just my opinion but...

i think you will find a wide variety of people here, some of whom have had WLS and maybe should not have had it, but c'est la vie. the so-called "lighteweights" who are 220 when they have it just boggle my mind. i NEVER would have thought about WLS when i was at that weight. i considered it at 280 but my doc was like "you're 22, you don't want to do that to your body" - so that was the end of that.  there are some people, like me, who were overweight from childhood and grew into obese adults. then there are quite a few people who were "normal" all their lives then gained 100 lbs where they got married at age 30 or after they had 2 kids. i think these two populations are very different - wanting to "go back" to being thin versus never knowing what thin feels like. i have never said i need to be thin - in fact i didn't really even have a goal weight - because i had no idea what i would look like as an adult at 220, 200, 180 etc. many people who have WLS talk about how its all about health and that's often how they justify it to people in their lives but then later, it becomes about being thin and looks. i hang out a lot of the plastic surgery board where people are upset that they don't have completely flat tummies after their tummy tucks when in reality, even normally thin people have a little pudge when they sit down. that's just the human body. i think people just get carried away once they start fitting into nicer clothes and getting more attention from the opposite sex. they want to look like we all think thin people look after the years of "suffering" with obesity. we don't want just normality, we was beauty. the body image issues, especially for those who have always been overweight, are very complicated and the social pressures don't help. i probably say something along the lines of "i'm so fat" like nearly everyday but i try to at least argue with myself and say that i'm not nearly as fat as i used to be. its all about small steps. okay i don't know where i'm going with this. i just felt the need to ramble a bit.

Andy, I just wanted to address your comment about body image.  I feel similar to you.  Even though I've lost all this weight, there are times when I feel just enormous, like what I look like is just not enough, what I've done in losing over 200lbs hasn't fulfilled me.  I find it harder to accept the way I look sometimes now, then I did when I weighed 428lbs.  It is a very hard, phsycological concept to understand.  I never, never thought I would be unhappy (unhappy isn't the right word, becuase I am happy about what I see, but don't know how else to phrase it) about my weight at this point becuase it is soooo much better then where I was.  BUT, the thing I think is most hard is just stepping out and living your life.  You literally have to feel (emotionally) so much more becuase you can live so much more now.  At 428 I stayed in my own little happy world-- work, home, famiily.  I didn't know what I was missing.  Now, it is so nice to do normal things-exercise, date, not worry about a chair breaking, clothes fitting, people staring, walking miles to a restaraunt because it just a beautiful day.  It's a lot to take in, in a short period of time.  I don't have these feelings very often, but there are days when they just consume me, and I just get so tired of trying so hard.  I admire people on this forum who just have this energy about them and their weight and the way they look no matter what.   I wish the confidence I feel about my work, my friendships, my family, my "life" decisions would rub off on my ideas of my self-image.  Sometimes those "not as good as I could be" thoughts just creep in.  But, I think that's just life.  I am still working on just accepting who I am.    Katy