Everything comes in time. It took a while for me to comfortably eat salad and about 10 months for me to eat much meat. Even now I can't eat more than a few bites of meat at a time. It will come. When you eat something "not super soft" as you said, feeling full is normal. Chewing it until it is mush is what will make it really soft and digestible. Chewing to mush is what I still have to do even at almost 5 years. Our pouches are designed to keep us from wolfing down unchewed food. Chewing to mush and eating only until we begin to slightly feel full is crucial to avoid the pain and discomfort of under chewing and over overeating. Everyone sheds weight at a different rate so there is no "normal" although the rate does naturally low down over time. Celebrate every pound you no longer have to carry around! Congratulations!

I love salad! I could hardly wait until my pouch would accept lettuce and cucumbers. I was about 8 moths out before I could eat and digest a salad but, everyone is different so take it slow.

I am 10wks postop and even though it was not a soft food, I did eat some lettuce at about week 7, not alot but a kiddie size salad of just lettuce with a little dressing. I was constipated from so much protein and I felt I needed a little fiber! I would eat a little cheese or thin sliced chicken or ham deli meat with mine so I was also getting some protein. I seem to do real well with the lettuce. I am still having difficulty with meats...I do ok with deli meat, canned chicken or albacore tuna in a pouch, I can also do meatloaf, ham slice and a moist skinny little burger but to eat chicken or pork chop, I can only do about 3 bites, I even have a hard time with fish yet. Good Job on your weight loss! I am down 40 I thought I would loose more by now but as long as I am loosing I will take every pound I can get! I figure by loosing lower amts I am not loosing as much muscle . Good Luck!

Congrats on your loss! As Lcat said, there isn't really a "normal" weight of weight loss. At 8 weeks, I'd lost 46 lbs, and my dr. was okay with it, so you don't need to worry that you are losing too quickly.

My program allowed all foods "as tolerated" after 4 months, so that's when salads entered my diet again. However, I don't swallow anything that doesn't chew to a liquid and sometimes salad just chews up into a wad (so I have to spit it out).

Right now it is important that you get in enough protein (70-80 grams). It is important because if you don't give your body the protein it needs through food/drink, your body will eat your muscles! The same principal works with carbs... if you don't give your body what it needs though food/drink, your body will take what it needs from what it has stored - fat. In other words, your body will burn the energy from the crackers you eat before it burns the excess fat.

In order to utilize our new tool to the fullest extent possible, we need to think of food as fuel. We don't have room in our pouches for anything else, especially during the first several months. Yes, dense protein (meat) fills us up in a few bites. That is kind of the point. Crackers and other "easy to eat" foods are called "sliders" because they slide right through the pouch. Better to eat 4 bites of chicken or fish and be satiated for several hours. None of us is going to starve during the first several months post-op. Our bodies have stored enough energy for such a time as this!

The really full feeling or pain is because you are eating too quickly, haven't chewed your food thoroughly enough, or have eaten too much. Egg salad and tuna salad (low fat mao) were great foods during the first several months post-op.

You have an amazing year ahead of you!

JJ

Like everyone said, normal is different for everyone. Also, don't forget to take measurements regularly, not just look at the scale. I went months at a time where I didn't lose any weight, but dropped a shirt or pants size.
I had the sleeve, not a bypass, but since my sleeve, I can't eat lettuce salads without being scoured out the next day. I can eat all kinds of veggies, cabbage, cooked kale, spinach and other greens, but if I eat a big pile of fresh greens, I'm in the ladies 10 times the next day.
Have the same problem if I eat way too high fiber too, so I suspect that's the culprit.