Jessica LawsonFounder of Bariatric Success Academy. I coach post-bariatric patients on long-term regain prevention.

You’re a Bariatric Success but Are You Mourning the Old You? #bariatricsurgery #weightloss

10 Nov 2024 · 1 min

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In this reflective monologue, the speaker highlights the often‑unspoken emotional aftermath of bariatric surgery. While society celebrates weight‑loss milestones with progress photos and praise, the individual may experience profound grief, mourning the loss of food‑centered memories, social rituals, and a sense of self tied to eating. The speaker cites a statistic that 76% of patients regain weight, framing this not as a dieting failure but as a symptom of unresolved mourning. The narrative describes moments of private sorrow—crying in the car, tears in grocery aisles, breakdowns during holidays—underscoring how each lost pound can feel like a piece of one’s identity disappearing. The overall message urges awareness of this hidden grief and the need to address identity loss alongside physical transformation.

Chapters

Everybody's celebrating your weight loss success, posting your progress photos, cheering your numbers while you're secretly crying in the car because you don't know who you are anymore. Let's talk about the grief after bariatric surgery that no one warns you about. No one warns you that you're gonna mourn the mother who baked cookies. You'll grieve the friend who hosted dinner parties. You'll long for the person who knew how to celebrate because food wasn't just food. It was every happy memory you've ever had, every celebration you've ever known, every comfort you've ever felt. Every love you've ever shown, and now it's gone. All of it gone. 76% of people regain weight after bariatric surgery, and those folks, they're not failing at dieting. They're drowning in grief. They're desperately trying to resurrect the person that they had to kill to survive. Nobody tells you about the tears in the grocery store when you can't buy your favorite foods, the breakdowns at holidays when traditions feel like torture, the devastation of losing your entire identity. You're not just losing weight, you're losing you. Every pound that disappears takes a piece of your identity with you. And while everyone's celebrating your smaller body, you're mourning the the person that you used to be.