Soft Food Expectations

[00Zazzy 1]

Hi! New to the forum! I was sleeved 10/6 and Everything has been great. But... I have a question for you. I started soft foods today and, for dinner, heated up a Lean Cuisine meat Loaf and Mashed Potatoes (250 cals/20 grams of protein). I expected to only eat half if it, but I comfortably are the whole thing in 40 mins. NO pain and no ill effects. Is this normal? Too much food? I am concerned. Thanks!!

[georgiare 63]

I don't know about too much, but it's more than I can eat. My post op diet has me starting soft foods this week as well, I can barely eat half an egg, and I feel stuffed on a whole string cheese. But, I'm also only 2 weeks postop as well, was sleeved 10/16. I believe the point is that you feel full after less food, I remember being able to sit and eat 3 or 4 tv dinners in a single meal, so I would call satisfaction from 1 an accomplishment...

[momohime 121]

Really soft foods like mashed potatoes go through incredibly easy and probably won't make you feel full, especially if you eat over a 40 minute period. Eating to "feel full" isn't very reliable, so I would measure/portion your food beforehand. My NUT recommended eating 1/4 cup to 1/2 cup of food for the first six months (for reference, the lean cuisine you had was a little over 2 cups) and that's what I've stuck to. Can I eat more than that? Yes, definitely.. but I don't. I'm not hungry afterwards, so it's not much of a problem. I just had to learn to limit myself.

[auntiemel 275]

I was sleeved on 9/22/14 and can't eat an entire lean cuisine. I try to keep my portions at 1/3-1/2 a cup for most things. I can have larger portions of things like salad.

Since your meal was meat loaf and mashed potatoes I'm sure that's why you could eat that much. The puréed soft foods seem to go right through. "Sliders" is what they call them.

Once I started eating regular chicken and ground turkey I could eat so much less than broth or yogurt.

[00Zazzy 1]

Thank you so much. I will stop sooner next time. I was really hoping I would be one if those who physically couldn't eat more. But, perhaps that will happen when I progress to the next stage. Thank you for your insight. Much appreciated.

[momohime 121]

Don't worry about it too much. How much restriction you have really depends on the type of food you're eating! Some things you might not even be able to eat at all for a while.. finding out what those foods are is the only unfortunate part.