People Magazine - 1/2 Their Size Issues

[Boo 3]

Interesting! I reacted the same way and did NOT buy the issue! (even though I wanted to) How did their stomachs look like that???

[juliegeraci 7]

They didn't mentioned if any of them had plastic surgery. I too was shocked that most of them didn't have a stomach. Some of them run 10 miles a day to keep that thin. I have no idea how they could have all avoided plastic surgery.

[kyethra 0]

I did not see this magazine, but a magazine I subscribe to, Shape, which I generally like, does run one or two little profiles every month of women who have lost a lot of weight- not necessary half their size though, and how they did it and how they are keeping it off. One thing I have noticed is that none of the women in the magazine have ever had WLS. Now I like the magazine in general because it tends to be motivating and focused on health. Maybe they don't feature women with WLS because the majority of readers wouldn't get or be that overweight? And they want it to apply to all readers, even those looking to shed only 5-10 pounds? I don't know. Either way, it does make me a little sad because feel that I'm being excluded somehow too. I wasn't good enough to lose weight "the old fashioned way" and now that I'm losing it, the way I am isn't good enough. Plus how many morbidly obese people even know what the lab band is? Or the verticle sleeve? I sure didn't until not that long ago. Everyone knows about the gastric bypass, and maybe even the DS. The extreme surgeries. How many of us decided that wasn't the answer? Then I read a brief news article that mentioned a lap band thing. So I looked it up because I was curious. That was about a year ago now. I think the whole "no surgery" think makes people less aware about options that are out there (I'm explaining the band to doctors and nurses all the time).

[mcgreen 0]

The article didn't bother me- good for them for being able to lose that much weight! I hope that they are successful in keeping it off. I lost 70 lbs in college and gained it back + another person's weight over the next 15 years.

For some people it works, others it doesn't and they need extra tools.

The 2 things that struck me the most about the article was first that the majority of the people were under the age of 30 and 2nd - most of them exercise daily. I think the article did a bad job on focusing that the key was calories in <<< calories out.

I'm hoping one day to give up my belief that "I'll run only when chased by a person with a knife"

It does suck that more attention isn't given to people who undergo WLS- it is an effective tool for many and more publicity will help decrease the stigma that some associate with the surgery

[derbygirl 0]

As someone who wanted to have lap band for several years before I was able to afford it, those articles made me feel better back then. They gave me hope, and I'm sure that article will do that for many people.

I think surgery patients get as much good press as others.

[ragdollx19 1]

I used to buy those magazines too although they really didnt help me much. I saw the new one the other day and thought the same thing most of you did. Since when is surgery a gimmick, and even with surgery you still have to work for it or you will gain it back!

[TerriDoodle 6]

Also, woud love for them to do a follow up on the people they have profiled in the past number of years....how many have gained the weight back??

EXACTLY!! This board is chuck full of people who have successfully lost weight in the past...MANY times!! That's not the trick, is it? The trick is keeping it off. The vast majority don't.

Obesity is a subject that is just not well understood at all and magazine articles like this sure don't help. Oh well. Just add it to the list of pet peeves and be glad you're smarter than that.

[Daisalana 33]

Derbygirl- That's what I think. I only read People at my parent's, they normally have the latest issue. I remember one not too long ago I don't think (I didn't know they have titles for the issues), but it was a bunch of morbidly obese people who are now normal, all from dieting/exercise. I actually read it in secrecy, I was emberassed some reason, like if someone saw me reading it, they'd know I was about to fail yet another diet.. But I did read it, and it was the one with the girl who said all she did was walk 30m every day. I thought, "Yeah and Anna Nicole just takes TrimSpa". I'm always skeptical. The pictures were motivational, I wished I could do it. Been there done that, I can't. I'm not ashamed of getting WLS, I'm too damn excited to see my body shrink to a normal weight. I'm not emberassed to admit, if they could Lipo every inch of my body I'd have done that. (Maybe they can, don't tell me now!)

Desperate times call for desperate measures. If someone can lose weight doing x y or z, good for them. Here's a real low point, my brother is a drug addict and his fiance, use to be huge and then she was a beanpole (Now she's average). One night we were drunk and I asked her how she did it, and she said.. speed. So in all seriousness, I was actually asking her, would you have done it again? (She doesn't do speed anymore). And she was telling me the pros and cons of using illegal drugs for weightloss, and she flat out told me she wouldn't do it again, it was too hard to just quit. So I didn't. But if she had told me she would have done it again to lose the weight, I really would have thought about it. Desperate times. But thank God someone invented Lap-band for me to be able to safely lose weight.

To hell with media headlines!

[Daisalana 33]

One more thing, at the University of New Mexico, I had a biology teacher who was anti-fat people..and smokers. Now, being a morbidly obese person and a smoker, I took his class with a grain of salt. I didn't let it emberass me, in fact several times I would call him out on his ignorance.

Lucky for me, he liked controversy so it wasn't like an automatic failure. But he made it clear what he thought of me on a personal level (opposed to student-teacher level).

Every week he would bring in articles from the media, about obesity, smoking (and some other topics that didn't hit home for me).

He talked about the researches that show obesity is a gene, or obesity is inherited, etc. He said it was a bunch of crap. Obesity is the McDonald gene. If people didn't go to McDonalds, they wouldn't be fat. Same with smoking, he said.. If you smoke, you'll be fat. I know plenty of thin people who smoke (mom included). But he was hell bent saying smoking makes you lazy, and you'll become fat.. and the obesity researches are a bunch of propoganda to make 60% of the nation not feel as bad about being fat, giving them an excuse to sit around and do nothing about it.

He clearly has never been overweight a day in his life, to understand.

But that mentality is out there. That we look for excuses to stay fat, that we do it to ourself, that if we didn't want to be fat all we have to do is excercise. I'd imagine if I asked that teacher about WLS, he'd think it was an 'easy way out'.

[Paula78 0]

I totaly agree with the posts on here. Thats one reason I hate telling ppl I had the surgery to begin with, because they automatically assume it was the "easy way out." But believe me I am quick to point out that I have litteraly worked my ass off to get where I am. By eating right and excersing!