You may find it hard to believe that the doctor actually reduces the size of your stomach to about the size of a whiskey shot glass, but this is true. Of course it seems abnormally small and you won't be able to hold more that three tablespoons of food at a time. This can make it extremely easy to get sick from overeating or drinking too much water.



Over time your stomach pouch will expand and you'll be able to hold up to a cup and a half of food. That's an increase of about six times the size of a shot glass. This is dramatically more food, but its still a little bit less than the average dinner meal for a person. The stomach has amazing stretching abilities, which is part of what allows some people to become obese. Due to increased food intake over time their stomachs become larger and they can hold even more food.

Even with a larger stomach pouch over time you'll still need to take vitamin and mineral supplements for the rest of your life after obesity surgery. The surgery will have reduced the length of time food spends in your intestinal tract, which reduces the amount of nutrients that you absorb.

Also because you won't be eating as much food you will need to drink more water in order to get sufficient fluids. Most of us get our eight daily cups of water from both the water in food we eat and our drinks.

Despite the limits of your new smaller stomach there are still ways to cheat and not lose weight or even regain weight. If you don't stick to a strict meal regime of three meals a day plus snacks and instead just 'graze' all day you can take in too many calories. Some people continue to eat high calorie foods or will eat 'mindlessly' while watching television or performing some other task which can also lead to too many calories.