What does a smaller stomach actually feel like?

You really need to learn how much you can eat and try to weigh your portions until you become accustomed to eyeballing it. Overfilling your stomach can happen very easily early out. This cab cause you to be uncomfortable or even throwing up the excess which is no fun. It is necessary to eat slow and think about how you feel before taking the next bite. Drinking while eating will cause you to get overfull QUICK! Refraining from drinking allows you to get in as much food as you need and allows it to remain in your stomach longer thus keeping you from needing to eat as often.

There are little things you learn along your journey that will make it an pleasant one.

You won't experience the "stuck" feeling like you will with the RNY. Nor will you be limited on what you can eat. I can have carbonation (and do every once in a great while) but elect not to for the most part. Your new tummy won't stretch like the RNY pouch does. I do have issues with acid reflux but am on a PPI and probably always will be. It's usually only an issue if I eat to close to bedtime so I try not to eat within 3 hours of lying down.

Those are my experiences which compared with my daughter's (she had RNY 9 years ago) are mild. I wouldn't trade surgeries with her for all the tea in China!

A smaller stomach feels normal. The day after surgery on the drive home I commented on how normal I felt.

More than a year out a smaller stomach means I can eat what I want but do not have the same capacity. I can eat and enjoy a slice of pizza but cannot eat the entire pizza like I did before surgery.

The way you eat with a smaller stomach also changes. I make better food choices, omit fast foods and look for foods with a lot of flavor. I cannot eat a lot but what I can eat I want to be full of flavor.

If I overeat now I foam, feel miserable and may throw up. These things make you recognize your full point. Once you're full you stop eating. Before the VSG my capacity seemed unlimited which is why I was fat. Heartburn has  not been an issue for me. I had it a few times before VSG but hardly ever since. This is likely the result of not eating many fried, greasy or red sauce which all caused me heartburn before the VSG.

I feel perfectly normal while I'm eating, but when I get full, I'm really full and have to stop. You can't take just one more bite, unless it's watery like soup. But with something like chicken, forget it. And the full feeling is different. I feel it way up in my throat.

I've never thrown up or had foamies.

As far as acid refulx is concerned, I never had it before surgery. Now I do have it, so I take Prilosec every day. When I take the Prilosec, I'm fine, so it's not a big deal. I keep hoping hte acid refux will go away one day, but I don't know if it will. I'm happy with the trade off.

Like the others said, you don't feel any differently with the smaller stomach.  Only difference IMO is when I eat one bite more tells me I'm full and to not take another bite.  I also have what the NUT called a "soft sound".  I hiccup when I'm full.  Sometimes the hiccup doesn't come until after I have realized that the last bite I took needed to be the last.  I only took one more bite once and it came back up, so when I get that feeling, I know it's time to stop whether I have hiccuped or not. 

It's just a different sensation of "full" than before surgery.  Not in a bad way.  It's good because it's so obvious.  This little ol' tool is working like a charm. 

If you choose VSG, you will not regret it!

Heartburn:  I had acid reflux before surgery.  I still take Omeprozole but only 1 a day instead of 2, so it's better.  I'm too big a chicken to try to go without taking it.  Guess I should try and see if I even need it anymore. 

They just did a study on the "PPI" antacids and discovered that people over 50 who take them on a regular basis are 46% more likely to break their hips than those who don't.  I'd say it would be  good idea to wean yourself off them if you think you may not really need them.

I really appreciate all the responses.