Hi friends,

I'm 23 days post op, and started softs 2 days ago. I don't feel I have received a lot of guidance from my dr's on portion sizes at this stage. They told me to consume between 80-100g of protein per day, have 2 shakes a day, and that I'd probably only be able to eat between 6-8 bites per meal, maybe "half of that if eating dense protein".

Well, I can easily eat 2oz of lean protein and 2 oz of something else (cheese, mashed sweet potato, whatever). I see here people having a hard time eating 1/4 C of food and it makes me worried that I'm eating too much. Is it that I'm measuring by weight and folks are measuring by volume? Is there a better portion size by weight i should be aiming for?

For breakfast today I had a whole egg cup (http://www.delish.com/cooking/recipe-ideas/recipes/amp50901/ham-cheese-egg-cups-recipe/). I ate super slowly, chewed well, and when I was done I wasn't stuffed, just satisfied. 12 g of protein from food to start the day. I was pretty proud of myself.

I haven't had a negative reaction to anything I've eaten so far.

Is this ok, or should I be eating less? What are other folks doing at this stage?

I totally can eat less if I have to. I just dont know if I should be aiming for that. I'd love to get more and more protein from food and leave the protein supplements behind, but I know that takes time and am willing to do whatever will set me up for long term success.

Limit your food to 2oz at a time for weeks 3 and 4. 3oz weeks 5-8. Then 4oz until 5-6 months.

At your stage I could eat 2-3oz of food depending on what i was eating. Dense protein only 2 oz, but yogurt I could eat 4oz. I weighed my food because I felt it was more accurate.

I didn't have any problems eating either. I was a fast healer. I think it is great because you can transition away from shakes faster then those that have more issues eating. Just stick to appropriate portions sizes and the eating plan your doc gave you and you should be fine. I am 3 months post-op and I eat between 900-1100 calories a day and I am losing just fine. I run 2-3 miles 4-5 days a week for exercise.

Thank you, ladies! This is super helpful! I guess I was eating tok much, as I suspected. I'm going to cut back down to 2 oz of dense protein but glad to know my new pouch is not overly sensitive!