Your knees are significantly more likely to work well into old age if you’re active, but not constantly supporting excess weight. Talk to any orthopedic doctor and they will tell you weight loss makes your lower body joints much healthier in old age. Not to mention the natural increase in activity people experience when they are lighter and walking is less of a chore.
Having healthy lower body joints makes you much less of a fall risk.
Being less of a fall risk extends your lifespan quite a bit once you’re around 60-70.
Being overweight is one of the most objectively bad for you things out there, but it’s a shame we all share (75% of Americans are overweight and way even higher you look at people old enough to be doctors).
The entire point of this article is now that it is something treatable through medical science, people who understand the major health downsides of being overweight are treating themselves.