Portion Size vs. Calories

So I have a question.

I usually eat about 350 calories for dinner. Well tonight I had two cups of soup (200cal) and a sandwich (about 150cal). After I ate my sandwich and started eating my soup, my stomach just felt like it was expanding to the max. It's not that I was not hungry, it's just that I guess I felt full/bloated from all the water in the soup.

Is this normal? Should I try to make the mass of food I eat less? Or does it not matter as long as I stay within my calorie intake limit.

It just sucks that after every meal I eat my stomach always expands and makes me look bigger than I really am. Does this go away eventually?

If you take in a lot of volume you'll feel full.  Soup is generally low calorie but the liquid is very filling.  If you don't like feeling stuffed to the nines adjust your food choices towards more low-bulk, energy-dense foods.  200 cals of ... what shall we say?... peanuts? would be just over an ounce, for example.   And then you could sip water to get your fluids.

maybe the bloating was from the sodium in the soup. just a thought.

i think the bloating does goes away after a while.

and i don't think the mass of the food needs to change. maybe just save the sandwich for later. i have had problems with purging if i feel too full (along with all sorts of other ED things, but that's beside the point), so to combat that, i have tried to start eating very small portions spaced out through the day. this helps me avoid getting too full and also the big bloated stomach that would scare me so much :)