The aim of this experiment was to investigate the growth of the gastrointestinal tract of pigs on which compensatory growth was imposed by previously feeding them a high-fibre diet (HF). Forty-two pigs of 25 kg BW were randomly allotted to 3 treatment groups. The pigs were fed ad libitum a basal diet (B) during the whole of the experiment (control group, C), or a high-fibre diet (HF) up to 50 or 80 kg BW (groups HF50 and HF80, respectively), followed by diet B up to 105 kg BW. Diet B contained (in DM, g kg^-1): crude protein, 212; crude fibre, 43; total lysine, 11.1, and metabolizable energy, 14.7 MJ. Diet HF was formulated by mixing diet B with 20% of grass meal and contained: crude protein, 191; crude fibre, 85; total lysine, 9.1, and metabolizable energy, 12.9 MJ. The animals of each group were slaughtered at 50, 80 and 105 kg BW. The weights of the empty gastrointestinal tract (GIT) and other organs were recorded. The GIT and digesta weights of pigs fed the HF diet up to 50 or 80 kg BW (restriction period) were significantly higher compared with the pigs fed diet B, by 8.5 and 12.4% (P<0.05), and by 36.3 and 67.4% (P<0.01), respectively. At 105 kg BW (after the realimentation period) the weight of the GIT, carcass weight and dressing percentage of pigs fed diets HF for a period (groups F50 and F80) were similar to pigs fed the basal diet throughout the experiment.