Do you view someone's success differently if......

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  • marvybells
    marvybells Posts: 1,984 Member
    No, I do not. One of my dearest friends in this world had a gastric bypass. It was no picnic for her & definitely not an easy way out...

    We met in grade school and became best buds practically overnight. I was the skinny gal who could eat everything & not gain a pound, my friend was just the opposite. (Physically we may be polar opposites, but inside we are like 2 peas in a pod...) Through the years i watched her struggle trying to lose weight using diet and exercise, but she never seemed to make any progress. I know she was really trying hard and It broke my heart.

    After the surgery, I watched her struggle continue with a long recovery process. She had problems healing and was left with a nasty scar on her abdomen. For the longest time she had an inability to keep down more than a few bites of food. She tried to force feed herself protein supplements to make sure her intake was high enough (dr's orders) but it would make her sick. Sugar & fats seemed to be triggers and she could no longer tolerate alcohol. Sometimes literally just ONE bite of a certain food would make her sick. (In time this did go away and she can now eat "normal" sized portions but must continue to supplement with protein & vitamins)

    She never did reach her ultimate goal weight, she lost about 2/3 of it then got pregnant about a year after the surgery so the weight loss halted. Some of it came back on after 3 pregnancies, but she is still about half of the size today that she was prior to the surgery. She is able to be active with her kids & doesn't have all the health problems that she had before.

    So from my perspective, i know how tough my friend's journey was both pre & post surgery, and I'm extremely proud of her for what she has accomplished. If i see that someone had surgery i do not assume anything.
  • CarmenSRT
    CarmenSRT Posts: 843 Member
    There are a few people I know who had it because they were going to die soon without it. There are also a few people I know who deliberately gained until they met the surgical criteria. Not all surgical weight loss patients are equal.

    When people have surgeries that cause their bodies to not absorb portions of the calories they eat they have an advantage those who diet and exercise alone do not have. They report lower amounts of hunger on average as well. Would I like those advantages? Hell YES. It would make weight loss so much easier for me. I'm just not willing to gain weight to get the surgery.

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