Eating too much?

Hey guys, I'm about five weeks out and I feel like I am able to eat way too much compared with what I see other guys posting. I try to take at least 20-30 minutes for a meal and NEVER drink during or immediately after meals. My Doc's info says at this point a meal should be approx 1 1/2-2 oz., however even when eating slowly I don't have the sensation of satisfied until somewhere over 3oz. I'm worried that I am stretching my pouch out way to soon. Any advice? I pretty much only eat high protein foods (chicken or fish) and very little carbs <20g per day. I read on the boards from so many people that are much further out than me that get full on "just a few tablespoons of food". This isn't happening for me and I have to admit that I am concerned It seems to odd to me to be worried about eating 3oz. of food and worrying, when I was able to eat many many times that amount just a few short weeks ago. Any help, advice, encouragement would be much appreciated!

The only logical answer that I can offer you is for you to measure your 1 1/2 oz meal and eat it.  Stop eating when you have consumed that portion whether or not you feel full.  Are you having 6 small meals or 3 meals a day?  If you can't force yourself to do 6 small meals, then contact your surgeon's office to make sure that the amount you are eating will not affect your pouch. 

I only eat 2-3 meals a day. My doc said not to do the 5-6 small meals a day because it makes it easier to lead into "grazing". He said so long as I at one meal a day that he was fine with that.  I could easily do the six small meals, but haven't since he said not to.

People heal at different rates, and what makes the pouch so small at first is that the walls are swollen in.  I healed really fast, by five weeks I could eat 5-6 ounces.  Now at 20 weeks?  5-6 ounces.  If you are feeling discomfort or pressure later after eating three ounces, then I'd measure my food and eat less.  But if it feels fine, I wouldn't worry about it.  I don't think you are outside the range of normal.

Cameron, I'm not sure I'd worry if I were you. There is, according to some docs, a difference between 3oz of volume as opposed to of weight (that is, thoroughly chewing 3oz of certain foods may reduce it to pouch size, whereas the same food, poorly chewed or gulped would not fit into a new, still puffy pouch). I've also been informed that it is not as easy to "stretch" a pouch as you might fear, though I guess it can be done. If you are only eating 3oz and really chewing, you're probably going to be okay. The sensation of feeling full is not simply physical. some of that is habit and even our new plumbing doesn't always overcome years of habit and expectation when it comes to eating and feeling satisfied. For some of us, that has to be learned, cultivated a new habit through careful monitoring of food intake and moods. To say we're all different sounds like a cliché, but the fact is, we respond to surgery individually and almost every post-op has to learn how to eat, when to eat, what to eat--and why. Closing cliché: The pouch and surgery are tools and we're the craftsmen learning to use them to our advantage. Fear that we will be the exceptions to the good news of surgery, the one guy whose surgery fails or who effs it up himself are common. There were times in my first few weeks when I was convinced that I'd had "placebo surgery" instead of the real thing, that my doc tricked me as part of a medical experiment, etc. There have times when I am "hungry" and "shouldn't be"--but on balance, the surgery does what is promised and we, at our own paces, learn how to use it. If you're still worried, you can measure the volume of your pouch with Dr. Latham Flanagan's Cottage Cheese Test. Here's a description of it I found at http://www.pfamos.org/Test.htm Purchase a container of small curd low-fat cottage cheese. Begin the test with a full container, and perform the test in the morning before eating anything else (this will be your breakfast on that day).

Eat until comfortably satisfied, but complete meal within 5 minutes or less.  The idea is to fill the pouch before there is much time for food to flow out of it.  Note that the small soft curds do not require much chewing.

Stop eating when comfortable, but not stuffed

After eating your "fill" of cottage cheese, you will be left with a partially eaten container that has empty space where cottage cheese used to be.  Starting with a measured amount of water (8 ounces, for example), pour water into the container of cottage cheese until the water is level with the original top level of the cottage cheese.  Measure accurately.

The amount of water poured into the container is the functional size of the pouch.

If this is your first time doing the test - DON'T PANIC. You are likely to find that the "cottage cheese" size of your pouch is way bigger than your surgeon told you he/she made it at the time of surgery.  Dr. Flanagan's data indicates that the average size of the mature pouch by cottage cheese test is 5.5 ounces.  He has also found that sizes ranging from 3 to 9 ounces have NO IMPACT on the person's success in weight loss. Lastly, remember that you're not alone in your concerns. Good luck. I think you'll do fine.

Sounds like you are dong about right for where you are in the process. The important thing is to listen to what your body is telling you and not put too much down there too soon.

You can eat chicken at 5 weeks out?

Beginning at week three I started the "transition" diet that consists of tuna, chicken salad, and other softer ,,meats like lunch meat. My instructions say that I can begin having ground beef and chicken as I feel comfortable with it. I even was able to eat ribs this past week (being from Texas we like them with a dry rub, so no sweet barbeque sauce). At six weeks my instructions are to begin eating what my family eats (much smaller portions) and obeying the 4 rules. (protein first, 64oz water a day, don't drink during and for at least 30 minutes after a meal, and daily exercise). I am also to avoid sugar and simple carbs as much as possible. My Doc wrote a gastric bypass cookbook and he uses all full fat products (milk, mayo, sour cream) in his recipes. He says that because of the small portions and reduced absorbtion these should not hurt weight loss or maintaining goal. (If used and eaten in moderation!!!)

My Doctor is very much on the conservative side. It's no skin off his ass if he makes me wait 4 weeks longer than you to eat meat.