Yeah, people can be unsupportive. Some of my best friends don't understand why I needed the surgery, and thought I was doing it for the wrong reasons. It comes down to just that: Unsupportive people just can't understand an obese person's struggle to lose weight, and they probably never will. My dad used to be one of those people: "Can't you just control yourself? You just aren't making the right choices. Do you really need that cookie?" However, my mom the nurse demanded that my dad come to the Bariatric seminar required by the hospital doing my surgery, and he finally understood: I could DIE if I didn't get help. Sometimes, people just can't comprehend that your weight is otherwise uncontrollable, and that without this surgery, you are looking at an early grave. In my case, my cholesterol has been really high since I was ten, both of my mother's parents died of weight related issues, and I have a family history of diabetes. Without this surgery, I would have become really sick, and for sure would have died prematurely. Sure, I wouldn't see these effects of my weight for a few years, but my doctors saw it coming.
Next time you meet someone unsupportive, just say, "Hey, I guess I did the surgery because I just didn't want to die young. And come on, why would my doctors recommend such a risky procedure if there was another way we hadn't tried before? Obviously we both decided that I was in dire need of it."