I have been asked both, if I am sick or have I had WLS. Yes, I get a little defensive and tell them that I worked for my weight loss. I try to be a good sport about it because I think the root of people questioning my weight loss is the belief that losing a large amount of weight is only possible through WLS or sickness. Many, many people just don't think that it is possible to lose a large amount of weight with diet and exercise. I am happy to show them that it is possible.

Yes.

3 times now people have asked me if I had WLS. It makes it seem like they didn't know me at all since I've been losing weight OVER 3 YEARS.

It bothers me that people *think* this is the easy way out (it isn't). Its like they think "yeah, Matt losts a ton of weight, he had to have done something drastic".

Oh it totally irks me! I hate when people assume things. People have asked me if I've had Lipo (no), if I just don't eat (no), etc etc... It's really hard to reason with people who think that quick fixes are the only way to lose weight.

I've had people ask me if I've been sick. I've had people assume that I've had WLS. I've had one person that finally agreed that I hadn't had WLS, but had liposuction.

I've had people tell me how *lucky* I am that I was able to lose the weight. Lucky? So it kinda just came off??? It's dissolved on its own???

And just last week, after someone said it yet again to me, that I was lucky I lost the weight and I went into a whole song and dance that "luck's got nothing to do with it, we get to choose whether or not we lose the weight, it's our choice, it's up to us,"

And she conceded that okay, maybe I wasn't lucky that I got the weight off, maybe I DID work for it, but that I was lucky that I had such discipline. "Well, ummm, again, luck didn't make me disciplined, it was my commitment and determination... ah, nevermind"

People want to believe what they want to believe. It makes them feel better about the choices that they make and the ones that don't make.

I was asked twice about WLS this weekend. I know everybody here has said the same, but I was still surprised. There must be a lot of weight loss surgery going around for people to jump to that conclusion.