You probably tried to lose weight through dieting and exercising for years before the idea of weight loss surgery ever occurred to you. Eventually, though, you started thinking about it. How did you first learn about weight loss surgery?

Mark your answer, and then tell us about it in the discussion below!

alex this page is not updating for me. i get a indication saying that there are new posts but they don't appear. it says there are 14 posts but im sure there are more.

You're the 14th post in this topic. It's accurate.

I've always been aware of it, I just didn't start looking into it until after I turned 18. My dad finally brought me an article in one of our towns newspapers about how they were starting to focus on WLS, as he knew I was somewhat interested in looking into it more, so I went to a seminar and ended up getting my band done in July of 2012.

10-15 years ago, who can remember that far back, my poor husband who was obese his entire life.......A seminar here, a seminar there, still too scared of the surgery and complications. Friends had gastric bypass with great results, but not my husband's comorbidities...Finally, sickness, knee replacement, and health problems got me to the final seminar for the sleeve with my husband, and Voila! I led him into this fabulous journey! We have no regrets!

I worked as an RN in a surgical ICU for years and we used to get all the open gastric bypass patients and I saw all the complications which were much more frequent years ago. After the laparoscopic method started becoming the standard, the complications dropped dramatically and I kind of started thinking about it. That was about 10 years ago and after my weight continued to rise, it was now time.

When I was in High School in a small rural town 20 years ago, there was a mining company where the majority of the population there worked, and the company encouraged one of the overweight employees get a gastric bypass because they didn't feel like he was able to do his job well at his size, I do not know all of the details however I do know that there were complications and the man ended up passing away and the whole town was abuzz about it. I pretty much knew from then on I would never consider WLS and have heard basically nothing but horror stories since then. However, one of my dr's told me a few months ago that I really needed to research and consider it and have been suprised to learn about the newer techniques and how long term sucessful it is for people.

I was very much interested in going the path of WLS, but was a bit nervous about the 'fear of surgery' aspect of it. Once I thought more about the benefits than the fear, I started doing a great deal of research on it. I then made an appointment with my primary doctor to discuss the issue. She never suggested it to me, but when I asked about it, she was definitely on board with the idea, and helped my get the ball rolling!!! Not sure if she simply was not allowed to or what, but when I presented the idea and she was sure I was serious about it, she was extremely helpful and supportive!!! She helped me along the way, and now with all the benefits I'm seeing from it (stabilized blood pressure, lowered blood sugar, no signs of arthritis in the knees), my only regret is I wish I had done it all sooner!!!

I work for a large company that has very good insurance and tends to bring in a lot of younger people. I probably knew about surgery before I worked here but never thought about it. I started here when I was 19. I'm 27 now, just had my surgery a few months ago. Since we have such good health and disability insurance the surgery is really accessible and common with my coworkers. I can think of at least a dozen people that I actually know have had some form of WLS in the time I've worked here, including 4 of my good friends. I know two more that are in the process. I'm sure there are tons more but those are just the ones I know personally. I feel pretty luckily actually to have so many examples of what to do and a few examples of what not to do. And to also have such awesome disability insurance.