What would you say in response?

I've been very open with everyone about having vsg surgery and I don't regret it.  However,  I often find myself at a loss for words when people tell / warn me about their relative, friend,  acquaintance,  celebrity... who had wls surgery ... usually not sure what kind ... lost a lot of weight but gained it back.  

I usually say that I hope that doesn't happen to me.  I think I've changed my bad habits.  Shut up!  It is my great fear,  but I want to have better,  more positive responses.   

What do you say? 

I think a great response would be, "Gee that's too bad."  You don't owe them anything else.  What happened to the person they know is more than likely because of their poor decisions, not the WLS.

I've heard it too. I just say that is them, not me. For every 1 who has regained, countless others have succeeded.

My first response to that has been, "what type of surgery did they have?"  Many people in the past had bypass surgery so when they say, "bypass," I just say go and read up on the Sleeve.  Typically most people have no idea what it is and they either go silent or ask me questions about sleeve surgery. Either way, the conversation has switched and they walk away either having learned something new or feeling rather stupid.  Might not be the nicest way to handle it but when someone is basically telling me they think I am going to fail, being nice isn't my primary concern.  Typically, the people who say these kinds of things to me, are obese themselves and looking for any excuse they can to not do something about their weight.  If one person they know failed, then everyone who has a weight loss surgery will fail too (at least that's what they tell themselves)

No one has ever said that to me. If they did, I would probably ask for clarifying details. Most of those stories are shaggy dog stories, such as, "My best friend's cousin's uncle's next-door-neighbor's dog had surgery, ate grits, and exploded". The person telling the story is so far removed from the person they are talking about that they know nothing. They are fear mongering.

Or you could go the science route. Quote statistics back at them. Statistics about regain, statistics about health issues from staying obese, et cetera.

If you don't want to do any of that, give the person a blank stare. Keep staring until he or she stutters into uncomfortable silence and slinks away.

I'd be straight up "do you realize that what you are saying to me is undermining everything that I've done and am continuing to do on a daily basis to take control of my health and weight??  Honestly if you can't be supportive I'm curious why say anything at all?"

True story I've said this and stopped ALL that BS.

Ms Shell

Ms Shell I love your response and I plan on using it!  My sleeve is scheduled for 11/3.

"Aw, that sucks." And change the subject. 

This literally happened to me about an hour ago, I was walking out of the office to go to Whole Foods to grab some lunch. I got on the elevator and someone I knew said "wow man you look great!" - I said thanks, I'm down over 100 lbs now, another person on the elevator who I don't know - and who was clearly overweight said, "Wow, what are you doing?" - I responded with, "I got the gastric sleeve" - I get this look of disappointment from him followed by "Oh, I've heard bad things about that". I responded with "Well everyone is different so I'm sure there are some horror stories out there but, you typically don't hear much from the people it went well for.".

As I walked to my car I thought how ironic it was for him to make that judgmental face then have a retort that indicated what I did was such a bad thing. I don't bother to dig deeper with people like that, they are entitled to an opinion no matter how misinformed it is. I wanted to say you know what else is dangerous, me having a BMI over 50 - but, had I been standing in the elevator at that weight, would you have publicly passed judgement on it - likely not. 

I too am open about it and pretty much anyone who is friend know's I've had it (just from the Facebook posts, etc..) but, it's always interesting when someone who doesn't know you passes judgement so quickly on something that is such a personal choice. 

my ex pcp (nurse practitioner)  told me when I ask for a referral that my stomach would blow up , I insisted on the referal and after getting it changed to a diffrent doctor that is pro wlw (I fould out after changing that this new doctor is my nuts partner's brother and she gives classes on weight loss at the doctors office 

do you be-leave a medical professional saying that my stomach would burst