Great Debate Part 2-Tolerance

ok, so here is one for you to really think about After WLS, do we become more intolerant of overweight people?  For instance, do we become more short when our friends when they complain about how they can't lose weight? When we ourselves did the same thing?  Excersise, we know when we were 300lbs that just getting up out of a chair was an effort...so have we become hippocrits now???? to the point that our answer to everyone is get the surgery, you will feel 100 times better? I mean, how long did we debate the question before we took action? something to think about

if anything, I think I have become more sympathetic with overweight people.  I mean I'm still considered morbidly obese even after 120 pounds lost.  I may become a bit more matter-of-fact with them and point out what they are doing and NOT doing to get better.  I am a firm believer that people CAN be overweight AND be healthy.  If I was a healthy person at 500 pounds I would have never considered the surgery at all.  Like I always tell me friends....there is a HUGE difference between being fat and being fat and in shape.

i used to hate fat people, including myself. but after struggling so hard to lose the weight and become a different person, I realize that in alot of cases, there are forces controlling that person that they don't have the ability to overcome. realizing that thin people just don't spend all day keeping themselves from eating, i have sympathy for anyone who can't stop eating. even after surgery, i still struggle every day to do the right thing. judging others for not being able to do it is just not in me. i feel sad for them and hope that they find a better life for themselves and if they want info on rny, i give it to them but i never say to someone that is the only way to go. it took me a long time to come to that decision and it came by my own decision, not someone telling me.

My family, on my dad's side, is overweight.  I don't think I have become intolerant of those who are overweight.  I always used to envy my younger half sister.  She may have put on lbs here and there but always could work hard and get it off.  Guess she just has a different metabolism then I do.  The only ones that I don't understand are the ones you see on tv that have hit close to 1,000 lbs.  I do wonder how "they let themselves get like that".  I don't pity them, but do understand that there is a food addiction or something else(mentally, physically) there and that there definately could be a more underlying reason for their weight gain and not being able to do anything about it.  I know from experience, you gain, you get depressed, you eat, you gain...etc...its an ongoing cycle.  Will I push the surgery on anyone, no.  Its their choice, but I will voice my opinion on it.  It was the best thing I have done for myself and I know it works.  Its difficult, but its the tool I needed to get my life back to where it should be.  I got to see one of my younger brothers last night for the first time since March and the first words out of his mouth were "damn, yeah, you've gotten smaller".  Definately words to keep me going.  So, will I judge someone because they are overweight, NO, I have been there and didn't like it when I was judged.

Intolerent - no.  Sympathetic - yes.  If they ask me, I tell them.  However, that being said, I wait tables part time and when I serve those enormous plate-full (and more) of food to a morbidly obese person, it doesn't stop me from thinking - what the heck are you doing to yourself?  I always keep  my mouth shut.  And, for those of you that know me, that is a really hard thing for me to do.

No, I do not feel intolerant. I have always felt and continue to feel that this is such a personal thing. It is so complex. There are so many factors that led us and others to this point. There are some common themes as well. For those that I care about, I only hope that they find the path that is right for them because I care about their overall health. I do not want them to get as bad as I was. At the same time, I would never preach or look down on them. That does not help. But I am here to support them in any way that they ask me and I will continue to ask them to support me as well. I realize this battle is forever.    I do feel intolerant of those who have never had a weight problems and exhibit intolerance themselves. They have no idea what harm they inflict.

Just my opinion.....but I think on some level we are all a little intolerant of overweight people. Not on a mean nasty cruel level but I think on the level that since we decided to make the change we wonder why they won't or haven't done it yet. I think that occasionally I forget just how long and hard the whole process was for me to come to the conclusion of WLS and actually following through with it. I do have compassion and understanding, I just sometimes forget just how hard it is to DO it.

This is something I actually ponder a lot. I guess I just feel sorry for each and every one of us who are in this struggle. Though I am still pre-op I realize I have a good option to get to a normal weight waiting for me very soon. I just know the pain (or assume I know the pain) both physical and mental they may be going through and wish no one had to feel that. 

I find I am tolerant, in fact, I still have times where I totally see myself as that morbidly obese person.  I know I'm no longer that size, sometimes my head forgets it though.  I work in the healthcare field and there are many occasions I am taking care of people that are morbidly or super-morbidly obese I think "Thank God this isn't me".  It makes me sad.  It could have been me.  I have found if I tell someone I know what it's like to be morbidly obese, they don't believe me. I am so glad I have had this opportunity to change my life.

Not sure if for me it is fear rather than intolerance.  I see myself with a weakness.  I have no control over my body, and as I continue the pre-surgery diet I become afraid that if I slip up, I will "look like that".  It is not hipocritical, it is human.