I am about 12 weeks out from the sleeve. I have more variety and fewer restrictions. However, I have noticed I stopped eating slowly. I still use a baby spoon to keep my bites small but stopped timing my bites 1 minute apart like suggested by my team. I think I stopped because I was tired of my food being cold after a few nibbles. Also, I would stop eating not because I was full but because it took so long... I'm a busy mom of 4 kiddos. So I really picked up the pace. I've noticed it's easier to overeat due to delayed hunger signals but I still have never vomited or been in pain. My full signal seems to be pressure in my stomach/chest area.. almost the same signal I had if I overdid it at a buffet before surgery. However this feeling only lasts about 20 mins now versus hours before surgery. My question is why do we eat slow? Is it just to avoid delayed hunger signals? What are the cons of not slowing down?

I'm still pre-weighing my food so I know I'm not eating more than I would if I ate slow. Could I have stretched my sleeve already? I do consistently have the stuffed feeling after eating the last few weeks.

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There's a lot to unpack here. Let's start with why we're told to eat slowly:

• First of all, recognize that you had a bunch of nerves cut. There are multiple ways your digestive system signals your brain that your are full, but these nerves are the immediate feedback mechanism. Unfortunately, that immediate feedback mechanism is basically broken for a while after surgery.
• The other signals that you should stop eating are mostly hormonal, but these take a lot longer to activate. (20 minutes is often thrown around, but this is dependent on lots of factors like what and how much you ate.) Bottom line, if you eat faster, it's easy to eat enough to make yourself really sick before you ever get the signal to stop.
• Obviously this is problematic partly because your stomach is smaller and will fill up faster than it used to, but you also need to remember that early on after surgery, your stomach is also really swollen and inflamed.
• An inflamed stomach can't stretch like it's supposed to, so there's not a lot of difference between empty and over-full.

Taken together, the eat slow recommendation is primarily to keep you from making yourself sick. A secondary consideration is that your team wants you to learn "mindful eating" where you're much more aware of everything that you consume. Being mindful of your consumption is correlated with better outcomes for bariatric patients.

Hopefully that answers your original question. I want to touch on something else that's a bit of a personal pet peeve: you mentioned, and I hear a lot of others worrying about "stretching their new stomach". There's more myth than fact here and this idea really needs to die out.

The truth is that stomachs are designed to work like a balloon. They stretch out as needed, but when empty, they return back to their original size. Can you make it stretch it out to the point it allows you to eat more over time? Yes, and that's exactly what should happen! This is one of the reasons every bariatric plan I've ever seen allows you to slowly increase how much you eat the further away you get from surgery. You need this to happen so that as you get to maintenance, you'll be able to eat enough calories to maintain your new healthy weight.

What you're not going to do is somehow "ruin" your new smaller stomach just because you overate once or twice. It would take overeating a lot over time for excessive stretching to happen. I think what sometimes happens is the inflammation starts going down and people find that they can eat more than expected. Remember, the stomach stretches as needed (up to a point), so they start to panic.

That does not mean there's a problem. It actually means that things are progressing like they should. If this is you, just stick to plan and you'll be fine.

Edited February 9, 20233 yr by SpartanMaker

To add to @SpartanMaker’s great response, a few things I’ve discovered that have worked for me.

Often, because of the delay of your fullness signal, by the time you feel full, you’ve often already eaten more than you need. I’ve found I sometimes have a very slow signal. I can unexpectedly feel full an hour or so after I finished eating. ??‍♀️ It’s one of the reasons I still eat slowly. If my meal has cooled I’ll simply reheat it. It’s also why I don’t rely on feeling full to stop my eating. My goal is not to feel full but that I’ve eaten what I (my body) needs. I ask myself if I really need the next bite or if I just want it (I share this a lot). It’s how I’m more mindful of my eating. I often pick up my fork or spoon, ask myself that question & put my cutlery down again. I do this whenever & wherever I eat - at home, at family & friend’s, at restaurants. I may eat that bite a few minutes later or I may not eat any more at all. Portion size is also a big consideration. I don’t always eat all of my portion but I never eat more than my portion.

Also don’t be afraid to set aside your portion if family demands stop you eating all your meal. You can always eat some more or finish it later on. Treat the unfinished meal as a snack or as eating several small meals. You’re not exceeding your caloric intake for the day by doing this. Many have found this to work for them.

Physical concerns aside, mindful eating is important in the success of the surgery. It’s difficult when our lives are so busy but it’s important to take meal time for you. Sometimes I divide my meal into thirds to pace myself and watch the clock for the 10 minute markers. I know for me eating something “quick” was part of my problem. I know plating my food is very important for me and often when I’m rushing to get a meal in that won’t happen. So in those times I know I’ll be in the car or out running errands, I bring a shake with me and take my time with it. These habits are meant to be long term changes and eating meals should take about 20-30 minutes. It’s also much better for digestion!

I have not stuck to this rule at all and I think I've just been lucky. Since a few months after my sleeve once I know I can eat a certain amount then I have just it at a normal (quick) pace. I remember asking a question here about 6 months in about why I needed to eat one egg slowly if I already knew my stomach could comfortably accommodate one egg. I should say I have been, and I think will always be, very careful with portion sizes. So I'm not in the business of pushing it even a bit - if anything I will quickly eat something that I know is less than my stomach will hold in preference to sitting at a meal for half an hour to find out when I might feel satisfied. If I need a little top up of something 10 or 15 minutes later because I'm still hungry I just have a little piece of cheese or some deli meat. It has worked for me because I'm busy (and impatient). Not advocating it for everyone - everyone above has given very considered advice and experience - just saying what has worked so far for me.

without getting into the how's and why's one is encouraged to eat slowly, here's a superficial tip to slow down eating that i discovered by accident: use your non-dominant hand...works surprisingly well.

2 hours ago, Spinoza said:

I have not stuck to this rule at all and I think I've just been lucky.

Full disclosure: I still eat fast as well, but like you know my limits. This has worked for me and though I'd love to slow down, I'm just too old of a dog to learn this new trick.

Edited February 10, 20233 yr by SpartanMaker
spelling

I came back to share something else because I've just done it for one of only a handful of times ever. Don't ever eat quickly from a big container of food. It's impossible to tell how much has gone in. I just made stew and thought I would eat it from the pot. To save me washing up one plate. A big mistake and one that slower eaters wouldn't make, so there's another good reason to stick to the rule. ?