In twin studies the only things that have been associated with obesity are past calorie restrictive diets and soda consumption. All these other studies are usually picking up on either socio-economic or environmental factors, rather than actual behaviors we can control.

The reason to exercise isn't to avoid obesity: it is because the health benefits of exercise have nothing to do with weight. Careful, moderate exercising is good for our bodies, all on its own.

Whereas there is shockingly little evidence that obesity itself causes most correlated health conditions, rather than being a symptom (of stress, alienation, environmental contamination, inflammatory conditions, etc) correlated with the causes of those conditions. The weight with the lowest all-cause mortality is being "overweight".

But of course, "work less" is a lot harder to make money off of than "lose weight", so any science that can be twisted to prop up the weight loss industry will get spread far and wide.

Yes, exercise is good for you regardless of weight. We should all do it.

But the idea that there is little evidence that obesity causes health issues is absurd. There's absolutely mountains of evidence, and we have very firm understandings of the mechanisms underlying many of these issues, too. Hell, just being bigger, even if it's all muscle mass, is bad for your heart.

The all-cause mortality curve is J shaped because many more of the people at 10% bf are there because of disease and not because they're shredded from a strict diet and a consistent exercise.

I've lost roughly 100lb of fat over the past 9 months. I have gotten back to lifting 5 days a week, but even before that with just losing weight my health markers improved significantly, I've felt better, aches and pains and discomforts have all but disappeared, etc. My stress, alienation, environmental contamination, etc. conditions are all the same, and I'm working just as much, if not more.