Anyone else exceptionally pissed by the People magazine article?

You have that absolutely correct! It is a financially lucrative business. Why would they want us to actually lose and keep it off long-term? They would lose $$$. It sickens me the shaming that goes on. I have tried dozens of ways to lose weight. I did lose 200 pounds at one time, but - after exactly five years - it came right back on except for 30-ish pounds. I feel WLS is the only way I will regain my health. I don't understand why WLS is so taboo or shameful. I feel obesity is a disease. I have a family member who thinks obesity is a choice. She's misinformed in my opinion. Why would I choose physical pain every day, high blood pressure, and the other glorious ailments that accompany obesity? (A bit of sarcasm there lol). I cannot even lie down to sleep without feeling like I could die. Why do some people believe obesity is a choice? I am simply speaking from my experience. Anyway, I believe the diet industry to just be a scam focused on profits, not truly helping those with weight issues.

A friend and fellow WLSer (she's spoken at OH events) Diana Vogel started a petition. Here's some info: https://www.facebook.com/TheWorldAccordingtoEggface/posts/10 154994895520710

I don't really have a problem with it.  I simply read it as, "All else equal, maintaining a healthy body weight without surgery is the best path."  Frankly I agree with that.

Well sure, but I can also say, "all things equal, maintaining a body free from cancer without chemotherapy is the best path."  

Of course. 

But, frankly it's irrelevant for those who have cancer ... much like touting maintaining a healthy body weight to people who are already morbidly obese. Sure, not having a health condition is always better.  Finding the best long term treatment for success is best after the fact. 

If you agree with it why did you have surgery?

Things are never equal. For the morbidly obese, the odds of losing and maintaining that sort of weight is extremely rare without surgery. 

In a perfect world, it would be easy. The world is far from perfect, and all is not equal. 

You are so correct. 

I think about how little I eat daily, how much I still weigh, and how fast I think the weight "should" be coming off and then the reality of how much it has slowed down..and I HAVE HAD surgery! No wonder I couldn't get any lasting results the "traditional way".

If you listen to the gimmicks you are sorely disappointed and it isn't sustainable, especially if you are MO or SMO to start. It's a sad viscous cycle that the media propagates and they hook you from an early age...at least they did with me. I remember ordering diet pills out of the back of a magazine when I was 16, then feeling crushed and so mad at myself when I didn't lose the weight they claimed I would, and of course, totally blamed myself.

In the 1970's, advertisements came out with a pill called something like dex-a-trim.  I was thin then but (no surprise) looking to be thinner.  I took the pill in the morning on an empty stomach (another no surprise), felt sick, laid down, and didn't wake up til the afternoon.  I'm lucky I woke up at all...pretty sure I'm an example why those kind of magazine covers are influential and harmful to, especially, young minds.  With help from trying other advertised "proven, safe, guaranteed" methods, I yo-yoed my way up to a dangerous weight and now there is a hint of shame on the front cover for WLS.  Maybe it will stop when they figure out how to make money off us in other ways.

Funny you should mention the amazing "Dexatrim" sham speed pills. My "lovely" weight-obsessed mother made me take them when I was 9 or 10 years old, oh, and I wasn't overweight. I recall one day feeling like my heart was going to explode, sweating profusely, and I couldn't catch my breath. I told my mom and she was so mad at me, refused to take me to the doctor and told me it was my fault and that my punishment was to lie on her bed until it passed, i.e., until the pills SHE gave me worked their way out of my system. No wonder my metabolism has been screwed since I was an adolescent.