Height

[CowgirlJane 14,259]

I am indifferent to this and while I can understand why it is interesting to people early on... I want to share this little story.

I weigh within 5 pounds of my best friend. She is 2" taller. Somehow, I am several clothing sizes smaller and have been deemed "thin enough" by pretty much everyone around me. She is normal sized, but has some visible excess fat. I have a muscular body type, I apparently carry weight differently and perhaps the lifelong obesity history makes me "heavier" on the inside so the scale/height/BMI thing is really just a rough guideline. Comparisons really can take the joy out of your successes because there is always someone who SEEMS better based on stats.

[2muchfun 8,927]

Let me be the contrarian here. Looking at this from a guy's point of view, I prefer to use the word "reference" in place of the word compare. We all know comparing oneself to another isn't an optimal way or logical way of gauging our progress. I like to say we should only compare ourselves to who we were yesterday or last year to who we are now. And for most of the WLS members, we're better off now than yesteryear.

I'd like to see some members post their gender. It makes a difference to me how to respond and how the surgery affects them. I'd also like to see their goal weight?

I would also like to see height and weight. Let's say it's a male, and he's 246 lbs. That's a lot of weight for a guy who's 5' 6" but not so bad if he's 6' 4". You could say the same for women. 170 lbs on a 5' 10" frame isn't nearly the same as it is for someone who is 5' 2". I'm not comparing people, I'm using stats to "reference" their progress or loss? And of course, these references are mearly generalizations.

When I see a profile and I only see 170 lbs, I have no reference to how far away they are from achieving their goal or reference how far they've come. jmo

Edited May 8, 2014 by 2muchfun

[PdxMan 4,292]

Oye ... 9 to 5 at this time in favor of having height displayed. I don't see how any good can come from this and only gives folks another method of comparing themselves ... something I feel strongly about. It's like giving an alcoholic and empty bottle of booze. The only thing they can do with it is beat themselves up with it.

*** Removing my height information from the profile ***

[CowgirlJane 14,259]

Ok PDX Man, that was funny and inspired me to vote too.

You know what I think would make a BIGGER difference? If people could see all the cool stuff in people's signatures when they use mobile devices. I realized a few months ago that people don't see the stats like ticker or the text that tell how much we have lost, dates of surgery etc in the siggie line.