How is this a surprise to anyone?  The obesity is not the cause of this, it’s a symptom of the same shared root cause: a fundamental lack of personal agency. They do not have the gumption or the wherewithal to summon up the energy to do what needs to be done.  Why? Who knows. What is more interesting to me is how there is never any attempt to treat things along those lines: to give them drugs that help give them more agency, more motivation, and reduce their laziness. We could all probably benefit from such a thing.  Except for the industries that prey upon fat people - healthcare, fast food, etc...