WLS surgery reactions from friends/co-workers

I don't need to add much here, because everyone else said it all - but I think the sweetest revenge to all of these idiotic comments is keeping your weight off.  I'm 6 years out and still at goal.  I have a co-worker that ended our friendship because I had WLS (she herself is morbidly obese).  Everytime I run across her at work looking the same as I did 5 years ago always feels good to me.  There was nothing I could do to change her perception...so I just kept on keeping on....

People come and go in our lives.  Now the newer people at work don't even know I was once 300+ lbs.  It's kind of fun to catch their funny looks when they see my wedding picture on my desk...like..."who is that?"  I don't hide anything if it ever comes up.  I usually just say...oh I was once a lot heavier.  If they press...I tell them and usually they don't pursue it any further.

Also...the novelty will wear off.  I was the poster girl for awhile...but not anymore.  People will move on to another topic.  And that is just fine with me.

Good Luck!

I have always been pretty private about my weight as well, but when it comes to surgery I am pretty open about it. I believe Elena said it earlier about taking it on a case by case basis. I know there are people in my life that don't necessarily want to hear about it, so I don't talk to them about it. Most people, however, are very supportive.

I have had people start to talk to me about how it is the easy way out and then when I tell them that I had surgery suddenly their story changes. I am going to be honest and say that before I researched the surgery and what not, I too thought it was the easy way out. I couldn't understand why people would have to have such a drastic procedure done, why couldn't they work out more. and that was all coming from an uninformed mind. It wasn't until I did my research and talked to people that had had surgery that I realize how ignorant and naive I was. Now that I am on the other side of the fence, obviously I see thing differently.

Like I said I am pretty private so no I don't just tell every person I come in contact with that I had surgery, but if the discussion comes up, I won't deny it or not be honest about it. Obviously, once you start losing weight and people notice you have to decide what you are going to say. I recently had that happen. I saw someone I hadn't seen in a year and she was going on and on about how good I looked and how much weight I had lost and then she started asking what I was going to lose the weight. Of course I told her I had surgery because I don't think it is fair to say I have been working out and eating better when that may be true, but that is not how I lost 100+ pounds. It is all about how comfortable you feel with the people you are talking to about your weight. If you aren't comfortable around certain people, don't talk about it, when they comment on your weight say thanks.