I am writing in response to the banner on our website.  I haven't read the people magazine article...however i am extremely angry about the front covers disparaging stance towards surgery.

Surgery has been the ONLY thing that has worked for me.  I have been on diets since I was 8.  In the last 8 years, before being  diagnosed with PCOS and it was clearly flaring, I spent no less than $14K  on weigh****chers, Jenny craig, The Zone and South Beach.

Worse, most of these plans were very carby heavy (since they were low fat and making up for a lack of taste in other ways), and did nothing but continue to contribute to the problem.  On some plans  I would actually GAIN weight.

Surgery for me has resulted in weight loss on par with the effort/work put in.  It has given me significant results and has not tricked me (i.e. I follow the plan and I lose weight as compared to following the plan and gaining weight).  Unlike other conventional diet plans, IT HAS NOT ROBBED MY SAVINGS by requiring payment to attend meetings and purchasing of special foods.

I think i really hate the editors of People ...

I used to "do it with no gimmicks and no surgery" too.

I actually feel sorry for those ladies on those covers because there is at least a 95% chance that all of their weight will be back.  If not in one year, certainly by the end of five years.

For me, life after surgery has been pretty much the same as life before surgery, the only difference is that now the planning, calorie cutting, low carbing, weighing and exercise are working long term. 

i hear ya. It would be the worst to be on a magazine cover and have it all come back.

I was reading a book (cant remember what) and from an evolutionary biology approach we humans are all programmed to be "good starvers"  Seriously, the capacity to store fat/calories and lower metabolism in the case of famine as been programmed into us by evolution.

This "be thin but dont do it by surgery" double standard that society sets is one of MANY double standards that really gets my goat. Dont even get me started about the church's standard of "living together is wrong" but a widow's social security will be cut the second she marries a guy. I witnessed many old senior citizen couples that COULD NOT AFFORD TO GET MARRIED yet were SHAMED by society because they werent married.  Society should just have to select ONE standard and stick to it.

Any, i just get mad. Alcoholics/people needing kidney transplants are applauded for getting help/operations. Similarily, those of us on this board NEED the surgery and nutritional counseling that goes with it and we are shamed?

WTF!?!?!?

ugh!

I just could rail about this for hours!

I'll be honest, these articles/covers don't bother me in the slightest.   I think they're intended to be freak shows for slim people or those who only have 20lbs to lose to gloat and feel better about themselves.

I think anyone who is morbidly obese and has done this over and over again and are unhappy with their weight will eventually find themselves contemplating surgery.   

I would be more upset if they were doing articles that misinformed about WLS - ie recommending bands and "experiemental WLS's

The cover story I would like to see would say "They lost half their weight 6 years ago and kept it off without surgery or gimmicks"  I'll be that won't happen.

Years ago I used to work for Nutra System (I was thin then).  Anyway, we got a call from headquarter, all the centers did, asking us to go through our files and give them success stories.  By success stories they were looking for people who kept their weight off for at least a year.  We could not find a single one and neither could many of the other centers I knew of.  I think they abandoned that idea.

I look at my obesity in a sense like a chronic disease and I look at recovery in the 5 year range.  Before surgery I was told that only 5% of people are able to lose weight on their own and keep it off for 5 years.  I don't have the studies, that was just the number thrown around.

I am closing in on 5 years which is nothing short of a miracle to me.  Never before have I ever been the same size from even one year to the next.  I have NEVER worn the same article of clothing from one season to the next.

Now I actually store my clothes when the seasons change and pull out the clothes I had stored the year before and they actually fit.  I have jeans and other items of clothing that I bought in 2011!  Never happened before.  I have had to get rid of things because they had worn out instead of being outgrown.  Never happened before.  WLS may not be a cure but it gives me the best odds of beating obesity of all the current methods available.  I still have to do the work but it is a tool that gives me a fighting chance.

People magazine would have far more of a chance of finding people who have lost the weight and kept it off for over 5 years if they looked at people who had surgery than they would if they excluded them.

Love this post!!

The reason they exclude the best chances of long term control of the health issue of obesity is because the article isn't about finding a solution for a health epidemic.  It's about shaming people who don't look acceptable to their standards. 

You are right on!

EXACTLY!!  Very well said Kat