New Jersey Governor Chris Christie quietly had lap-band surgery in February of 2013. As you can read in this month’s BariatricPal newsletter, recent political events have made the topic resurface, highlighting his 100-pound loss and his current weight of 320 pounds. What do you think about the issue?

• He failed because his BMI of 45 keeps him in the morbidly obese category.
• He is doing great because of his 100-pound weight loss in a year.
• It’s too soon to tell. He’ll fail if he doesn’t lose any more weight or gains it back, but the surgery will be a success if he keeps losing weight.
• I really can’t give an opinion – I do not know anything about him or his diet, and I would not want people to judge me if they didn’t know me.
• Other – Read my answer in the discussion!

Mark your answer and let us know what you think in the discussion below!

brb logging into my schools database to look at more scientific research studies that have actual statistical analysis.

Lol. That's what I thought.

My comment was dripping in sarcasm, in case you couldn't sense it.

Edited February 25, 201412 yr by Tikvah

Mine too

I think that it's great that he's done so good! I think that it's amazing that anyone can lose 100 pounds! Good for him!

I'm surprised his Dr still does lap-bands! Seems more are steering away from that surgery.

He used the same practice that I used and they do almost exclusively lapbands. And all I know is that the waiting room is always crowded....

Funny Cat fight, No cat type...lmao

It completely floors me that someone would be so negative about another's weight loss journey on a weight loss forum.

Note. No sarcasm there.

My surgeons only do lapbands. They are both very good surgeons, I knew them when the were general surgeons, so the could do the other surgeries. I asked my surgeon if he would eventually integrate the others and he said he still likes the band. Seriously, we all are here because we needed help controlling our food obsessions. Regardless which WLS we chose, none of us can claim righteousness. As for the argument of how much somebody should lose in a given period of time, this is an individual journey for each of us.

I think 100 lb in one year is a success. I personally took much longer than that to lose 100 lb. If he was 420lb at 5'11" then he was appx 220 lb overweight, give or take 20 lb. If Lapband average excess weight loss is in the 45-60 % range then he's at the average low range...if he loses 60% EW, he will lose another 32 lb or so. He will still be very obese at 288, but much better off.

I am not trying to pretend to be supportive to someone who is not even on this forum.

They even talked about this on CNN at one point after the doctors report for the last primary said Christie was not a viable candidate in 2012 due to his morbid obesity.

I will guarantee any amount of money that Christie's political consultants said "Hey bubba, we need to get you slimmed down if you want to run and be a viable candidate in 2016". A MALE serious about losing weight with weight loss surgery should definitely do better than 100lbs in their first year when they are north of 350lbs.

Now, I understand why females are more outraged at my comments, as I know losing the weight with surgery is still a slower process than for men.

Wow, two months and you're an expert? You remind me of all the naysayers who tried to talk me out of wls. They were all wrong too.

And what's with all the band deniers? Me thinks you know not what you speak of.

100 lbs for a guy who has little time to workout and spends much of his time at brunches fundraisers and political events I respect what he's done.

And bubba tikvah I'll take that bet?

I forgot to add something- you know they (members of congress & news media) knocked him for being obese and said that he wasn't healthy enough to be President. Don't you think that's discrimination? It doesn't matter what political affiliation you are - I would imagine a lot of us have had some discrimination because we are/were obese?

I personally think it's discrimination. Now I understand that every president has to submit to a health examination and he might have had some physical impairments due to obesity - I'm not sure. But I don't think it's right for so many people to bash him for being overweight. It makes my heart hurt when people do that to others! I am happy for him losing weight and for him making the decision to do that - I know that he has more to lose but 100 pounds is differently in the right direction!

I forgot to add something- you know they (members of congress & news media) knocked him for being obese and said that he wasn't healthy enough to be President. Don't you think that's discrimination? It doesn't matter what political affiliation you are - I would imagine a lot of us have had some discrimination because we are/were obese?

I personally think it's discrimination. Now I understand that every president has to submit to a health examination and he might have had some physical impairments due to obesity - I'm not sure. But I don't think it's right for so many people to bash him for being overweight. It makes my heart hurt when people do that to others! I am happy for him losing weight and for him making the decision to do that - I know that he has more to lose but 100 pounds is differently in the right direction!

Jamilyne--you have raised an important and essential point regarding obesity and societal prejudice. Yes, it is indeed discrimination to single out a fat person and imply, covertly or overtly, that they would not be capable of high job performance. (Unless that person is an Olympic athlete competing in a sport that requires slimness to perform.)

I have zero skin in this game politically speaking, but as an educational exercise, why don't we subtitute "African American", "Jewish," or "Hispanic" in this discourse and see how insane and non-sensical this line of thinking is? "Oh, he'd better lighten his skin, it's common knowledge that Blacks are lazy and we don't want a lazy President." "Oh, he'd better convert to Protestantism; everybody knows Jews are insular and will favor their own people." "Oh, his Hispanic origins will be a major obstacle in doing his Presidential duties so he's not a viable candidate."

THERE IS NO REASON WHY AN OBESE PERSON WOULD NOT BE ABLE TO PERFORM WELL AS POTUS.

While there are many obese people who have obesity-related illnesses once the obesity catches up with them, there are also---and I'm sure we all know some of these--people who live long lives while also being obese. The fact Gov. Christie has a high BMI is not predictive that he will keel over while serving the country. I'll wager a bet that, with his daily agenda as it is currently, he's more active that many on this forum, and more active than the overall population, certainly the population sharing his BMI.

I agree very much with jamilyn about how inappropriate, indeed, hurtful many of the comments on this thread are. We are the last people who should be discriminating against the obese. We should have enormous empathy, and actually admiration, for someone as overweight as Gov. Christie who it out there doing public service.

I am certain that society's fat-discrimination held me back professionally when I was younger and not yet working in my chosen field. Now an academic at one of America's most prestigious public universities, I'm grateful that I work in a field where my colleagues are educated to a degree that they would never pre-suppose that because I [was] fat, I was stupid, lazy, doomed to die while on the job, or many of the other comments I'm reading on this thread and in the media regarding Christie. Had my hiring committee looked upon me as I'm seeing people look upon Gov. Christie, I would never be educating America's best and brightest and turning them out into the global marketplace with a heightened sensitivity to other cultures and lifeways. That includes people whose weight is aesthetically unpleasing, but whose minds are just as sharp and analytical as those with more-pleasing exteriors. I have over 25 years experience in my position, most of those years fat, and (to my knowledge) I never died while on the job.

Lastly, I hope very much that "Tikvah" will grow into his/her username (a Hebrew term which means "hope"), and that he/she will gain a kinder perspective for those whose paths differ from ours. We are all tied together here, despite our differing choices regarding our surgeries, and I sense that we all have vivid memories of a time or times where we were subject to fat discrimination. Let us be the Hope, Tikvah, that we carry a different message and that others will model us.

As an NJ native and constantly seeing pictures of him and media of him, I have to say he looks great! And if 100 lbs in a year isn't successful I find that sad because some of us only have 100 to lose! How can he not "keep going" does the band just stop working one day!? He may still be considered morbidly obese but only a few more lbs and he won't be!

Some of the responses in this thread are down right saddening. Starting weight does not matter with the lapband if you're truly dedicated to making a lifestyle change. I am living proof of that and I will put my numbers up against any Sleever or Bypass patient. I mean no disrespect to anyone but what the hell difference does it make if he weighed 450 or 250? Weight loss is weight loss and it only matters in the end if you've adopted a lifestyle change. Without a true lifestyle change then any weight loss using any method is just temporary and prone to eventual failure.

Sure the Band takes more work and more patience but it is certainly just as effective as any surgery if you put the work in. Some people such as myself thrive on the extra work or extra attention the band may require. I have learned so much about myself in these last two years then I have the entire course of my 46 years.


Christie's 100lbs in the first year is incredibly successful given the fact a "typical" band patient needs to go through a series of adjustments before the band reaches its maximum potential.

In closing I will quote Dylan...."Don't criticize what you can't understand"

Edited February 25, 201412 yr by Jim1967