Real Truth of how much I can eat Now at 6 months Post Op

Today I woke up early. Around 4am and I was hungry. So I opened the fridge. That was the first mistake I made. Being a person with Binge Eating Disorder I find it's generally not good to open the fridge unless It's time for a meal. Same thing when it comes to the cupboards/pantry. The day before we Had steak for dinner. 10oz ribeyes. 10oz is about the size of protein I should be eating for an entire days worth of eating. So I split my steak into 3 servings purposely. I got 3 meals out of it. Well that was yesterday. This morning there was leftover steak and I woke up hungry and immediately went and got one of the left over steaks. I started eating it on the sofa(cold) Thinking I would get full with a few bites...Well That full feeling never came, and before I knew it I had devoured the entire 10oz steak. Only feeling the effects when I went to drink a glass of water 30mins later. This is scary and concerning to me because I know how quickly things can spiral out of control. I don't want this to happen again. I am debating if I should limit my protein for the rest of the day or just continue eating my next 2 meals for the day the way my WLS program taught me too. Why did I open that fridge...

I have done the same with steak, but could never do it with chicken breast. It takes me a while, but if I put the whole steak on a plate, I can eat up finishing it at one sitting. I have to put my serving on a plate and put the rest away before I pick up a fork.

Yeah not sure what it is about steak whitedove. It must be that it's so dang tasty. In general its easy for me to overeat most all protein though. So I take no chances usually and weigh it all.

I would have your remaining meals as usual, as if that mistake never occurred. Trying to make up for overeating by eating less at the next meal is likely to leave you frustrated and craving more food.

I don't really have any experience with eating disorders, so take my advice with a grain of salt, but I wouldn't make a big deal out of this one incident. You can get past this! I've had one or two incidents that were on a similar scale, and yet I've been doing quite well, losing weight at a very satisfactory clip. I have learned that there are some foods that aren't very filling. I avoid those foods unless I can arrange to only have one serving, or at most two, available. Protein bars are in that category for me. I only have them once every week or so to help top up my protein, and I only buy two at a time to minimise the potential damage.

Focus on your average caloric intake over a week, rather than just one day. I have found that about once a week I eat a little more than normal, but that's compensated by the fact that about once a week I eat a little less than normal. I've learned to accept the extra-hungry days as simply part of the pattern. I don't start to worry unless I have a few hungry days in a row.

It takes a while after VSG to tell the difference between excess stomach acid and true hunger. I'm a year out, and still sometimes have trouble distinguishing. So if it's not mealtime but your tummy is rumbling, try drinking a glass of water or other low-calorie beverage before you decide it's hunger.

Next time you're hungry and it's not mealtime, figure out what you're going to eat before you go to the fridge. Have some foods on hand that are low calorie but filling (for when you're hungry outside of mealtime) or fun to eat (for when you're not really hungry but just want to nibble).

Thanks for the words of encouragement wombat. I did just return to my normal eating patterns for the remaining meals of the day. It just kinda spooked me because this is the first time I've been able to eat that much since before the surgery without feeling the restriction pretty early on when eating protein.

You're totally right about the confusing excess stomach acid and hunger. There's been countless times now post-op that I've been hungry only to drink a glass of water and the feeling went away.

I like your tips about having filling low calorie foods to nibble on. I do have a few trick foods that I use as well.

Before surgery I used to overeat protein regularly so it's another reason I have to be extra on top of this. The food scale is just as important a tool as my new stomach.