Voice changes

I am not a singer by any means, but I love to sing. My voice has changed considerably over the years after 3 pregnancies and, well, age. I am wondering how much of an improvement of my voice I can hope for after losing weight, if any?

A portion of my vocal chords were permanently damaged in 2012 when I had respiratory failure and was kept alive on a machine for a week with tubes in my stomach and lungs. I've not been able to sing ever since without my voice cracking so I'm not expecting any miracles in that regard. I am not going into it with any expectations but deep down I am hoping weight loss might free up some of the tension on my chords. 

Thoughts?

Are you working with a speech therapist or a vocal instructor?  The muscles that are involved in singing (and vocalizing in general) need stretching and conditioning just like any other muscle does, especially after an injury such as you've had!  A good vocal/speech therapist who understands how all of these muscles work should be able to help you recover.  

(Just note that not all therapists/instructors are created equally!)

I am a speech language pathologist and I doubt that WLS will change your vocal quality. Since the vocal folds were injured during your illness, there is only therapy to help. The vocal folds are surrounded by cartilage and not affected by excess fat. Good luck to you.

Then why do people in voice chat hear someone speaking and say "He/she sounds fat"? (I think it's an incredibly rude thing to say... also, how can someone "sound" fat?)

Those people sound like trolls. 

Because they are clueless.  No one "sounds" fat!

Lora

It is physiologically impossible to sound fat. I agree with you that is very rude comment. In my training, weight was never a therapy issue. Vocal folds are not 'fatty' tissue. People sound 'male or female' but not fat or thin. These comments regarding 'fat' are really sad.