how much food can I eat.

I'm learning that I have to eat slower.. I mean reeeeaaaalllll slow. but I'm not sure how much I should be eating.. Do men eat more than women post op? I'm 6 weeks out. 
Yesterday for dinner, I  had a whole hamburger patty with a couple tomatoe slices. and for dessert, I tried some lactose free no sugar added ice cream.
Severl people have told me that this is way too much to be eating at 6 weeks out..
and possibly even 6 months out...
I had a protein shake earlier that day. and a couple spoonfuls of soup.. This doesn't seem like
a lot of food to me,
Prior to this I could feel a slight ache in my pouch, but have since learned that I need to eat even slower than I already was.. NOT 10 minutes or even 3 mintues between bites, but certainly a definate pause between bites...

Am I doing harm to myself eating this much? I can eat most of a scrawny chicken leg& thigh (no skin) , I can eat a small piece of rye bread with peanut butter, I can eat 3/4 cup of soup.

Is this typical, or am I eating too much?
John

I'm 2-1/2 years out and can only eat 1/2 a burger, no bun.
Of course it also depends on the size of the burger. I don't eat bread, rice or pasta as this can form a dough ball and get stuck which makes me

You should be able to get a list of appropriate food portions for various post-op periods--a few weeks, a month, a few months, etc. from your surgeon's office.  How large is the hamburger patty?  Something like a $1 burger minus the bun from McD's is quite different from a quarter pounder or larger.  You should probably not be having that much solid food at this point, but doctors vary in their recommendations.

My original RNY was on 11-14-2000 and I know that I was gradually able to increase my food portions.  I had been told that our pouch starts out at about the size of your thumb and will eventually grow to be the size of your fist.  And, you get to the new stomach size about 6 mos post-op.  Some people are startled that the stomach is so large but if you were obese or morbidly obese, your old stomach was much bigger.

I know that many people preach pouch rules regarding fluids especially priot to meals.  Neither of my surgeons felt that way ( I had an RNY revision on 01-21-05 due to a staple line disruption).  It's been a long time since either of my RNYs, so I hope you get some responses from other newbies.

 
While you are healing, you're nerves aren't all the way there.  As such, you can push more into your pouch than you think. It also makes it harder to figure out when you are full (the first few months).  As such, my NUT recommends EVERYTHING gets measured for the first 6 months. Eventually, your body will start to teach you when your full.  Also, the time between bites is to start to learn your signals.  For many its a hiccup, sneeze, or runny nose.  Soups and some of those slider foods will not sit in your pouch and just slide through.  Soups and ice cream are "slider" foods and in many cases like liquids.  You could be drinking empty calories.

My plan:
Regardless of phase, no liquids for 15m before and 60m after.  This will keep you full longer.  I've also been told that if you have dense food, like steak, drinking liquids can put unnecessary pressure on your stoma and potentially stretch it.

At 3 weeks, no more than 1/4-cup per meal.
After about 4-6 weeks, they move me up to 1/3-1/2 cup until at least the 6 month mark.  
After several months, I believe I move up to no more than 1 cup of food (don't recall exactly here, could be just 3/4-cup per meal).

This early out, you have to measure food because your body can't really tell when its full yet.  You'll just know after you've WAY overeaten as you'll probably yak it all up.

As I said, I'm early out, but this is how its been explained to me.

6 weeks out and you have dessert?  You are supposed to be changing your habits ! 

Your meals right now should be the size of a "large" egg, and you should be eating those small amounts 5-6 times per day to get in all of your protien.  Little by little you will be increasing, but at almost 6 years post I still eat servings of 1 to 1 1/2 cups.

Soup is an easy way to get in more protien as the liquids make it easier to eat more, but you should not be eating bread for a couple more months.  When I had surgery my NUT sent me home with a packet of info that explained my diet for the first 3 months, if you didn't get one you should call and ask for it.