There is no obesity crisis, and obese people live just as long as non-obese

[TomBAvoider]

Or so says a researcher in this BBC bit. If obese people have health problems, it's only because they of course commony engage in health-negative behaviors, NOT overeating, but "sedentary", "no excercise" etc. If they exercise and limit those behaviors, they are welcome to overeat as much as they can (up until the morbidly obese category where it indeed becomes a health negative), and they'll live just as long as the non-obese (and much longer than the underweight). Furthermore, if you do get CV disease, DMTII, or any number of other condidiotions, you are much more likely to survive as an obese person than as normal weight person (the idea being that obesity is protective compared to nonobese, if you do end up with those conditions):

 

http://www.bbc.com/news/av/magazine-40505399/think-again-there-is-no-obesity-crisis

[Todd Allen]

In addition to behaviors I suspect genetics may play a role.

 

There is some evidence that people who express elevated PPAR-gamma more readily produce new subcutaneous adipocytes and despite increased fat mass the average size of their adipocytes is smaller and they tend to be healthier avoiding hyperinsulinemia and have low levels of inflammatory adipokines such as TNF-alpha and interleukin-6.

 

A recent paper https://www.kennedysdisease.org/images/research/insulinresistance_nakatsuji2017.pdf on my disease shows a correlation between insulin resistance and disease progression which in addition to a previous paper showing pioglitazone is beneficial in a mouse model of my disease https://www.kennedysdisease.org/images/research/pioglitazone.pdf

motivated me to give pioglitazone a try a couple weeks ago.  It is a strong agonist of PPAR-gamma and a weak agonist of PPAR-alpha.  I wasn't able to find anything about using the drug in the context of a calorie restricted ketogenic diet which is already keeping blood sugar normalized and was curious to see what if any effect it might have.  The most immediate effect was a massive increase in hunger completely blowing my CR, though in the last few days my appetite has been easing towards normal.  My blood sugar has been down roughly 10 mg/dl and my ketones halved (probably due to overeating).  My body temp is up 2 F.  I haven't yet experienced an obvious effect on muscle or performance.

[mikeccolella]

If there is some truth here my guess is drugs that lower BP, blood sugar and cholesterol are giving the obese an advantage by eliminating the downsides. Thus the advantages begin to outweigh the negatives of overweight.