One of the biggest things about being sleeved is that it requires a lot of adjustments to how you approach food. The average adult stomach can expand to accommodate about one quart, or four cups, of food. Some have stomachs that can expand more or less (I firmly believe mine was on the more side) but a quart is average. After the gastric sleeve the stomach capacity eventually becomes about one cup, how it starts off, however, is about two ounces.
In the immediate aftermath of the surgery is the healing process. The body's natural processes cause inflammation/swelling which further decreases the capacity making it difficult to get just about anything down. Ingesting too much too fast will inevitably result in a rapid upward evacuation.
This is one of the main reasons for the progressive diet that you go through post-surgery. Clear liquids, full liquids, pureed foods, soft solids, and eventually regular food. You have to stretch out the sleeve a little bit by bit and give the stomach time to heal and adjust. I just hit purees this morning, and might have overdone it a little with my eggs. I didn't go too far, but I am a bit uncomfortable at the moment.
Slow eating, small bites, putting the utensil down between bites, chewing 15-20 times (hard to do with purees), and no drinking while eating are all methods we are taught as we prep for life after surgery. I used to constantly drink water. I could go out to a Chinese buffet here in town, eat two plates and finish two glasses of water along with them. I had serious doubts about the ability to not drink while eating and waiting at least 30 minutes after. Here I am almost an hour after finishing my eggs and I haven't touched my water. Not just because I know what could happen, but because I don't feel thirsty. The lower blood sugars help with that.
Weight loss surgery is a tool. It isn't a miracle cure. If you do not maintain your new eating habits the effects of the surgery can be reduced and/or reversed. It requires changing your interaction with food and for those of us that have struggled with weight issues all of our lives it can be a real challenge. The gastric sleeve surgery makes it easier by not just restricting the size of your stomach, but removing the portion of your stomach that "growls." There are hormones released that cause the hunger sensations we all know. Those hormones are produced in the part of the stomach that is removed thus reducing those sensations. What you have to then overcome is the mental hunger. The part of your brain that just wants to eat for the sake of eating. No surgery can fix that, it takes willpower.
But this feeling from eating too much of my breakfast sure helps the conditioning process.
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