There's a flaw so obvious, only an adipose-riddled brain could miss it: The article claims that people with the virus can absorb 2% more calories. A dubious claim, but let's pretend it's true. The article then claims that over the years, that would add up and up and up non-stop packing on major weight. But it wouldn't. As your weight goes up, so does your daily calorie expenditure. If you are eating 2000 calories, but "absorbing" the equivalent of 2040 calories, your weight would increase by much less than 10 pounds total (over the course of multiple years) and stabilize at that weight unless you ate more than the 2000/2040 calories you were eating before. In short, even if there's something going on, the whole premise that this is a major key to obesity is bullshit.