I know being fat is inherently unhealthy. I am unhealthy and so is every fat person I know. "Healthy at Every Size" is complete bs.
You might be able to keep yourself relatively healthy for your weight, but being fat is still inherently unhealthy. Whatever you do to stay "healthy" while fat would be easier to accomplish and work even better while at a normal weight.
I managed to lose ~50 pounds from my walk to work over the course of 2019 (still fat though, and that loss stopped in 2020 for obvious reasons). Even without changing my diet at all, I started feeling much better because of it.
it’s difficult to say what is obese and what isn’t, as body fat is distributed differently across races, body types etc
Yeah it's difficult to set a hard bottom line for obesity, and it can differ greatly depending on a number of factors, but that doesn't mean obesity isn't real or that it's some completely arbitrary thing that should just be dismissed.