[lstamour]

> (Neither I nor anyone in my immediate family are overweight, by the way, so don't ignore my rant by assuming I'm being bitter about personal experience.)

If you haven't been living with extra weight for a decade, you wouldn't have the first-hand experience of why being overweight is definitely a symptom of and contributor to health issues as well as quality of life degredation.

> I have read numerous reports... > Besides, it's hard to know what the health effects really are of being overweight...

I can agree that being overweight is often what a doctor sees, but honestly any doctor that makes assumptions like that is not interested in root causes. They're trying to see as many patients as possible, e.g. as a GP, and offer fixes for what they can fix, and referrals to specialists for that which they can't fix with the usual prescription or advice.

All this to say that I really disagree with the first paragraph, and this entire post feels like just opinion despite conjecture on what numerous reports you've read.