Upset...

[Rosaura 4]

I was told by my close friend that I was taking the easy route ... Easy route???? It is not, the surgery is a tool that we need. I am soooo happy I did it. Surgery date, 8/14 and 30 lbs down..no plus size for me, I am wearing a size 14 jeans,,,,, loving the new me.

I told that close friend, my son, my daughter, my mom and my husband.

Let me tell you that my family members including my sister have not said a word about my weight loss.... How about that? You don't have to tell the world.

[Nurse_B 270]

I also have people in my life who aren't being supportive. The funny thing is, I didn't ask them for their opinions, I simply told them I was having surgery. I made the decision to tell a few close friends, my family, and co-workers. I have a lot of people I don't want to know, but the ones I did tell, I told for the simple reason I need support. One of my friends also thinks I took "the easy way out". She has no idea, nothing about this is easy!! Ironically, she is jumping head first into every fad diet in hopes of finding an easy and fast weight loss. I'm not interested in an easy way, a fast way, a small change, etc. I am looking to be healthy and this is the route that I am taking in order to do that. Losing weight, and in a fashion that is faster than other ways is simply a bonus. I hope your friends start leaving you alone, its scary enough in our brains before surgery, we don't need it from others!!

[kimclow08 8]

I know in the end, I will end up telling a ton of people. I teach in a high school. I have told some people in my department that I am close with, but what about my students? I don't want them to worry about me while I'm gone. I'm really close with my students.

I'm hoping for a spring break surgery. I may just tell them the day before vacation starts.

[Leederz 49]

Psh forget them. That's what ppl were telling me too. They shut up now that I lost all that weight lol. No one really even brings it up anymore.

[MetroDetroitChic 86]

My doctor gave me a fabulous statistic, that for me, really puts things in perspective, and helps calm the nay-sayers:

"Stunkard and McLaren-Hume's 1959 study of 100 obese individuals, which indicated that, 2 y after treatment, only 2% maintained a weight loss of 9.1 kg (20 lb) or more (1). More recently, a New England Journal of Medicine editorial titled Losing Weight: An Ill-Fated New Year's Resolution (2) echoed the same pessimistic message." Source: http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/82/1/222S.full

I have one hundred pounds to lose. If only 2% of dieting folks are successful with 20lbs, how successful do you think I would be at losing 100lbs??? Do those people think I am magically in the top 2% percentile of weight loss capability? Um yeah, probably not.

One more statistic, from Wikipedia:

"In general, the malabsorptive procedures lead to more weight loss than the restrictive procedures; however, they have a higher risk profile. A meta-analysis from University of California, Los Angeles, reports the following weight loss at 36 months:[5]

Biliopancreatic diversion — 117 Lbs / 53 kg

Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB) — 90 Lbs / 41 kg

Open — 95 Lbs/ 43 kg

Laparoscopic — 84 Lbs / 38 kg

Vertical banded gastroplasty — 71 Lbs / 32 kg

The maximum weight loss occurs in the first 10 months after surgery. More recent studies have demonstrated that the medium (3–8 years) and long term (> 10 years) weight loss results for RYGB and LAGB become very similar.[23] However, the range of excess weight loss for LAGB patients (25% to 80%) is much broader than that of RYGB patients (50% to 70%). Data (beyond 5 years) for sleeve gastrectomy indicates weight loss statistics similar to RYGB."

.. So there you have it. I'm not doing this because its easy. I am doing this because it will work. I am doing this because I don't want to putz around for the next decade trying to diet and winding up as a failure. I want my life back and this is statistically the best option I have available to me.

-Beth