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Anyone get busted lying about their surgery?



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Let me start by saying that I am 100% in favor of people having the right to keep their surgery private and to choose who to tell, or not to tell. Having said that, I have decided to tell family and co-workers that I am having the surgery. Because WLS is getting to be so common now, when others see someone having rapid weight loss, they usually speculate that surgery was involved - at least that's been my experience. I'd rather just be open about it than have people talk behind my back...but that's just me.
For those who are keeping it a secret, or trying to, I was wondering if any of you have been busted lying about not having surgery? I've read a lot of the little tricks that people do to hide their uneaten food at restaurants or excuses for why they are loosing weight. Any of that ever backfire on anyone? Just curious.

That must be hard needing to hide food etc etc. That's way to much for me. I don't do anything to hide it. I eat what I want leave what I want. If someone asks me why I didn't eat it. I simply say "because I didn't want it ". That must be hard needing to do all those things.

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On 23.11.2017 at 5:17 AM, VSGnewguy said:

I had a similar experience with a co-worker. He was off work for a little over a month and came back nearly 50 lbs lighter. He told everyone it was diet and exercise but later confided to me that he had gotten WLS. Of course, that's what everyone else had already been saying.

Amen to that.

I think it's sad that people feel the need to lie about/hide their surgery when asked about how they lost weight like it's a dirty little secret. Most people won't believe this whole "diet and exercise" schlock anyway.

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Busted lying? Not sharing isn't lying. What is there to bust. No ones asked me anything I haven't said anything lol. So.. nope.

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I'm talking specifically about people who outright lie saying they did not have surgery, had something else done, etc. There are even videos on YouTube telling people how to lie about their surgery. Lol. My question was to those people, wanting to know if it's ever backfired on them.

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I have told only 3 people, and those are the 3 that I can trust to keep a secret. I will tell everyone when I'm ready. My family are all gossips especially my mom, she can't hold Water. I live in a small town and I have a few co-workers that have had the surgery but the comments and criticisms are brutal. Everyone has their opinion. When I went hard core dieting a few years ago with the help of diet pills and injections, I lost around 65 pounds. I couldn't maintain it and slowly the weight crept back up.

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I have told only 3 people, and those are the 3 that I can trust to keep a secret. I will tell everyone when I'm ready. My family are all gossips especially my mom, she can't hold Water. I live in a small town and I have a few co-workers that have had the surgery but the comments and criticisms are brutal. Everyone has their opinion. When I went hard core dieting a few years ago with the help of diet pills and injections, I lost around 65 pounds. I couldn't maintain it and slowly the weight crept back up.



My mums a gossip too - it’s very annoying. I told her to just leave the hospital before my surgery today because she couldn’t put her phone down and stop messaging everyone. It was stressing me out...


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I had my first restaurant night out since surgery (51 days ago) last night (Saturday 2nd Dec) when my wife's retail staff had its xmas gathering at a Thai restaurant.

It galled me a little paying $AUD40 when I knew I was "eating small".

Out of an 11-course Thai banquet, I was very picky.

One small curried vegetable samosa, one medium battered prawn tail, one small crab money-bag, one small vegetable spring roll. I than waited about 15 minutes and sipped a large glass of Water.

Round Two: I picked out one medium prawn from a stir fry and a chunk of salmon (about 50 grams).

Then, over the next hour and a half while sipping more water, most of the other 25 people offered me more of the mounting 'left-overs' on the trays and plates ... each of which I declined.

When pressed, I just said (truthfully) ... "I had a long day in the pool trying to reshape my body. I'm predominantly eating small Protein hits and few carbs for a while." That seemed to pass!

[n.b. I swam three hours breaststroke Saturday morning plus half an hour of chest-deep 'wading'.]

- - -

As my first major outing after surgery, I was very pleased that I passed scrutiny.

As I said a few weeks ago, we do not have Thanksgiving here in Australia so waited longer than most of the early October sleepers for the test of my resilience at dinner.

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I'm talking specifically about people who outright lie saying they did not have surgery, had something else done, etc. There are even videos on YouTube telling people how to lie about their surgery. Lol. My question was to those people, wanting to know if it's ever backfired on them.

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I didn't know people actually lie about it. So I assumed you meant people who don't tell people fullstop. I have a bad memory so I don't have the capacity to come up with a story lol

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I have told only 3 people, and those are the 3 that I can trust to keep a secret. I will tell everyone when I'm ready. My family are all gossips especially my mom, she can't hold Water. I live in a small town and I have a few co-workers that have had the surgery but the comments and criticisms are brutal. Everyone has their opinion. When I went hard core dieting a few years ago with the help of diet pills and injections, I lost around 65 pounds. I couldn't maintain it and slowly the weight crept back up.

You can't tell your own mum. That is so sad. I'm sorry to hear this as she's the only one I told.

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I did so much as lie I just didnt tell nobody...... but thanksgiving almost bust me because everyone was wondering why I was not eating.........I said I on a liquid diet lol again I did not lie.......

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I'm pretty open about it but that wasn't my choice. My husband told everyone right down to the neighbors. I was satisfied with just close friends and family knowing.

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Did you not pass on the message to him that you wanted it to be kept close to home ?

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Of course I did but he don't know how to keep his alcoholic mouth shut

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Ahh.. I didn't realise there are deeper issues. Sorry to hear. As your confidence and self esteem grows you will know if that's the life you want to live. No judgement I hope their isn't kids in this situation with an alcoholic. There is lots of support available if you need it. All the best.

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15 hours ago, Rainbow_Warrior said:

As my first major outing after surgery, I was very pleased that I passed scrutiny.

That's what you think. ;)

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I told my husband and my two teen daughters and two very good friends. That was it. Didn't tell my mother, my sister or anyone else. When people ask how I lost the weight, I stick with the truth -
I have been working with a medical team
I write down everything I eat
I eat between 60-100 grams of Protein at day
I drink at least 64 ounces of Water a day
I work out for 9-10 hours a week, including 5 hours fencing, an hour of Pilates and strength training.
It's been really hard work
I pretty much don't eat bread, white flour, sugar or carbonated things any more.
All of that is true.
I told my office I needed to have a procedure and left it at that and implied, without saying anything, that it was "female" surgery which stopped anyone from asking more. (Besides, legally, they can only ask how long you will be out per your doctor and whether you will have restrictions when you return.). My girls were 17 and 13 when I had my surgery. I told them this was something that was not discussed outside our family - ever. They haven't said a word, as far as I know.

Thanks and this is very helpful!


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I almost did. I told everyone I had gall bladder removed. A few weeks later, had a friend ask who my gal bladder surgeon was because they actually have to have it removed and wanted a recommendation! I just reminded them I had it done in New York City, which i know they were dead set against going to..it is over 2 hours away. So they replied, "forget that!"


That's exactly what I told my nosey co-workers. My surgery is on the 23rd of this month.

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On 11/19/2017 at 10:35 AM, VSGnewguy said:

Let me start by saying that I am 100% in favor of people having the right to keep their surgery private and to choose who to tell, or not to tell. Having said that, I have decided to tell family and co-workers that I am having the surgery. Because WLS is getting to be so common now, when others see someone having rapid weight loss, they usually speculate that surgery was involved - at least that's been my experience. I'd rather just be open about it than have people talk behind my back...but that's just me.

For those who are keeping it a secret, or trying to, I was wondering if any of you have been busted lying about not having surgery? I've read a lot of the little tricks that people do to hide their uneaten food at restaurants or excuses for why they are loosing weight. Any of that ever backfire on anyone? Just curious.

Sorry for the rant..I'm in a mood this morning...

I didn't feel the need to disclose to everyone. I am not the spokesperson or poster child for bariatric weight loss. I'm not responsible for other people's choices or success with weight loss.

It's not so much I have been busted for not disclosing. People are going to notice, talk and speculate about a massive weight loss. These same gossiping negative people will talk about you behind your back over other things once you reach goal.

If I was open about my surgery, these same people will judge..Why would I care to disclose to them I had surgery?

It's great to be an age where you don't give your time and attention to negative people.

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    • Alisa_S

      On day 4 of the 2 week liquid pre-op diet. Surgery scheduled for June 11th.
      Soooo I am coming to a realization
      of something and I'm not sure what to do about it. For years the only thing I've enjoyed is eating. We rarely do anything or go anywhere and if we do it always includes food. Family comes over? Big family dinner! Go camping? Food! Take a short ride or trip? Food! Holiday? Food! Go out of town for a Dr appointment? Food! When we go to a new town we don't look for any attractions, we look for restaurants we haven't been to. Heck, I look forward to getting off work because that means it's almost supper time. Now that I'm drinking these pre-op shakes for breakfast, lunch, and supper I have nothing to look forward to.  And once I have surgery on June 11th it'll be more of the same shakes. Even after pureed stage, soft food stage, and finally regular food stage, it's going to be a drastic change for the rest of my life. I'm giving up the one thing that really brings me joy. Eating. How do you cope with that? What do you do to fill that void? Wow. Now I'm sad.
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    • Alisa_S

      On day 4 of the 2 week liquid pre-op diet. Surgery scheduled for June 11th.
      Soooo I am coming to a realization
      of something and I'm not sure what to do about it. For years the only thing I've enjoyed is eating. We rarely do anything or go anywhere and if we do it always includes food. Family comes over? Big family dinner! Go camping? Food! Take a short ride or trip? Food! Holiday? Food! Go out of town for a Dr appointment? Food! When we go to a new town we don't look for any attractions, we look for restaurants we haven't been to. Heck, I look forward to getting off work because that means it's almost supper time. Now that I'm drinking these pre-op shakes for breakfast, lunch, and supper I have nothing to look forward to.  And once I have surgery on June 11th it'll be more of the same shakes. Even after pureed stage, soft food stage, and finally regular food stage, it's going to be a drastic change for the rest of my life. I'm giving up the one thing that really brings me joy. Eating. How do you cope with that? What do you do to fill that void? Wow. Now I'm sad.
      · 1 reply
      1. summerseeker

        Life as a big person had limited my life to what I knew I could manage to do each day. That was eat. I hadn't anything else to look forward to. So my eating choices were the best I could dream up. I planned the cooking in managable lots in my head and filled my day with and around it.

        Now I have a whole new big, bigger, biggest, best days ever. I am out there with those skinny people doing stuff i could never have dreamt of. Food is now an after thought. It doesn't consume my day. I still enjoy the good home cooked food but I eat smaller portions. I leave food on my plate when I am full. I can no longer hear my mother's voice saying eat it all up, ther are starving children in Africa who would want that!

        I still cook for family feasts, I love cooking. I still do holidays but I have changed from the All inclusive drinking and eating everything everyday kind to Self catering accommodation. This gives me the choice of cooking or eating out as I choose. I rarely drink anymore as I usually travel alone now and I feel I need to keep aware of my surroundings.

        I don't know at what point my life expanded, was it when I lost 100 pounds? Was it when I left my walking stick at home ? Was it when I said yes to an outing instead of finding an excuse to stay home ? i look back at my last five years and wonder how loosing weight has made such a difference. Be ready to amaze yourself.

        BTW, the liquid diet sucks, one more day and you are over the worst. You can do it.

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