Difference between grazing & eating 5-6 small meals?

A meal has a beginning, a middle, and an end. Grazing does not.

Grazing is eating at 8:30, 8:37, 8:51, 8:53, 9:01, 9:02, 9:05, 9:09, 9:17, 9:21, 9:30, 9:34, 9:38, 9:42, etc. There's never a period of "not eating". A meal, especially for a RNY'er, should take you no more than 15-20 minutes to eat. Then you have a space of 2 hours where you are NOT eating (during which, hopefully, you are hydrating yourself)

As for the difference between those three - really, nothing. My understanding from the pouch rules is that you shouldn't be consuming high caloric liquids, including soup & cereal. This is because the fluid is going to 'wash food down the drain' causing you to consume more calories in a meal, rather than allow food to fill & stretch your pouch for that feeling of fullness.

If you NEED those extra calories to halt weight loss or maintain, by all means, have some soup, or cereal.....just realize that you're going to eat more at those meals, and be hungry faster afterwards.

--BT

I'm just one week post-op, but I'm researched the devil out of this stuff, so I'll tell you what I've read. Grazing is eating at times OTHER THAN your designated meal time(s).  There is no minimum # of times a day that qualifies or disqualifies a behavior from grazing. If you walk through the kitchen and pick up & eat a carrot when it is not meal (or snack time if you are allowed a snack a day), you are grazing when you are eating that carrot. It's called grazing because think of how cows do....they are standing there in a field.  They may have hay put out for them at certain times.  That is their meal time.  But every once in a while, they just lean down and eat a mouthfull of grass.  Even if they only do it once a day, they are grazing when they are doing it. Eating 5 - 6 small meals a day does not count as grazing because it is a set, defined, planned mealtime.  You are not just eating 5 - 6 times on a whim or because something strikes you as looking good. The reason you are not supposed to drink with meals is that is causes the solid food to escape your stomach more quickly than it would fi you ate without drinking.  Think about the drain in your sink.  If you chewed up a half a cup of food, then let it sit there for 30 minutes, then started pouring small amounts of water into the drain, the food sit there longer without leaving through the drain.  If you notice, when you eat soup and cereal, these things don't "stay with you" as long as high protein solids like meats, tofu and cheeses do.  Part of that is the liquid helps evacuate the solids more quickly from your stomach.