Why do people consider weight loss surgery cheating?

You do NOT have to explain yourself to people.

You are taking care of your health and it sounds like you've put a lot of thought and consultation into the matter.

I think your family and friends care and may not want you to do something drastic (and all surgeries have a risk). I'll give them the benefit of a doubt that their concern is sincere.

However, since losing weight is not a game or a sport - there is no "cheating." Different things strategies work for different people. As you said, you still have to have a lifestyle change to make it successful and long-lasting.

Best wishes to you!

Please read the research about weight loss surgery and how it changes the hormone balances in a person's body quickly before making blanket statements that many commenting on this site know nothing about. There is excellent scientific research related to this surgery and how it can help seriously obese people. It is always done in conjunction with lifestyle changes including healthy eating, exercise, therapy and behavior modification if people follow through. How many people do we all know including myself that have gained and lost hundreds of pounds over the years? How healthy is that? By the way, I am not having the surgery but it was offered to me and i have considered it. I thought this site was for open discussion not judgement and putdowns.

I can't believe some ppl think its the easy way out. WlS is one of the hardest things to do. Your life will nvr be the same again. You no longer enjoy food.... You will nvr again get to feel the satisfaction of talking a gulp of water when you're super thirsty. You can nvr have candy or sweets again....and if you do there are horrible consequences! I don't enjoy going to social gatherings anymore bc they always involve some sort of food that I can't eat and it makes me feel like an outsider. The surgery was painful and there was a long long recovery. I still have to excerisize.... I still have to manage what I eat....even more so bc now it's really important I get lots of protien. I have to do what everyone else is doing to lose weight plus the problems from the WLS! But there was no way I could've done it without it bc I was addicted. I would tell ppl that this is the harder road to take and if at all possible to try to do it the normal way.

Maybe you can see why some of us would think it's not a good idea?


Everyone can do whatever they want with their lives. But this^? I wouldn't recommend that kind of life to anyone.

Its the cowards way out
when we are out here working our *kitten* off cuz we gotta lose weight- the real way

this ^^

No, not this.

How dare ANYONE on this website judge another person based on something that they know nothing about?

Weight loss surgery is a personal choice. Would it be the best option for me? No. I have no odd conditions that mess with hormones. My mother has hypo-thyroidism, making it difficult for her to lose weight, and has considered the surgery. I judged her like hell for it and wish now that I never, ever gave her a second glance about it.

It is a PERSONAL CHOICE. It is not for others to judge you on. You need to do what is right for you. What many, many people don't understand is that you have to be healthy when you've had the surgery. You HAVE to eat right. You HAVE to exercise to see the results.

My coworker just got the surgery done. She walks around the building on her lunch with her protein shake. She works out EVERy SINGLE MORNING before she comes to work - she does Turbo Fire and loves it. She got me into Turbo Jam. She is a fitness enthusiast but could never succeed in losing weight - she ALWAYS had the healthiest lunches in the office, never went into the breakroom for goodies.

Don't judge others. Focus on yourselves and do what's right for you. I give that advice to you, OP, and to the idiots that posted this nonsense above me. Speak not of what you don't know.

I don't care what you do but I'd just like to point out that people saying that they couldn't lose weight so they HAD to have a surgery are full of bologna. The surgery FORCES you to eat less calories. It takes the accountability away so you need to make life changes. Guess what, anybody can eat less calories to lose weight, whether they are forced to do so or not.

If you want to use surgery to help you on your journey, fine. But don't say it's because you had no other choice.

I agree. I have heard and read people say they have tried everything. Unlike the OP they didn't have medical problems working against them. The only thing working against them was their appetite and the couch. I truly believe that for the vast majority of people putting the fork down and moving more will ALWAYS yield results.

I always had that mindset until I recently saw what my friend had to go through to prep for the surgery & what she had to give up eating/drinking for the rest of her life. It's a rough process!! I no longer consider it a cheat or easy way out!!!

I came in here to say almost that exact thing. Until someone close to me did it I had no clue the effort and work they went through in addition to the surgery. MY opinion is that some people feel it's a cheat because it's a tool that they themselves can not or will not use. That has always been MY issue. Surgery isn't an option for me, for my own reasons. So for someone else to have access to a tool that I don't have is sometimes difficult to process.

But in the end, it's just another means to an end. Good luck to you!

I don't think it is cheating at all as long as it is the last resort and a decision supported by you and your team of medical professionals. I agree with the previous statements made about being honest. If you lost weight via weightloss surgury and lifestyle changes then own that.

I have PCOS (undiagnosed for years) as well and have always struggled with my weight. I have been successful with diet and exercise, but I know many woment with PCOS who are not. Don't let people and their opinions change how you feel about your decision.

Best of luck!

I had weight loss surgery and I had it because I was over 100 pounds over weight. I had tried every diet out there and none gave me the results I needed and or wanted. Who cares what folks think by saying you are cheating or it's a cowards way out. Screw them do what is best for you and your health. I was sick at first but I would do it again in a heart beat and for anyone making the statement that we are working our *kitten* off then they are not aware of what we go through as a WLS person. I am working my *kitten* off and will continue to work my *kitten* off for the rest of my life. I have lost a total of 200pounds and I am proud I did what I did for ME. Now for the next person I hope your low calorie and exercise works for you, but Gastric Bypass is one of the tools I have chosen to get me through this unhealthy life style. Now I can exercise and move like the next person and I eat a whole lot less. If I didn't have to have the surgery I would not have but since I did I am glad I did,:flowerforyou:

I have pcos and I never new it could mess with weight loss, I just knew about my lack of breastmilk production. I completely understand how hard it can be and a lot of stuff makes more sense now.

I only think it's cheating when people hoop and holler about how great it is that they lost a big chunk of weight without acknowleging the surgery being the main reason. Similar to me taking credit for walking 37 miles into work when I drove a car. I know people I work with that have lost 150 lbs after surgery, but act like they did it on a treadmill.


Own it. If it's part of your process at getting healthy, then who cares what they think.

I had a lap band and gained all I had lost pre-surgery and shortly post-surgery back and had to start all over again. Surgery is not a fix-all. It doesn't magically lose the weight for you while you sit back and continue to eat potato chips and ice cream. THIS is why people are mis-informed about surgery.

As someone who has lived with WLS for 5 years now, IT IS A TOOL. It is not a way to cheat, it does not make you lose weight, it isn't magic. It will help curb your hunger, but you will still have to make healthy food choice decisions and exercise. For me, it has been tough and not at all an easy fix because I had a revision on my surgery (the band port was painfully attached to my abs, so it had to be un-stapled and mounted to mesh and "glued" that way), and it makes me sick sometimes. There are times I'm eating and can't keep food down, I can't breathe because something gets stuck in my esophagus/airway (veggies usually), I vomit regularly, etc. But I also marathon train, lift weights, swim, and am aiming to do a sprint tri in the next year - all of which I tried to do, but couldn't seriously do, at 383lbs.

Surgery is not the end-all be-all. It is hard to maintain and takes hard work to use as a tool. It can be a very effective tool, but it does not fix bad eating habits or couch potato syndrome. It DOES fix overactive hunger hormones and helps with portion control.

Feel free to read my profile - I have always been active and always been overweight. 5 years post-surgery, I am within 5lbs of being in the "normal" BMI range for the first time since probably elementary school. I was 383lbs and at the gym as often as I could be in college. I have hypothyroidism. I have had eating disorders on and off. Not everyone who is overweight watches TV 10 hours/day and eats cookies and buckets of fried chicken.

If this is the avenue you choose and you and your dr have decided it's helpful, I say go for it and add me if you need support because there is a lot of ignorance when it comes to this topic. Even people on this site will read my profile and say to me, "I was SO excited to see your progress until I realized you had WLS". Who gives a flying rat's behind if I had WLS?! It HELPED ME like nothing before had including a lifetime of dieting and exercise alone. If it is the right decision for you, DO IT. If it isn't, don't. But don't let other people's opinions/negative views of WLS hinder your decision to get healthy, however you need to do it. I am living proof that there is light at the end of the tunnel after a lifetime of obesity.

I would take vomiting, stomach upset, and getting my band maintained ANY day over still weighing 383lbs. It's not easy, but IT IS WORTH IT.

I saw someone post about the diet you go on pre-surgery to lose weight first. I agree with that - if you can lose weight before the surgery...you can lose weight without the surgery. I know there are tons of people with PCOS that lose weight and get their homrones balanced without surgery. I myself have Hashimoto's Thryroiditis and have screwed up hormones from that which makes it hard to lose weight (it screws with more than just your thyroid hormones). Shoot...I gain weight just thinking about crap food! Well..at least I feel like I do.

At my heaviest I was 242 lbs...I probably could have gone down the surgery route but honestly it never even came to me as an option. While my condition contributed to very easy weight gain; the burgers, cakes, and other unhealthy greasy foods I was eating certainly were the problem in the end and me refusing to learn proper nutrition to help control my weight that did me in. I am now at 211 lbs and continuing. It's not that WLS is a coward's way out...but I think people use it too oten as a crutch to get around just going the slow steady way you should to correct what was done to your body.

At the end of the day though, it's your choice for your weight loss journey. Don't let anyone talk you out of something you have made up your mind to do if you feel it's the right thing to do.

Edited for dumb spelling errors

You lose weight pre-surgery because you drink 4 shakes/day which isn't exactly conducive or healthy for a permanent diet. It's 2-4 weeks and is designed to shrink your stomach, not provide nutrients to sustain life indefinitely.

You lose weight pre-surgery because you drink 4 shakes/day which isn't exactly conducive or healthy for a permanent diet. It's 2-4 weeks and is designed to shrink your stomach, not provide nutrients to sustain life indefinitely.

So you starve yourself pre-surgery so you can starve after surgery...? How is this at all good for your body to help correct anything? It sounds like you are slowly emaciating yourself. O_O

I can't believe some ppl think its the easy way out. WlS is one of the hardest things to do. Your life will nvr be the same again. You no longer enjoy food.... You will nvr again get to feel the satisfaction of talking a gulp of water when you're super thirsty. You can nvr have candy or sweets again....and if you do there are horrible consequences! I don't enjoy going to social gatherings anymore bc they always involve some sort of food that I can't eat and it makes me feel like an outsider. The surgery was painful and there was a long long recovery. I still have to excerisize.... I still have to manage what I eat....even more so bc now it's really important I get lots of protien. I have to do what everyone else is doing to lose weight plus the problems from the WLS! But there was no way I could've done it without it bc I was addicted. I would tell ppl that this is the harder road to take and if at all possible to try to do it the normal way.

Maybe you can see why some of us would think it's not a good idea?


Everyone can do whatever they want with their lives. But this^? I wouldn't recommend that kind of life to anyone.

It may not be a good idea, but it's certainly not cheating, especially if it's really that difficult to maintain afterwards.

So it's difficult to maintain and not a good idea. But it's not cheating.

Ok. I still think people shouldn't do things that are difficult, bad ideas.

Everyone keeps defending the surgery saying "I have to eat right! I have to exercise!!" Yeah. We all do. It's the part about having your stomach cut open and the chopping of the organs and belts and bands being installed in your body that I get caught up on.

Disclaimer yet again: Everyone do whatever they want. I just don't know why anyone would want that.

You lose weight pre-surgery because you drink 4 shakes/day which isn't exactly conducive or healthy for a permanent diet. It's 2-4 weeks and is designed to shrink your stomach, not provide nutrients to sustain life indefinitely.

So you starve yourself pre-surgery so you can starve after surgery...? How is this at all good for your body to help correct anything? It sounds like you are slowly emaciating yourself. O_O

Yes, it is a drastic cut in calories which is the whole point, especially pre-surgery.

Where did the "starve after surgery" come from? Does it make more sense for someone to be on a clean/healthy/filling 1200 cal/day diet post-surgery and active or to be 200lbs overweight?

I can't believe some ppl think its the easy way out. WlS is one of the hardest things to do. Your life will nvr be the same again. You no longer enjoy food.... You will nvr again get to feel the satisfaction of talking a gulp of water when you're super thirsty. You can nvr have candy or sweets again....and if you do there are horrible consequences! I don't enjoy going to social gatherings anymore bc they always involve some sort of food that I can't eat and it makes me feel like an outsider. The surgery was painful and there was a long long recovery. I still have to excerisize.... I still have to manage what I eat....even more so bc now it's really important I get lots of protien. I have to do what everyone else is doing to lose weight plus the problems from the WLS! But there was no way I could've done it without it bc I was addicted. I would tell ppl that this is the harder road to take and if at all possible to try to do it the normal way.

Maybe you can see why some of us would think it's not a good idea?


Everyone can do whatever they want with their lives. But this^? I wouldn't recommend that kind of life to anyone.

You hit the nail on the head. This is extreme. I could feel the hurt and pain in the post. You mean to tell me being overweight was worse than this??!