Because I eat huge salads every day and drink a ton of water and keep shrinking. I'll have two whole squashes/zucchini as an appetizer before dinner.

Think of the CALORIES not the VOLUME.

im very much a volume eater too...i would MUCH prefer a huge healthy salad over something very small and more dense in calories

I think of it the other way around. If I feel bloated, I drink a lot of water to flush it out. And I would much rather spend 20 minutes eating a huge salad then one minute eating something small with just as many calories. I try to bulk up my meals in terms of volume while keeping the calories low so that I feel satisfied after the meal. I hate the feeling of "OMG, THAT little bite was 200 calories!!"

I tend to be a volume eater, too, which I have had to limit to not overstuff myself. Calories matter, so I try and spend them wisely, but I'm now realizing that satiety matters even more!

I'd rather eat a lot of volume in 200 calories, then something minimal and not satisfying

Ditto to all of the above!

I don't find that drinking a lot of water or eating a huge low calorie pile of veggies makes me bloated. Actually, the more regularly I drink water, the less bloated I end up feeling. A huge plate of salad might make me feel very full for an hour at most, but it doesn't make me feel gross and bloated.

I understand what you're saying but unless you're running around in a mid drift or bikiini I have to question what difference it makes?

Also - for me anyways - the composition of the food I eat makes a difference. For example carbs tend to bloat my belly much more than protein or fat. So perhaps you can experiment and find out if there are foods or a food group that will bloat you more than others.

For me, calories are the main focus and I don't really mind a flat stomach, in fact I LIKE a flat stomach lol.

For me, it is the composition of the food that has to do with if I feel bloated, but I almost never do feel that way. Being hydrated and careful with carbs AND calories precludes this.

I am not really interested, though, in having a large volume of food so much as feeling happy and satisfied with my choices.

I will completely second this. If the absolute only thing I ate during my day was one little mini reeses and I would have a huge bloated stomach all day. On the other hand, eggs for breakfast, a salad bigger than my head, a bowl of homemade chili and 80+ ounces of water during the day (before dinner) and there is no change in my stomach and my weight will be lower than it was in the morning...and I will be a much happy person because I'm not starving.

When my health problems were just starting to get diagnosed, one of my doctors recommended a symptom log (which included a diet log) and I started seeing that diet affected my symptoms.

It really hit home (there in black and white on the pages in front of me) that high-volume foods that were also low in calorie provided so many health benefits, that I really needed to concentrate on eating the food that gave me the most volume for the calorie.

The low-volume/high-calorie foods also had the worst health impacts - so I started seeing "concentrated" food sources as being far inferior to "diluted" foods. Those with a lot of water and fiber for few calories.

The book "Volumetrics" really helped me see this connection. Eating more to lose more (eating more volume and fewer calories) has truly changed my life.

The only time I can get into the "small food" mindset, is on weigh-in day at my TOPS meeting. I find myself eating "lighter" food during the day (because I don't want the weight of the undigested food showing up on the scale).

I remind myself that this is silly though, because volume/mass doesn't matter in the long run.

I understand what you are saying. The dreaded "food baby"!
In the past, I've gotten into the same head space--and avoided eating all day to keep my stomach flat, then pigged out when I got home.
I'm trying not to do that this time.

Try to avoid salty foods- one tablespoon of soy sauce and I feel like a parade balloon.