The benefit is probably from the removal of fat, not a direct antibacterial/antiviral effect. Fat plays a complex immunoregulatory role in human physiology: it down-regulates some pathways, while up-regulating others (notoriously, the production of IL6 is carried out, in part, by adipocytes). The overall effect of fat on the immune system, however, is negative: it tends to increase the chances of rheumatological disorders, cancers, and many other diseases. Alternatively, the effect may be due to some sociological factor that their analysis failed to account for.

(I am not a medical doctor)

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olalonde an hour ago | parent | next [-]

Many of the health benefits, including cardiovascular and kidney health, have been shown to go beyond or be unrelated to changes in body weight.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKPaVhpomks

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bitwize an hour ago | parent [-]

Lower visceral fat as a percentage of body weight may bring benefits that are greater than proportional to total body mass lost.

	▲	tptacek 41 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		Nobody's denying this, but the interesting story about GLP-1s is that after you control for fat loss (for instance, by taking cohorts of patients that aren't losing weight) you still get evidence of these off-target effects.

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DANmode 10 minutes ago | parent | prev [-]

How much of “fat” also includes biofilmed infection stifling your electrical system and indeed signaling your immune system to not work as well?

(You can look this up regarding biofilms, I just did today.)