Why are there so many folks that have excellent results yet no progress pics ?

I can understand if they've had the surgery and moved on and no longer post here.....but what about the folks that actively post and have listed remarkable weight loss stats since their surgery?

I came here looking for advice and techniques to best prepare for the surgery and life beyond. Turns out to have been a good move. This place is great. Many, many great advisors.....but some have me scratching my head.

What I mean.....is that it's easier to take advice from someone who's "been there and done that".

I wouldn't take golf advice from a hack that can't break 100.

Nor would I want to take bariatric advice from someone who's not been through it successfully. Advice from someone who's successful and thriving is what I'm hoping for.

It sure is easier to trust posts from someone who shows their actual progress results via pics.

Why wouldn't a person proudly display their 100+ pound loss progress ? Especially if they are dispensing advice to others ?

What am I missing here?

Here you go Dub. I post some of these before/after pics every once in a while but am happy to do so again. As far as why some do and some don't..it could be as simple as not knowing how to upload pictures to something as serious as body dysmorphia. Or..they could be trolls....

Oh..and it's OK to tell me you don't recognize that I'm the same person in both photos. Believe me...I know it's me in both pictures...but it's certainly not the same person. I'm a new and improved version for sure.

For some reason when I tried to post my photo, I couldn't get it to load properly. Probably because my computer was too old. My before and after photo is posted here. http://www.breadandbutterscience.com/Operation.jpg This was 6 months post-op. Since that time I lost another 15 pounds.

@@Dub

Many reasons for not sharing personal info anywhere on the web. If you have decided not to tell people about your weight loss procedure, Fear of theft of your photos, Someone posting your photos on twitter or face book...I can go on and on .

here is my before and after video.

http://www.bariatricpal.com/videos/view-10-goal/

Hi Dub!

I have consciously chosen not to post before and after pics of myself. In fact I have avoided even putting an updated pic on my Facebook page. For me this is one of my incentives when I get to goal. I have 29lbs left to go and have lost 116.

I know how much I have changed in the last 10 months and cannot wait to share it but it is one of the things driving me to get to my goal.

Along this journey you have to set incentives for yourself. I hated having my pics taken because I was so big. Especially in my face. Last week my son saw me for the first time in 2 months and said Mom your neck is so skinny! Now I love having them taken so I can look at the changes in my face and body. But I want to unveil it when I reach my goal as a gift to myself.

So for me, I wait.

It may seem silly to some folks but it drives me, I hope you understand

Not everyone has the inclination or time to upload photos and videos. I, myself, enjoy inspiring others to go for their goals. But I haven't shared any progress pics since I reached my goal. There's no visible changes to see. I am happy to share the photos I do have.

Starting weight 375lbs

Goal weight of 203 lbs

Hi Dub!

I have consciously chosen not to post before and after pics of myself. In fact I have avoided even putting an updated pic on my Facebook page. For me this is one of my incentives when I get to goal. I have 29lbs left to go and have lost 116.

I know how much I have changed in the last 10 months and cannot wait to share it but it is one of the things driving me to get to my goal.

Along this journey you have to set incentives for yourself. I hated having my pics taken because I was so big. Especially in my face. Last week my son saw me for the first time in 2 months and said Mom your neck is so skinny! Now I love having them taken so I can look at the changes in my face and body. But I want to unveil it when I reach my goal as a gift to myself.

So for me, I wait.

It may seem silly to some folks but it drives me, I hope you understand

Ditto

Hi Dub -

I didn't have my before and after posted because even though I was successful at losing the weight with the Lap Band, I had to have it removed due to erosion. It's now 4 years later and I have regained most of the weight. I am working on getting revision to VSG later this year. But I keep this picture around for inspiration - I WILL get there again!

I haven't told anyone (other than hubby and 2 friends) about my weight loss surgery. Therefore, I'm not posting WLS before and after pix of myself here or anywhere else online.

Feel free to ignore my posts.

@@VSGAnn2014 - Tough to ignore you Ann, nor would I, you give great tough love

@@ezbeinggreen - That is inspirational, good luck on phase 2

@@gowalking - Holy cow, you don't even look like the same person, that's fantastic

And I didn't post any pics or even talked about losing weight on FB as I was beginning the process, but did have a bit of fun for New Years to kind encourage others to give their resolutions a shot...

But not this year...

I've still got a little ways to go (and man this last bit is HARD) but here is before and during:

(eta: I will probably come back and delete these pictures later today, I don't like the idea of them getting stolen etc.).

There are several reasons why I don't post pictures. First, BariatricPal is an open site that anyone can navigate to. I know plenty of people who've had their photos end up on Buzzfeed or Twitter without their permission, and it's my preference not to risk that personal information about myself be shared with the general public.

I also don't think that there needs to be photographic proof that you are successful. Most people come to this site for advice, and I don't need to be judged about how credible my experience is based on an opinion about my photos. Someone who is two weeks into the process might have an insight that someone a year out doesn't, and someone three years out might not have been "successful" but might have valuable lessons to share. There's no need for photos in any of these situations.

That being said, I have been repeatedly inspired and awed by the members of this site and their before and after pictures. It's a personal choice to share, and I know that I felt so motivated and appreciative of their willingness to put themselves out there.

My point is, thank you for sharing if you want to, and your contribution to these forums is immensely important regardless of whether or not we know what you look like.

Back in the good ole days (like 3 years ago) we as a group tended to post alot of photos to our profiles - there for everyone to see. If you still use a laptop, you can click on mine and see my before and afters and even some progress pix. Now that everyone uses the mobile app and apparently the profile is no longer relevant on this website. I think it is really too bad because I personally got lots and lots of inspiration from the progress photos!

There are also a couple of very long running threads called "post your progress photos" where many of us have posted. That thread is so long I have probably posted to it twice - haha.

The important thing about the collage I am attaching is me in the green top is post weight loss, pre plastics with NO spanx. I normally did wear spanx and looked pretty okay before plastics but without them, you can the "melted snowman" look. for me, getting my arms done made me look so much smaller, it was incredible. Funny thing was that was the plastic surgery i was most scared of due to scarring. Now, nearly 2 years post plastics my scars are only noticed when I point them out (or to busy bodies who look for stuff like that - but who cares, right?)

@@Dub I show mine, it's right there on my profile when you look at it. I don't normally post a picture with every post though. Some might find that conceded lol! Kidding but if people ask I will post. I show the good and bad, heck I just displayed my old women belly on a post that went a trending! Here let me find some....there you go. Some of those fat girl pictures are pretty embarrassing! I'm just thankful I stopped the beating of the ugly stick! Very Italian

@@jenn1 True! I found my sons picture on a website article about a gay couple adopting a mixed child.....People are nuts! They had to have gotten it off of my FB. Theses won't stay up long either.

I choose not to because I value the anonymity of the site and it is open to the world. If someone can identify me by my photo I would not feel as free to share personal information.