I've got the cold food blues!

How long does it take you to eat a meal??  I'm just curious because most surgeons recommend that a meal not last longer than 20 minutes (in order to avoid overeating), and most food will stay warm for that period of time...

Lora

It takes me about 15 to 20 minutes. But I find that it doesn't stay warm enough for my liking. Maybe if I had a big heaping bowl of spaghetti it would stay warm because of the volume. But with the small quantities, I find the air gets to it and it gets cold. Or at least not hot. 

The program I am i says 30 minutes.  I am 18 days out and just starting what my program calls Stage 4.  I am a little anxious about chewing everything well so it has actually taken me over 30 minutes to eat 1 scrambled egg...yikes!

30 minutes to eat a scrambled egg (which, by it's very nature, doesn't require much chewing)?!? Wow. I cannot imagine how it is possible to take that amount of time to eat 1 scrambled egg, even if you chewed it into liquid, so that surprises me (but I am not doubting what you say). At that rate, though, when you start solid food, it could take you two hours to eat a piece of dense protein.

You are still very early out, but for future reference, be aware that if it takes you more than 30 minutes to eat, the first few bites of food will gave already made their way out of your pouch ... so if you don't continue measuring your portions and rely on feeling full to stop eating, you could end up eating too much since you would be just replacing the first few bites with the most recent ones.

The no drinking for 30-minute rule is because 30 minutes is about how long it takes food to move out of the pouch on its own (depending on several variables, including the density and viscosity of the food).

Lora

I have always been a slow eater, in fact my friends would tease me about it...so I can only imagine that it may be even longer...I moight have to invest in that!