Question:
How can the cottage cheese or scrambled egg test work?

As I understand it, you eat either of these foods until you feel full to determine the actual size of your pouch or how much it can hold. Even assuming if none of it dumps into the small intestine how can the feeling of being full determine when it is full if there is a significant delay before that is communicated to your brain. My surgeon told me that you should not continue eating just because you do not feel full yet because it can take up to 20 minutes for your brain to know that it is full. This is why many (including me) feel overstuffed after eating a big meal at a restaurant. It is because we continue to eat after the stomach was full and by the time it was communicated to the brain it was overstuffed.    — Rick Bedard (posted on August 16, 2006)

August 16, 2006
Your comments are so wonderfully on target. In my opinion, these tests are nonsense. I can eat over 4 ounces of cottage cheese (post surgery) before I start to feel even a little bit full. By contrast, I can barely eat one scrambled egg before I start to feel OVER full. The texture and density of the food make a big difference. Cottage cheese has alot of liquid in it and mashes down to become almost entirely liquid when you chew it. Cooked egg doesn't have those properties. More solid things like chicken, fish and so forth I get full after just a couple bites. Last night I ate all of 2.5 chic-fil-a nuggets before I started getting that semi-nauseous "overfull" feeling. The best way to discover if your pounch has stretched, in my opinion, is to judge based on how much REAL food you can eat. If you're able to eat 5 or 6 ounces of normal food, you probably have a problem. My advice? Whenever possible, measure out what you're "supposed" to be eating at whatever stage you are at (for me it's less than 2 ounces) and learn what that amount of food LOOKS like. Then do your best to make sure that you don't eat more than that in one sitting... and whatever you do, don't give into snack urges.
   — liatha

August 16, 2006
Don't forget tho you are suppose to chew your food 20 times each bite if you do that and then swallow it will take you at least 20 min.and then some to eat a meal
   — NYCindy

August 17, 2006
Hey Denise, I just wanted to let you know that 5 to 6 oz is not really a problem, depending on what type of surgery you've had thats actually to be expected after about a year or so.
   — njcocoa

August 18, 2006
I think this test is ridiculous. Think about the consistency and texture of these foods. They are less dense than most solid foods and digest faster. I can eat more soft foods and it takes me longer to get full than if I were to eat meat and more dense or fiberous vegetables. So whereas I can eat 2 to 3 bites of a steak and feel full vs. a 1/2 c fruit w/ cottage cheese. I was told to eat until I was satisfied and/or felt full and not to force that last bite of anything when I felt full.
   — CHARLYLVN

August 20, 2006
The lunacy of the cottage cheese test is that, in addition to there existing countless variables that make it incredibly unreliable, there is nothing you can do with the results. You test and find that you have a small pouch, so you continue to eat small, well-chewed, measured and timed meals. You test and find that you have a large pouch, so you continue to eat small, well-chewed, measured and timed meals.
   — SteveColarossi