Under eating your sleeve?

I am still pre-op (surgery set for May 28th) and I've seen it posted many times before... "under eat your sleeve"

I understand what it means to under eat your sleeve, however I'm curious:
- HOW do you under eat your sleeve? -

Do you figure out how much your sleeve can hold and then eat less than that amount? Do you eat until satisfied? I'm just wondering how YOU under eat your sleeve.

Good question! In the beginning I mostly used measuring because I had no feelings yet. After a few weeks I continued to measure but would stop if I felt satisfied even if my measured amount wasn't gone. After a few months and some trial and error, I still measure and usually can eat what I measured out. It's rare that I ever go back for more. It's also unusual for me to finish my measured portion. I usually am satisfied with a few bites left.
Hope this helps!

I'm 2 weeks post-op and I'm one of those people who doesn't get any indications that I'm near full, I'm sure I could eat a horse and wouldn't feel it! But the good thing is I'm RARELY/NEVER hungry.So like you JLS, when I do eat I measure and once I'm done, I'm done. But my question to you is around when did you start to get a full feeling? Also, were you confused in the beginning when u didn't feel restricted???

Well, I should clarify that in the first days and weeks after surgery...I did have uncomfortable feelings with each sip of broth and even water. It was not however a "full" feeling. It was more a "heavy" feeling when I drank anything. Even with my 1st sip. I attribute this to the healing process. Once I was able to advance my diet, a few eraser tip size bites of canned chicken or tuna and I had a feeling that triggered my brain to say "stop, no more". I still get this. I don't have the warning signs other people get (hiccups, runny nose, burping) but many times I take my last bite and think "nope, don't swollow. Spit this bite out". So I spit it out. I have not vomited since surgery and have only gotten the "foamies" 1x and that was from eating too fast. I do think when you are able to introduce dense food that you will feel what restriction is. I know it is scary thinking this was all for nothing. It will be worth it. You will look back at this early postop time as a blip on your journey's radar!
When can you advance your diet? Please keep me updated on your restriction issues. If you can eat more than a few bites of dense protein without feeling that restriction (when u can advance ur diet), I would be concerned about the integrity of your sleeve.
Best wishes!

OK.....Thanks for the info

Yes,it can mean eat til you are satisfied, but not full. Eat so slowly so you know when you are a few bites short of full. Weighing and measuring are so important because it teaches you not to go over what should be the capacity of your sleeve, so knowing that you would measure or weigh and then eat just shy of that amount. I find that my capacity does not remain constant, it does fluctuate, but I try not to go over the measured amounts that I determine for each meal.

Under eating your sleeve is simply stopping before you get to the point where you will set off your trigger sign.  By trigger sign I mean that individual thing that happens when you have hit a point where your body says STOP!  For me it's hiccups, for some it's sneezing, others get a runny nose.  It's individual and you will find yours. I am usually satisfied before I get to my trigger.  If I start to hiccup I know I'm on the line.  Another bite and I will regret it.  By being in tune with your body you will avoid filling your sleeve to the max or more.

Best of luck on your journey to good health. 

Mine is the hiccups as well..

Its a Japanese custom..called Hara Hachi Bu undereat our stomach sleeve capacity...tradition taught to them since childhood so they don't overeat and become obese. 

Techniques can be mastered by ALL not only Japanese...takes about 20 meals for the stomach to memorize satiety point..(no longer hungry and no longer full)

You eat 80% of stomach capacity. As soon as ya feel the slightest amount of pressure following a BITE...YOUR DONE...immediately discard or put away till later. 

Dr. Oz article I found on it a couplea years ago  and then his show segment on it.

The Okinawa diet references Hara Hachi Bu 

I can't get this link to go so here's the article on TECHNIQUE in the huffington post...written by a nut in Cali

Hara Hachi Bu: Eat Until You Are 80% Full 

My husband is one of those naturally thin people. He has been thin his entire life and has never had a problem with food. As someone who has been up and down the scales and until 20 years ago when I lost 50 pounds and learned how to keep it off, flirted with various forms of binging and purging, it has been a fascinating learning experience to watch what this "naturally thin" creature does around food.   Early in our life together, we were at the dinner table and I noticed that he was just sitting there thinking. There was still food on his plate but he had put his fork down and it looked like he was pondering something important. I said,   "What are you doing?"   He said, "I'm thinking about how I will feel if I take one more bite. I think I've had enough but I'm just checking in to make sure."   It was then that I knew for sure that he was from an entirely different planet than me. On my planet, you ate until there was no more food on your plate. I was taught to clean my plate as a child. The reward for doing so was dessert. The amount on my plate was often determined by someone other than me. This style of eating had absolutely nothing to do with what my body needed, how full I was, or how I'd feel if I took one more bite. I never learned to listen to my body when it came to food.

  The Japanese practice something that makes such sense that I can't believe we don't start teaching this to our kids. It's called "hara hachi bu". It means, eat until you are 80 percent full. You have probably heard about the Okinawan people and how they often live to 100. They are the longest lived, healthiest people on the planet and they practice hara hachi bu. Of course it helps to eat healthy food as well, but simply learning to eat until you are 80 percent full would do wonders for us Americans.   Most of us have no idea what 80 percent full feels like. We do know that if we eat until we are full, in 20 minutes we are likely to feel too full, as it takes about that long for the stomach to communicate with the brain just how full it is. But how do you tell when you are "80 percent full"? Here is what registered dietician, Susan Dopart, has to say on the subject: 

  It takes sometimes 15-20 meals to reset the muscle memory of the stomach to get used to less food and people need to trust that will happen. Most are used to eating until full, which is past satiation and which keeps weight on.


  Susan suggests eating just half of what you normally eat and then checking in to see how you feel. According to Ms. Dopart, once we begin to feel any stomach pressure we are at the "80 percent full" stage. She also tells her clients to eat until they are no longer hungry, instead of eating until they are full.   

Many of my clients say their hunger/satiety mechanism is broken. I understand this, as mine was as well. If you override your body's natural inclination to stop eating when it has had enough, over and over again, I think that natural signal can go into a coma. According to Susan, however, it can wake back up after about 20 meals. I can tell you that after years of maintaining a fifty pound weight loss, mine is working again. However, the challenge now is to listen to it and honor it.  

 Whoops ok found it...Here's the link too...http://www.huffingtonpost.com/irene-rubaumkeller-/not-overea ting_b_969910.html?ref=tw

HTH!!

It's simple, know your sleeve capacity and measure out the right amount of food.  In the beginning, and I mean at least the first year, it is a really good idea to use measuring cups and scales to portion out your food.