I think it's back to the size it was pre-op

My stomach that is. I'm able to eat more than I feel I should. I can eat a whole power bowl at taco bell..even with the beans and rice. I can eat much more than any other VSG person in my opinion. I'm 2 years 8 months post op. I haven't made the best choices but thankfully have not gained a horrific amount..though I'm not anywhere close to my goal. I want to get to 150 and am currently about 175. My lowest was 161 BUT that was with some help..sad to say. Clean/sober now praise God. Anyway, I just really needed to vent.

The good news is, it's impossible for your stomach to be the size it was before surgery. Totally impossible.

The bad news is, we can all eat huge volumes of certain foods. I can eat a bucket of popcorn at a movie. I could eat crackers nonstop. And mist things we can eat a ton of IF we drink while we asre eating.

If you truly want to see how big your stomach is, eat only chicken. No drinking. Eat slowly -- 20 to 30 minutes -- because thats how long it takes the full signal to reach your brain. I think youll be surprised how little you can eat.

You can loose what you want, but you need to start making better choices. You can do this.

I can destroy a bag of popcorn too. The funny thing is this...I still go by the no drinking 30 minutes before and 30 after and none while eating. So thankfully I've not totally blown it. I just sit around thinking "did I stretch my pouch?" all the time.

I crave sweets so bad but have done good this week. I'm trying to reach that goal. Thank you for your reply! I appreciate it.

Like grim said, you can do this. You still have your tool and you can use it. I can eat much more at once than I could at first, we all can. That's pretty normal. We can still control what we eat though by tracking our calories and weighing our portions.

Also, it's amazing you're clean and sober now, keep up the hard work. Participate in the meal threads and see what others eat and show what you eat. It can really help!

Thank you. I have to get back to the tracking. That helps a ton as it keeps me accountable. I will take part in the meal threads as well to see what others are eating. Thank you again.

eat only dense protein, beef, chicken, pork, eggs. No bread products, rice, wraps, sweets or anything else.

It will be hard first week but will be easier after that. If you slip and eat carbs again you will be back to square one.

I have to do that..my question is though, what about like a side of veggies or something? Cottage cheese or green veggie. Just the meat? I've also heard of the reset where you do 3 days liquid and it supposedly resets your pouch.

The pouch reset is BS, don't waste your time.

You want dense protein. Ideally, just that and maybe a bite or two of veggies. Veggies and soft foods will go through your stomach more quickly without leaving you as satisfied.

Thank you! I am gonna do that and see how it goes. I have to cut this snacking out as well. I'm not eating crap really..it's normally protein of some sort BUT too much of it. Will update.

It is quite normal to be able to eat more volume over time - this doc gives a typical progression, which is consistent with my experience. He is one of the few docs that I have seen that discusses this aspect of our WLS, and more importantly offers a prescription of how to live with it - one may or may not be amenable to his advice (I don't buy into everything he says, or indeed that any "guru" says) but it does have merit and is something to think about in crafting your own solution to this problem.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_aahPETzH0

I do something along the lines of what he recommends in that it is relatively high veg/plant diet (relative to most here....) and while I don't do "veg first" as he suggests, I do more of a "veg combined with protein"; overall a "little bit of everything, not too much of anything" approach that works well for us, and makes it fairly easy to make adjustments for a bit of gain or loss - a lot easier than wholesale elimination of entire food groups and the yo-yo patterns that often ensue.

Yes, popcorn, crackers and other so-called "slider" foods can be eaten in quantity with little restriction - most anything that is heavily processed and degrades into nothing as it goes down will be a slider, and this includes some of the "low carb" alternatives that some use instead, such as cheese crisps or pork rinds.

Likewise, those reset diets aren't worth a damn - they are premised on the idea that when we first had surgery we were on a liquid diet and lost weight like crazy, therefore if we go back to a liquid diet, we will lose like crazy again. Reality check - even those of us who never did a liquid diet lost like crazy those first couple of weeks. Go back to the basic meat diet for a few days and detox from whatever has been triggering cravings. Sugar, particularly added sugar in processed foods, creates cravings for more junk food. Once you get those out of your system you can try adding some natural fruits and veg back in and see how it goes - real foods with real nutrition tend not to create cravings (but often satisfy them if they are providing nutrients that your body is short on.)