PLEASE TAKE MY POLL: How much food do you eat per meal?

I feel like my surgeon is liberal with the portions he allows per meal.  I am allowed to eat 1/2 to 3/4 cup of food per meal x 3 meals per day + 1 protein shake + 1 glass of skim milk.  

In brief.... (1) What quantity are you allowed per meal/per day?   and  (2) How much do you end up eating on average? (3) What has your average weight loss per month been?   

I've noticed that people are all over the place with the amounts of food they can tolerate (whether too little or too much).  And it also seems our surgeons and NUT's are all over the place with what they prescribe for us.  

Will you participate in this poll?

Hey Kathymn,

I am along the same lines as you as to what I am aloud.   My doctor prefers the Protein shake in the morning plus 3 meals and a snack if need be.  As far as how much I usually eat it varies a bit depending on th day.  I usually get in about 6 oz. worth of food in a meal.  If I am eating something like chicken or pork roast where the meat needs to be well chewed(I know all foods are supposed to be) I fill up quicker I feel.  If I have somethig real soft like eggplant or ravioli then I seem to do ok maybe even get as much as 8 oz.  but it takes me a while to eat it.    My doctor does want me to try for 6 oz's so I do ok with it.  My biggest thing is getting all the water in I try to get more toward 80oz throughout the day, so that also has an effect on how much I feel like I can eat.

I do agree that it seems most people have wide ranging limits on what to have , how much to eat and drink. 

I had my surgery four days before you.  There is NO WAY I could possibly eat 1/2 to 3/4 cup at one time.  My surgeon recommends 1/4 cup at 3 mos out, 1/2 at six, 3/4 at nine, and 1 cup at a year.  No more than 1 cup at a time, and not more than a 1000 calories a day after one year. 

I feel this is reasonable.  I usually eat three "meals" and one snack a day.  I have a protein shake for one meal, then two solid meals and for a snack I might have a steamed milk w/ s/f syrup or s/f f/f pudding. 

Currently, I can eat about 3 tbsp at a time and then I am full. 

and not more than a 1000 calories a day after one year.  <------Yikes!!!

I eat 1600 calories a day to maintain my 115 pounds, I have restricted my exercise level somewhat so that I don't have to eat more than that.

Many (most?) surgeons do not tell you how much to eat at specific points in time... what they tell patients is to eat (protein first, of course****il they are full and then stop.... and how much food you can eat before you hit that point not only varies by person but varies by type of food.  I can eat far more of a moist fish or cheese than I can of chicken, beef, or a dry fish like tuna...and I can eat HUGE portions (well huge relative to the chicken or fish) of things like green beans and watermelon.  Then there are "slider" foods like yogurt.  So how much you can eat at a meal depends on the size of your pouch and what you are eating.

Unless you want to measure your food for the rest of your life, you will be better off focusing on recognizing how YOUR pouch feels when you have had enough.

Lora

4 oz per meal 5-6 X a day

some days the 4 oz is too much and I only eat 3.  Other days it is not enough and I bump it to 5 oz.  

Frequent small meals and "listen" to my pouch works for me.  After the intial post surgery diet that worked me up from liquids to normal foods, I don't have any specific instructions for how much/how often to eat

I have lost about 60 lbs post surgery in 5 months  even with a one month plateau.  

I'm 9 ,months out (and it gets more normal later on)

I can give you an example... last night I made 1 cup of chicken chili with beans (from a can)... I ate half and I was full...

chicken..forget it 3 bites i'm done


crab:   I can easily eat 8 oz or nearly a cup....

i don't even recall what I'm supposed to be eating as per the NUT... I gotta be honest...

seems I eat so little (according to NIK) that I just eat till I'm full....

Oh good gravy...forgive me if I skip the average weight loss part. Not in a good head space to go over that stuff today.

How much I eat depends on WHAT I'm eating. I don't believe in hard and fast rules about quantity because eating a 8 oz. of lean protein is very different from eating 8 oz. of salad. The former I cannot do, the latter would just be a warm up to something else.

For meat, I seem to max out around 6 oz. and that's with chicken or fish. I cannot eat 6 oz. of beef. It also depends on the cut of the meat. Something with ground turkey that is loosely cooked (i.e. spaghetti sauce) and I can eat about a cup. Something like a burger, about 4 oz. if I'm lucky. Last night I ate a turkey mignon (which I think was about 4 oz.) and had trouble getting through the whole thing (I did though...another belief of mine...eat what you plan to eat...the eating only until you are satisfied--for me--often leaves me way under my calorie count. So it may take a few tries but I almost always eat everything I plan to eat).

With my meat I can eat a small salad or about 1/2 c. of veggies. But I am 2+ years out.

Protein shakes, I can go up to about 52g of protein and 32 oz. before the pouch registers any difficulty getting it down in a reasonable amount of time.

Also, my surgeon never gave me restrictions on how much I am allowed to eat or how many meals. So I use my best judgement. I know my body, how much I can/can't eat and now I know how many times a day to eat to get what I need. But that whole first year was trying different things to learn that and putting out polls like this one :)

I can eat infinite amounts of the following (which is why I limit them): crackers, tortilla chips, nuts.

Your answers have been so helpful...thank you guys.  Now I understand why I am sometimes able to eat so much.  This is really an "Ah ha! moment" for me.  I like the idea of eating until I'm full.  My Nut did mention that, BUT no one ever told me about slider foods....or that flaky fish and softer foods will go through the pouch faster.... I think I have been eating too much of those slider foods!  I tend to stay away from the chunkier meats because I often throw up after just 3 bites.  No wonder my Nut wants us to get off pureed foods quickly.  One could easily just slide their way to fat again!  

I really want to get a better idea of how much my pouch can hold because I don't want to be eating too much anymore. 

I read in WLS for Dummies about a way to measure the size of your pouch using cottage cheese.  You basically take a new container and eat out of it quickly and see how much you can eat until you feel full (no more than 5 minutes).  Then you take 2 oz. of water at a time and put it in the cottage cheese container (on top of the remaining cottage cheese****il it is full again.  However much water you end up putting in equals the amount of food your pouch can hold.

Has anyone tried this?  No wonder I have been in a stall for two weeks, with all the slider foods I'm eating all day!

MORE REPLIES PLEASE......  THIS IS SOOO  HELPFUL!!!

 

Yes Kathy this is GOOD stuff.....I've really enjoyed reading this thread.

With that being said, it is scaring the bageebers out of me!  I can't imagine eating such small amounts.....at this point it seems so sad to me.  I'm thinking of all the foods I'll never eat again, let along eating JUST A FEW SMALL BITES and then I'm DONE.  a 1/4 cup of food and then I'm DONE!  Ahhhhh.....very scary.  I think I can learn to manage it okay at home, but eating lunch at work w/ colleagues or eating w/ family and friends.....I don't want everyone watching me and nagging me....."is that all you're going to eat!"  I just don't know how I'm going to adjust to this.  How can you just eat 3 bites of chicken and then be done?  I hope and pray I don't regret this.