Volume vs Weighing your food

Things like wraps and toast aren't going to help you reach your goal, so there's no reason to add them. And it's also best to avoid the "treat" mentality. You're in the post-op period where your willpower and dedication are at their greatest, so it's best to take advantage of that with making the best choices you can with food. :)

Stretching the sleeve is somewhat of a myth. The reason for this is that the stomach which remains is a very tough membrane. The part that stretches is called the fundus, and this is removed. It's been my experience that stomach "stretching" is more often a combination of 1) carb creep (you can fit a LOT of processed starches and carbohydrate into a sleeve) and 2) overeating which causes food to back up into the esophagus, which stretches the area where the esophagus connects to the stomach. That valve is weaker than the pyloric valve, and if we are still obese, that puts additional pressure on it. This is one reason non-WLS obese peeps get GERD - the pressure pushes acid/food back up.

Capacity also decreases as healing continues over several months. And, as Gwen mentioned, surgeons can only approximate the final size. They do not know what it will be, as they can guess at scarring, but it can't be 100% predicted. Technique also can alter the size of the sleeve, even if standard bougies are used.

Hunger and full sensations are misleading. This is because hunger and satiety are chemical and neurological as well as physical. What that means is you can be hungry because of hormones, or because your brain acclimated to eating at certain times. It has nothing to do with actual stomach contents for up to, and often over, a year after surgery. I had no physical restriction until last month, and my surgery was in June of 2015. Everyone is different.

Volume is valuable until further out from surgery I feel. For instance, if I weigh out 3 ounces of say, broccoli, that takes up way more space than 3 ounces of chicken breast, plain.

I switched to weight after six months or so, because that's how long it takes for the stomach to start to truly heal. Of course, I am the poster child for complications. You may only get a bleed (a separate complication from a leak) by overeating less than 1% of the time, however I am the "lucky one" that this crap always happens to. I am the one who got belly-button eating MRSA in the best hospital in Illinois after a routine outpatient procedure, after all. ;)

Weighing is also better for determining protein than volume, when it's solid meat. Other than that I always go by volume even now.

Sorry to hear you had those complications! Hope you are better from all that.

I know the stretching of the sleeve is misleading because the belief that the stomach will stretch back to its normal size is out there, but untrue.

I know there are certain foods like you say above or what I've heard the term slider foods that will go through faster, or hold more because they aren't as dense as meat. Something to be mindful of for sure.

Did you mean capacity increases over time instead of decrease, or do you find you can't eat as much as you did early on? I have not heard of this happening, not saying it doesn't. If you can't eat as much than that is your experience, and sure there are others as well.

What I'm able to eat now, will increase, as I was told it takes about six months to be fully healed internally (also told some people take a few more months if they are slow healers...which is probably impossible to know if one is or not a quick healer). But I could imagine if you don't feel restriction like you did til later that perhaps your intake would go down a bit so you don't feel uncomfortable.

I've read many different experiences about feeling restriction. Some people say they never feel it, and others further we get out from surgery. Almost a year to feel restriction, thats interesting to know. I don't know if I really feel a restriction per say, I just have this feeling that I feel full and by full I don't mean stuffed, its just a feeling, and some other cues that we were told at our center that could show fullness. Stuffing myself is not the goal, just feeling satisfied.

I think I will have to take Gwen's advice (and others) and try to stick to mainly protein at my meals. Probably best at this point, even if my taste buds are wanting more variety lol

Thanks for your response, I love hearing about people's experience and how different and alike the journey can be.

I meant capacity increases over time.

Nerve healing is another matter. "Restriction" is largely due to the afferent branches of the vagus nerve; it can take time for them to regenerate. They are severed when the stomach is dissected and the sleeve is formed. I would never rely on it, because it's highly misleading.

It's a curious organ, the stomach. Far more neurological than we give it credit for, too :)