Bariatric Portion Sizes

Updated August 2023

How much do I eat of this? How much does this recipe make?

Portion sizes after surgery- the most common question?

“How much should I be eating now?”

“When a recipe says it makes 4 servings, how do I know what the size of the serving is?”

Clear as MUD isn’t it?! There are some things Google just doesn’t get to the bottom of.

In this quick article, let’s dive into portion sizes and recipes quantities.

>> For even more on the conversation around Macros after Bariatric Surgery, Click Here 

We’ll divide this conversation into two chunks:

Chunk one – how much should you eat?

Chunk two – how to determine recipe amounts 

How much should you eat?

Every bariatric program differs greatly in portion size recommendations.

You might have been told to eat 2 tablespoons during your pureed diet after surgery. Maybe you were told to only eat half a cup so many months afterward. This works for some, but it’s not foolproof.

In my decade plus as a bariatric dietitian, I’ve never given set portion sizes to patients. Wait! Don’t roll your eyes at me yet. Let me explain and you just might prefer this style.

Both personally and professionally, I’ve found a blanket approach doesn’t provide enough wiggle room for individual cases. I prefer a more mindful approach to portions.

Instead, I recommend a ratio approach to eating. When you eat Two bites of protein to one bite of vegetable (or fruit or complex carb) it allows what I call “structured flexibility.”

It provides structure that keeps proteins as the focus and fiber as the secondary focus. However, it keeps things flexible and allows you to trust your natural body cues to stop at the right portion for you.

As it turns out, that amount might change with different foods and different days. We need it to be more flexible than a set portion size. 

This rule of thumb is helpful no matter how long it’s been since your surgery. It can grow naturally as time goes on – because it will.

If this brings up even more questions for you, check out this article on my 2:1 Protein Method and why I prefer it to the Bariatric Meal Plate method.

How to use Bariatric Food Coach recipes when portion sizes differ for each person

Many of my recipes will say it provides 4 servings. This is a guide to help someone know how much food to expect. However, I am not telling you how much you are supposed to eat from the recipe.

It’s helpful to know how much food to expect for planning purposes. Do you need to increase the recipe to feed more people? How many meals can you get out of this recipe? If you’re cooking for one and don’t want to eat four portions of the same meal, you can split the meat over two recipes. I talk about this in my Cooking for One course.

Use the servings on Bariatric Food Coach Recipes as a guide to know how much food to plan for, but not a guide for how much you need to limit yourself to eating.

How to determine how much food a recipe will make

If you don’t know, there is a quick math equation to help you determine how much food a recipe will make. Whether it’s here on this website or elsewhere.

That means 4 ounces of chicken becomes 3 ounces of chicken after it’s been cooked.

If a recipe calls for one pound of chicken, it would make four 3-ounce servings. 

Let me break it down quickly:

16 ounces in a pound

One pound of chicken or beef = 16 ounces

After cooking, 16 ounces x .75 = 12 ounces

12 ounces divided by 4 servings = 3 ounces in a serving

Keep it simple

It can quickly become confusing or overwhelming when calculations and numbers get involved with our food. Food labels start to look like a foreign language. When you start to feel overwhelmed with it all, try to keep it simple. (Members can watch my video course on reading nutrition labels after weight loss surgery for help!

Put protein on your plate first, and then a vegetable. (Sometimes it’s mixed together).

Eat two bites of protein for every bite of vegetable to fill up more protein. Pause in between your bites and listen to your natural cues of where to stop eating. Turns out, that’s how you can find the portion size right for you.

If you prefer to use a food scale to know how much you ate, try this:

Weigh your food before eating, following the 2:1 Protein Method and stop at fullness.

Then weigh your food again.

If you do this after a few meals you’ll have a better gauge of how much your pouch is typically comfortable with.

You’ll likely find it ebbs and flows depending on the texture of the protein, the time of day, how quickly you ate it and so on. Though it’ll still give you a good general idea of your the quantity your pouch most commonly fills up with!