I'm curious: how many of you have told people you were getting/have been banded? Who did you entrust with this info?

My wife knows (didn't think I could keep it a secret ) but a few months ago, I started to mention it to my brother. He's family, was my best man, and is my closest friend. And he flipped out on me. The fact that he has been in top physical condition his whole life just angered me more; he doesn't know what it's like.

As I'm new to LBT, it just got me to thinking how many of you have shared?

I haven't told too many. Just really close friends and family--

Parents, Neighbors that are like family, couple other friends and my hair stylist (I can tell her anything)

I haven't told my cousins, aunts and uncles or even my grandmother. Just think they would be too judgemental.

I will eventually tell them but I just want to give my self the chance to make the band work and to work on myself.

The ones who know have been very supportive and it helps that I can share my experience with a few.

I've told the fewest people I possibly could. My immediate family and one person at work. I don't see any good that can come from telling people. Some think it's great, but those who don't give you a lot of unneeded negativity. Maybe some day when I've lost a lot of weight I'll explain why. And even now I'd tell someone who was very heavy and asked me how I've been losing weight. But generally, I see no benefit in telling.

By the way, if you are interested, there are a number of other threads on this forum that dealt with this issue. I think the search word "secret" would find some, and "who did you tell"

And also, please tell you brother to take a long "wok" down a one-way street.

I've told anyone who bothered to ask. I struggled with my weight since I was 16, and I'm not ashamed about finally doing something truly proactive to change my life for the better - and I've even spoken to friends and co-workers very openly about the benefits from the surgery. My take on it is that if you could spend $16K to live 10 years longer, would you?

Ultimately - I decided that I would field all kinds of questions anyway and that the best way to handle them was to answer honestly. I have yet to get a negative reaction (at least to my face).

Thanks Marjon9, I'll check it out. New to the Forum, still making my way around...

I told everyone...Don't care about others opinions. If they are judgemental or think that I took the easy way out, I don't really care. They obviously don't know much about being overweight and struggling with it all your life...

I told anyone.. It's not a secret for me, I don't care who knows. During our smoke breaks I like to be able to rant about it sometimes