Don't quite know how to feel about this.....

I had someone say this to me the other day:

"Wow. You've lost so much weight and you look fantastic. But you're still the same person. That is so cool."

I'm taking that as a compliment. However, wtf did they expect me to do? Lose weight and lose my moral compass, my personality, and my mind? I knew I'd be the same me, just in a smaller, more confident package. Did they want me to change my personality too?

I think it just shows that society has such different labels and perceptions for skinny people (ok, I'm not skinny yet, but I'm getting there) versus fat people. Fat people are nice maybe? Skinny people are self centered? I don't know. It's just something to think about.

Wow, that's definitely a strange comment. I would definitely take it as a compliment though. Maybe they just had the notion that "skinny people" were all stuck up or horrible people or something haha. I guess a compliment is a compliment though, no matter how weird it is!

Vicki :)

I've been thinking about this same thing for a while now...A few weeks ago a few friends and I were hanging out and having some drinks. One of my closest friends had a few too many and she was just talking, talking, talking. We started talking about me and how I'm going to be having the surgery and she said, "I think it's great, but just don't change who you are." I thought it was a strange thing to say because I have no intention of changing who I am...it just got me thinking about how people are after surgery and whether or not people stay true to who they are. I also wonder if other people see an increased sense of confidence as a change in someones personality because, if that is the case, then I'm sure all WLS patients seem to "change" after surgery.

~H

is def. a compliment. don´t take it 2 personal. is just that people don´t know how to react or what to say.  so say thanks and keep going. u are doing such a great job. to concern about this kindda stuff. just see the positive side of things. the things that make u feel good an a better person.
keep it up girl!
hugs

and increase in confidence is definitely a change....its a major change, and even if we dont like to admit it, or even notice it...we ALL do some changing after wls.
I would definitely take it as a compliment, because it really is hard to stay true to the core of who you are when EVERYTHING is changing both on the inside and outside! I had soooo many people tell me (mostly guys) that i better not become "stuck up" or turn into a whole different person. I took it as though they really like in some cases love who i am as a person and can only hope that I would remain the same person on the inside as the outer me goes through major changes.

Let me give you an example:

I knew a girl who lost over 100lbs by starving herself. Congrat's on the weight loss...you're an idiot for how you did it (my opinion). This girl was an 'add on' to my small, tight group of friends in high school, because we knew that if we didn't adopt her, she'd be all by herself (the joys of going to an itty bitty high school in the middle of nowhere).  Anyways....she was nice, she had some confidence, and she would sometimes say weird, off the wall things...but we understood it was just part of her personality. Part of her personality that we knew did NOT include being a stuck up brat.

So...chicky looses this 100lbs and sees my friend (her friend too) from high school and my friend  says "Wow! You look great!" And her reply...."Yeah, I wear a size 12 now! That's smaller than you!!!" She was lucky my friend didn't slap her.

That, to me, is a classic example of personality change via weight loss. I have no doubt that the person who said this to you meant it as a great compliment. It's highly possible they've known others who have lost weight and turned into not so nice people. Good for you for keeping that moral compass!!!

Thanks for all of your responses. I'm just gonna take it as a compliment and move on.