What do you think? " Tell me how much you've lost"

I have noticed that I have one area where I get really reactive to people.   It is when they ask me how much I've lost.  This question irritates me and my wife thinks I need to figure out what it is about me that irritates me with tihs question.  I can handle most comments but the "how much have you lost?" straight out question bothers me and I'm not sure why.  It seems rude to me.  However, it may be that I am embarassed or something.  I don' tknow.  WHat do you think?

Stephan - I'm the same way!  I think for me it is definitely the embarrassment of how big I was.  It was cool to say I had lost 30 or 50 pounds but somewhere it became too difficult to admit that I was that much overweight.  Now, if I tell people I've lost 95 pounds, I imagine they're thinking "Damn, he was a fat ass!".  My wife says I need to just get over it but it's a mental thing.

 that was hilarious haha

I think you got it wrong, look them straight in the eye I lost 50 or 100 ponds.  Take pride in the fact you are losing and people notice it.  I love telling people who I am when they don't know who I am.  Enjoy it.  At work, I still scrounge the chow hall for others to find them a decent meal.  I'm a former fat guy and proud to say it.  I think you aren't use to people paying positive attention to you.  Wait till the pretty ladies pay attention to you or flirt with you.  Man, you need to adjust the attitude and go with the flow and take pride in what you are doing.  Those people will ask and say have you seen Stephan, he looks great, he lost 50, 100 pounds.  Take it as a compliment and run with it.  Learn to be a positive loser(of weight). 

Thanks for the comments but I've never really had a problem with attention.  In fact, I've always kind of been the life of the party or the center of attention.  It is really cool now to have women ooh and ahh over my new look.  I work at a pretty good size company and went out to visit another department I don't see regularly.  Three of the ladies came over to give me hugs and squeezes while complimenting me on the weight loss.  Definitely an ego booster!!

I am new to the board and I am very glad to find that their is a section designated to Men.  I am a resident of Ontario and have applied with Ontario Health Insurance Plan (better known as O.H.I.P.) to pay for the RNY Surgery in the States.
I have attended a conference held by a Surgeoun in the States but as I am not sure if it is permissable to mention his name on this board yet I will keep that out of my post. 

I can not speak to the direct question of why the question "how much have you lost?" bothers you as I have not lost any weight.  However, I can relate it to other issues that have come up from time to time in my own life and give your a possible answer. 

As a man we do not discuss such things.  We also see weakness in things we should not.  At times in my life, I have wanted to move on and felt that what I was before did not matter.  That the weaker me of that time was behind me and that I wanted to let it go and move on in my life.  I was not ashamed of what I was at the time, I simply felt that the newer me was stronger and to awknowledge my weaker self was a weakness of its own.  

Does that make any sense?  

What I needed to do is to recognise that the person then was the person who made the person today.  That they were not weak at all , that they found an obstacle and they overcame it and the person today is better off because the person of yesterday was a very strong person and I should be very proud of them and thier achievements.  

And for the record , no I do not have a split personality disorder.  LOL 

I don't know if that helps or confuses things.  Just thought I would give my input. 

Those who know me well know that it's ben up and down even since I had my first RNY.  I was 571 and went all the way down to 336 before I started to regain weight.  I had a staple line disruption which wasn't discovered for 4 years. I had a revision RNY at 420 4 years ago but I only got down to 380 due to that surgery with mental / emotional problems.  I later lost 20 lbs 2 years later due to exercise. I regained that weight plus a litle due to poor eating habits. Now I'm losing again following the techniques in the Beck Diet Solution.

So, it really depends on when people last saw me. People who knew me in college would be shocked that I'm this huge-I was 175 when I graduated college and 190 when I got married 2 years later. I was about 265 when I retired.  So, there are a lot of people who would be shocked at how big I am.  More recent friends as well as family are aware of my various weights.

The changes that others see after you've lost 50-100 lbs are dramatic. When you're right in the middle of it you don't really see what they see. But the shock will continue as you keep losing size. After you stop losing weight and settle in at your new weight and size, people who knew you before tend to forget what you use to look like and don't even notice it any more. New people you meet will never even have any idea of the journey you have taken. Then it's up to you if you want to "shock" them by disclosing your weight loss.

I actually don't get that question very often.  I get "Wow, you've lost ALOT of weight", which sort of is a leading question to get you to tell them "how much".  Personally, I don't mind, heck I even will volunteer the information sometimes:  "Wow, you've lost ALOT of weight", "Yep, 120 pounds!"  Personally, I look at it as an achievment to be proud of. 

hmmm...people who knoew me big, just say you look great..but when i'm telling others that did no see me before..I think the number of pounds is the universal thing...it's still hard for them to wrap their head around...

I go...i've lost 205-210# depending on the day...and it still takes explaining..it's pretty cool...