Dangers of Weight Gain After Gastric Bypass Surgery

Gastric bypass (also known as Roue en Y, or RNY) is a procedure in which part of your stomach and upper intestine is surgically removed, providing for malabsorption of calories and reduced stomach capacity. It results in a massive and virtually immediate weight loss, but the severe weight loss combined with later weight gain can be a dangerous combination.

Weight Gain Possible

• During the initial weight loss, most patients drop to about 15 to 30 pounds less than their plateau weight. Most people do not gain back anywhere near the amount they lost, but they do gain back some weight.

Stretching the Stomach

• Despite the fact that the stomach has been surgically reduced, overeating over time can stretch the stomach out. The stomach can even return to its original size over time with continued overeating, which virtually reverses the surgery.

Diabetes

• Because insulin is very sensitive to weight, diabetes can disappear with weight loss but can also return very quickly with weight gain because the existing insulin production is no longer sufficient for the weight.

High Blood Pressure

• High blood pressure, like diabetes, can quickly return with weight gain because it is a symptom of an overwhelmed system.

Heart Disease

• Weight gain, rapid weight loss and then additional weight gain can put a person seriously at risk for heart disease because it compromises the strength of blood vessels and muscles, and adds to the stress that the surgical anesthesia already placed on the heart and surrounding tissues.