Its completely normal at the start of your journey to be eating your meals off a big plate, and easily within the 20-minute advised cut off period. As you progress on with your journey – after a few adjustments, you will find that you really need to apply the chewing and slowing down approach (some providers refer to this method of eating as the 20-20-20 rule- 20p size piece of food – Chew for 20 – and allow 20 seconds between each mouthful). Applying this rule you will start to see that you cannot eat as much within the 20 minutes and eating over this time can be tempting if you still have food left on your plate.
The Gastric bands main function is to reduce portions and hunger, so compliance to stopping at the 20 minutes is so important to achieving the smaller portion/calorie deficit which will aid your weight loss.
Firstly, I would time your mealtimes to assess how much you can eat comfortably within the 20 minutes whilst applying the 20+ rule. There are many Apps available to help with this such as “Eat Slower”
Then you need to start looking at reducing your portions accordingly. Sometimes we eat with our eyes and can find ourselves piling the plate back up, especially if it is a meal we really enjoy..!!!! Downsizing your plate is a must….This is a sure way to stop portions increasing again and saves on extra washing up..!!!
Goodbye main meals – hellooooo starter size ?
