My surgeons manual for life after gastric sleeve surgery says that each meal should take at least 30 mins to eat but I found another surgeons manual (peachtreebariatrics) and it says it should take no longer than 15 to 20 mins to finish a meal and if you are taking longer than that then you are taking too long in between bites and that the goal is not to finish your meal but to learn what full means and feels like.

Which is correct? Are we suppose to take at least 30 mins to finish our meal or should we be finishing it within about 20 minutes? It takes me over an hour to finish eating 2 ounce of salmon.

Well 1 hours is definitely too long...You have to get fluids down as well.. By the time you are done you will be eating and drinking all day long...

As you go along in this journey your stomach will relax a bit and you will be able to eat more and faster....Up to a cup of food at a time...

For now there really isn't much difference 10 mins. make..So cut your time down to 30 min for now and then move to 20 as you go a long in the process.....chew chew chew.....As long as it is chewed to a soupy consistency you did it....

1 hour eh...wow! your very studious!!!!!

Our manual says 20-30 minutes. They want you to avoid "grazing" behavior, that is, even sleeved we can eat too many calories if we eat all day long.

The materials I was given say 30 minutes max...then put the fork down and walk away.

Ree...the problem is if you read enough you're gonna find 1000 different ways to do things from 1000 different sources. You put your faith in your surgeon, so that's whose word you should turn to first...not some other source. Just my opinion of course, but I would ask my surgeon first.

Having said that, does your surgeon's guidelines say at least 30 minutes or no more than 30? Cause I've never heard of anyone saying to purposely take more than 30 minutes. That just seems too long to do forever. I realize right now it might take you a long time to eat but it won't be like that forever.

My surgeon said at 20 minutes...stop eating, other wise yes...you are just grazing.

I takes me about 3 bites before I'm full still, so I can't imagine taking 30+ minutes. I'm just 4 months post op so I know that will change. I take between 10 and 20 minutes (because, seriously how long can 3 bites take to make into mush?)

Having said that, I've had a couple of get-togethers with friends over the last few weeks at restaurants. It's our "Mom's Night Out" so we usually spend 3 hours gabbing. I realized how easy it would be to graze across those 3 hours, so I put the food away from me or boxed it up.

I start getting bored and antsy around the 20 minute mark.

It takes me about 15 minutes.....if I am out to eat I try to spread it to 20-30.

My surgeons instructions specifically say to take at least 30 minutes or longer to eat your meal. Actually they had me practice this behavior prior to the surgery.

So with the salmon (or anything else I eat) it takes me a good hour, sometimes longer to eat because for 1 I thought I was suppose to take a long time to eat my meal and 2 I felt it was important to try and get in all the Protein I could so if it took 1.5hrs to eat 2 ounces of salmon (which it does) then that's how long I have to wait till I can fit it all in.

Then I read that another surgeons office suggests putting your fork down after 20 minutes. This is a big difference from what I've been told. At least 30 minutes to me means a minimum of 30 minutes and that if I take longer to eat then even better (according to my surgeons office). My surgeon emphasizes that it's important to slow down when your eating and take at least 30 minutes to eat, that this gives your brain time to get the signals that you are eating and that you are full.

...... My surgeon emphasizes that it's important to slow down when your eating and take at least 30 minutes to eat, that this gives your brain time to get the signals that you are eating and that you are full.

Totally agree with this but it seems unnecessary for someone newly sleeved.

I think this whole business of how long a meal should take is a small matter in the overall picture. IMHO what matters is overall calorie intake and getting in the proper nutrition. If one does that, it shouldn't matter how fast or slow they eat.

As you say right now it may take you a long time to get in your Protein. But get it in you must. But when you get to the point I'm at....I can eat 2 oz of fish in 3 minutes. No point in me stretching it out to a half hour. If I ate for that long I'd over eat.