If you are considering a bariatric pouch reset, set aside an hour and watch our FREE online workshop, Halt the Weight Regain Train.

In it, we walk you through the most common reasons we see people experience weight regain after gastric sleeve, gastric bypass, or other forms of weight loss surgery, and what to adjust first.

It is practical, realistic, and focused on long term weight loss, not just another short diet phase.

Register for our free workshop here.