Sorry for the length of time between replies, just got back in town for the summer and have been a tad busy
A little more info on my situation:
I've been playing about a year and a half now.
I use 12s on my acoustic.
I use 2 or 3 fingers to do bends
I usually bend with an upward motion, hooking my thumb a bit to get a leverage point, although I'll bend down sometimes, using more of the palm of my hand as the fulcrum.
I can do half step bends just fine, and full step bends on the lighter strings are generally ok. However, once I'm bending, say, d or lower strings, it almost isn't worth it because my callouses get ripped to shreds and I have to take it easy for a while to let them grow back smoothly. I'd try lighter strings but on those thick ones I don't think a gauge change would make that huge of a difference...maybe I should just steer clear of bending the big ones for a year or two heh
thanks for the replies guys.