Hoping Mac joins in here too, I thought you might want to have an idea of what folks at goal or near goal eat regarding quantity. We have seen what those in the weight loss mode eat, but as for quantity thought you might be interested. I'll be one year post op 6/3/09.

Some examples, and this is not on a daily basis just foods I like and quantities.

My new BLT without the bread sandwich. A large romaine lettuce leaf stuffed with 2 slices of bacon and about half a tomato. I can eat about 85% of it.

Loaded Egg salad (I put everything in there, eggs, mayo, bell peppers, onion, mustard, celery, etc.) about 2oz, 2.5oz max. I can eat again in about an hour with softer foods like this.

Steamed veggies: Cauliflower, broccoli, bell peppers, zucchini, yellow squash, anything I have in the frig. Steamed with soy sauce, drain, add more soy sauce and sesame oil/garlic. Steamed I can eat about 1 cup if I eat slowly. I use this on my days I want to graze.

A 2oz hamburger w/no bun (I avoid white carbs) loaded with toppings. This is the same size as a child's meal hamburger at Mickey D's.

One chicken leg, or most of one chicken thigh, or 1/3 chicken breast.

Tortilla w/home made refried Beans topped w/cheese, heat under broiler. Top w/Pico de Gullo and taco sauce. I can eat half of it.

Sandwich... if I do eat bread and that is rare (trigger food for me) I use 1 slice of bread, PB/J, fold over. If I remove the crust I can eat about 3/4 of the sandwich. If I keep the crust I can eat about half.

Celery stick w/PB. I pack on the Peanut Butter, I can eat 1/4 celery stick with about 3tbls PB.

Salad... 2 very large Romaine lettuce leafs (not the heart, the outside mega leaves) with 1oz cheese, pico de gullo, 1 hard boiled egg, small amounts of assorted veggies such as broccoli. I can eat about 1/2 of this over about 30 minutes. Not sure why I keep making them so large. If I use the hard crunchy parts of the lettuce, the heart of the lettuce I can eat more because it's mostly Water.

For me the sleeve is perfect *because* I'm a grazer. I can graze on appropriate foods and I just can't eat much.

Now, a lot of this depends on the doctor. I have a 32F stomach. The bougie size really doesn't matter it's technique. There is a doc in TJ that uses a 32F and her patients can eat an entire chicken breast 3 weeks post op. So it's not bougie size, it's technique.

On another board we wanted to compare how much each of us could eat. It was the infamous cottage cheese test. The test was to be done first thing in the morning before ANY food or drink was consumed. We were to measure how much cottage cheese we could eat in 5 minutes.

I can't stand CC, hate the stuff and can't get it down. Same with others so those that can't stand CC ate egg salad without the solid bits such as celery. Mine was eggs, mayo, and spices.

It was interesting, I do wish some of the crappy doctor's patients would have done it because we already know they can eat a lot. My results were:

1.5 oz I was satisfied.

2.0 oz I was full.

2.5 oz and I wanted to puke.

Since I was banded I can't force myself to eat fast so I did it over 7 minutes.

Most people maxed out around 2.5/3.0oz. I think one person was able to get 4oz down.

This is just to see the size of your stomach, this does not mean it's all we can eat. If I eat slowly (soft slider foods) it just the same as a band, it goes right through. I am picturing Jacqui thinking there is no way she could survive on this quantity of food. Unless it is a solid Protein we can eat more, this was a 5 minute test just to see how big our stomach is. Over a 30 minute period of time I could eat more, maybe double.

Mac? Anyone else a year or so out?

I'm pretty much at goal but don't eat a lot and am still losing. I need to make the transition from losing to maintenance pretty soon as my top half is getting kind of scrawny (Though my bottom half still has about 5 lb. of fat to lose.)

is it possible to stretch my new stomach already while I am on liquids? My protein shakes are mostly 8 oz (the ones I make myself.) Some in a can though are 11 oz. You say you can only eat 2.5 oz. I realize this is liquid compared to a solid, but it got me wondering. I try to drink it as slowly as possible, but it's hard for me to judge. I don't really get a full feeling after drinking it. I don't feel hungry, I just drink it because I look at the clock and realize I have had nothing for 6 hours.

Great thread. I have always worried that at my goal I would not be able to eat enough to maintain and have problems because of it.

Even with a band I've had to learn to graze a bit - if I stick to 3 meals a day I do lose weight. But I also get very hungry coz I do need more food than I can eat in 3 meals. I really NEED 1800 to 2000 calories to maintain.