When you eat (puréed for me right now) and you feel the restriction, do you stop eating OR do you wait a while and continue. I am never hungry so I'm trying to understand if my goal is to finish my 1/4 cup or stop when the restriction kicks in. Thanks.

I'd be interested in the answer. I'm 18 days out, on pureed and don't feel hunger either. I'm more or less "eating" by the clock. When I say eating I mean less than 1/4 cup of pureed turkey chili or cottage cheese and the like. I'm still relying on Protein shakes for my protein. I eat about once a day and have a Protein shake in the morning, that is all I seem to desire. Do I push for three times a day?

I would not eat passed satisfaction, but ensure you are meeting your protein goals. For me this means one yo two protein shakes a day.

My plan says eat until satisfied/you feel the restriction kick in. We are not supposed to wait a while and start eating again later - the dieticians say this leads to building up a "grazing" habit which will be detrimental to weight loss or maintenance later. So, we have three defined meal times and stick to them.

I never could stop at restriction. If so, I'd never eat more than 2 bites of anything (that's ok in the beginning, but at 7 months out , it's not). Not that I'd advise others to do this, but I pretty much "force feed" myself 2-3 oz. just to clarify, I'm never in pain, I just feel full after a bite or two.

Glad this was posted, I'm wondering about this too. I'm 8 days out and have a hard time distinguishing what the feelings are. It takes me 5 bites of a liquid/purée before I feel a tight sensation and then feel repulsed by what I'm eating. Not to be gross, but the first number two I took after surgery was even a new experience. I just felt funny, went to the bathroom and the business happened! Lol I feel like I should not trust a fart at all. Ahhh, the learning curve...

You should stop for sure. What buffelhead said is the same as my program guidelines.

For me, once I hiccup I'm done. If I have any more bite past this warning, I barf.

I am going into week 11 post op and still can't have much in one sitting. 2 oz of any deli meat, 2 oz Greek plain yogurt, half ounce of a soy burger, 1 oz dark chicken and other meats.

Edited January 4, 201412 yr by gomekast

Timely post, although my concern is opposite. While I am not hungry or starving considering my limited foods and quantities, I do feel occasional hunger and I do crave foods even though I am following plan perfectly.

When I am eating my measured portioned food, I finish it. Not sure I have an obvious full feeling to guide me.

I am nervous that as my food selection increases, I won't get that signal. I have read that some ppl didn't get that quickly full feeling under 1-2 months out due to nerves affected by surgery and overall healing.

Anyone have any insight on that?

Even though I am farther out than most who have replied, I figured I would chime in as well. Initially I could not get in any more than 3 oz (even the Protein shakes were a problem so I concentrated them into a 20 gm protein pudding of 3 oz 3 times a day) I am now 7 months out (31 weeks to be exact) and have been able to drink an 8 oz protein shake (takes about an hour to get down) and 1/2 "food" for lunch (20-25 gm protein usually meat and a veggy). I still get that full feeling after 2-3 bites of solid food. Then I wait a few minutes and am able to eat a few more bites. If I haven't finished the "meal" in 45 minutes or my stomach starts to give me that feeling like I just finished aThanksgiving meal, I stop eating.

I have had to add an afternoon snack just to get the calorie count over 800 cal. I usually will have a 1 oz cheese stick or a 2 oz cottage cheese/greek yogurt snack. My weight loss has been very slow for the past 3 months but I am still loosing about 1.5 lbs a week so I am sticking with this routine.

Timely post, although my concern is opposite. While I am not hungry or starving considering my limited foods and quantities, I do feel occasional hunger and I do crave foods even though I am following plan perfectly.

When I am eating my measured portioned food, I finish it. Not sure I have an obvious full feeling to guide me.

I am nervous that as my food selection increases, I won't get that signal. I have read that some ppl didn't get that quickly full feeling under 1-2 months out due to nerves affected by surgery and overall healing.

Anyone have any insight on that?

I felt mine in stages. Initially at just a few weeks things started not going down well..like Water.

Then again around week 6ish it changed yet again.

It's just the nerves coming back to life, like you said.

I'm 3 weeks out and worried to, even told my surgeon I think he made my pouch too big. He just laughed, and said I should be happy my recovery is so easy. I can finish 24 oz of water in less than 30 minutes, 8 oz protein shake in 15 minutes and have no trouble eating my 1/2 cup of yogurt. Was told to try soft meats so had 4oz of tilapia and 1/4 cup of mashed cauliflower and no full feeling. Not ever hungry but when I'm supposed to eat I do and have no trouble doing it. Not sure if it's because I have carefully measured and not put more on my plate than instructed. Time will tell but so far down 30 lbs including 2 week preop so hopefully the nerves in my new stomach will wake up and provide that stop switch I never had before. Also going to try that slow eating ap, cuz I eat fast and still can do that with the sleeve

Sue, I am the same as you except 4 weeks out! I can eat, but keep myself to the plan. To scared that I will go back to old habits.

Same thing is happening to me at three weeks. When I first started eating soft foods, I tried to eat until I was full, but quickly realized I was eating too much. I have since started measuring out what I'm going to eat. Hopefully my nerves will wake up soon as we'll.

I am so glad you both posted! I am 16 days post- op and can eat anything without feeling ill. I don't know what to do! At 7 days post-op I started eating soft foods & ever since I crave food. Does anyone know a simple daily eating plan? I easily drink my protein shakes in minutes. That kind of protein doesn't seem to keep me full. I just never expected the beginning to be this difficult. I keep thinking the Doctor didn't really give me the sleeve.

7 weeks out and can eat most meals and drinks w/o restriction. Kind of scary. I too weigh and measure everything and follow to a "T" and I am losing slowly. At least clothes are baggy so something is happening. Lol.

I envy you quick losers!

I am 4 weeks and 4 days post surgery and I am also in the group that can eat more than the 1/4 cup of mushy food I should have per meal for certain items. From day one on the full liquids I was allowed yogurt (without any fruit in it) and I could eat the entire 6oz container. I could eat 4oz of cottage cheese or applesauce at a time as soon as progressed to mushy. However, meat definitely has a limit of about the 2 tablespoons they advised for the mushy phase. I have to admit I never puree anything, so it is chopped finely and has broth, gravy or salsa on it to help it go down and I chew each bite for a long time. Perhaps if I did puree it would go down easier. I had some issues in the first week or two with consuming all the Water on top of the two Protein shakes, but that is over. No issues with liquids at all.

I have also been worried that my sleeve will not provide the restriction I need. Over the last 10 days I have experienced hunger most days. This is more of a problem when I am at work. I don't get as much sleep as I did before returning to work and I am still trying to figure out how to time my meals, shakes and water to avoid hunger.