Post-Op Portion Sizes...what were your guidelines/limits?

As per my surgeon's instructions, I will be on soft solids until my 1st fill in 5 weeks from now.  The only things I was really told to avoid during that time are fresh fruits & veggies, dense carbs, fried foods and sweets.  Ok, no problem.

They also told me I should limit my eating to 3 4-oz meals per day and 2 2-oz snacks.  That's a total of 16 oz - 2 cups of food - per day. 

I'm concerned that 2 cups of food per day is not going to hold me for the next 5 weeks.  I am wondering if you all had similar guidelines for portion size?  And if I'm not satisfied with the 2 cups, can I safely add a little more?

*Edited to add: I understand the need to limit portions to 4 oz at a time so I don't stretch my pouch.  I'm wondering if I can eat more often if I need to though - hence, more than 2 cups throughout the day.

My surgeon's basic guidelines were to eat 3-4 ounces of lean protein, then about 1/2 cup veggie for each meal. 

Sue

They said 4 oz total.  And I am supposed to count protein shakes as a "meal."  That limits me even further.

I did not have to stick with specific rules until after the first couple of weeks. This is the healing phase and since I was on liquids I had no real limits. When I went onto solids I was told to eat 3-4 oz of solid dense protein and 1-2 oz of veggies or fruits all by weight. After cooking. 3 x a day. Protein shakes would count as a meal for me, now. But then it was not. Of course you can always call your surgeons office to get specifics, I'm sure they are used to all sorts of questions. Good luck on your new journey!!

I was a little freaked out at first by the small amounts too, but that was just my head talking.  I know you probably don't have much restriction yet, but I think you will be suprised.  Plus it is good for us to start trying to distinguish "satisfied" from "full"...that is really what I had to concentrate on before that first fill.  That being said, it sure wasn't easy so I wish you tons of luck. But please give it a try to follow the original instructions before you let your eyes and head hunger sabatoge your effort.

My instructions were similar to yours.  I got to go to solids after 10 days though, but ony 1-2oz per meal. Those tiny meals really freaked me out, but even though I didn't have much restriction I wasn't starving the way I would have been pre-band.    After I think 6 weeks out I could add veggies.  Fruits came in at about 3 or 4 months....I'm still waiting for the ok to add grains and good carbs back into my diet.  I'm still new to this whole thing too,  so I feel your pain.  You can do it!

Thanks for your input!  I will certainly give it my best effort.  I don't want to stress over something that hasn't happened yet, and I definitely wouldn't do anything to compromise my new band.  I just know that most people have very little (if any) restriction until the 1st fill.  So, like I said, I'm sure I'll be fine for a few weeks while I'm still healing and getting used to this new way of eating.  I'm just really worried about being hungry later on! 

Oh well...I'll see how it goes!  Just wanted to see if this portion size was a universal guideline for most banded patients.

 I am two weeks post op and just started mushy foods today. At this point I am supposed to be eating 2oz protein and 1-2oz other mushy foods per meal. My doc wants me on 3 meals, 1 snack (up to 2 oz, high protein) and a protein shake daily. If I am following pretty close, this puts me at 70gm protein for the day and I really felt pretty satisfied all day. 

My surgeon does not do the first fill for 6 weeks, so I am hopeful that I will still be doing ok by that time. 

I think the key thing is to follow the rules with drinking after eating. I think if I were to put in snacks more often, I would have trouble getting in the right amount of water.

Good luck and keep us posted on how it's going!

Aletheia

Here is my view....Do your best and if you are so hungry call the Dr office and discuss it with then they may bump up and then again you may find that you will be fine with what they recommend.  I wish you luck.  And as always your OH family is here to support.

You might want to check again to make sure that was "dense carbs" and not dense protein.  That is unusual and you might have misunderstood them.  If I ate 4 oz of dense carbs they would not hold me and it's totally against any diabetic diet - and our diets should be more in line with a diabetic diet.  The only reason I can think of now for eating dense carbs instead of dense proteins is if a low-protein kidney-sparing diet is needed. 

Carbs give an insulin boost which will in turn metabolize and store the calories faster, leaving one hungry sooner.  Think about how hungry you are after eating a donut... Once that donut is taken care of by the insulin, the insulin is still running around looking for more food and telling the brain to get with the program and shovel more fuel down the pipe already - which is how most of us got to the lap-band in the first place and that title "insulin resistant."

If you have a medical reason for "dense carbs", then you will want complex rather than simple carbs.

Good luck,
Cheryl

she was referring to dense carbs in the things to avoid...I read it wrong the first time too...lol