Health is Not Static or Health is Not The Absence of Disease

I made reference to this idea in a previous post and it is a frequent topic of conversation with the general gym populace.

Your health is not static.

I'll relay a recent conversation I had with a gym regular.  In this same conversation I learned that this gent. is 100lbs. less than when he started "hitting the gym" and building healthy habits.  It is also quite clear that he is at least 100lbs. north of what might be considered a "healthy bodyweight."  Anyhow, he smirked as he mentioned his visit to the doctor earlier in the day and the "clean bill of health" he received for the 3rd time in a row.  To be fair, this means his blood sugar, pressure and lipids were all largely within, at least, reasonable ranges, etc.  But, to be honest, let's look at the reality of things.  There is simply nothing healthy, long- or short-term, about carrying around 100+ pounds of (largely central) adipose tissue.

And here's the real take-home point.  When I stated that fact as clearly as I could.  I could see in his eyes before he verbally acknowledged that it was the truth.  That he was/is largely kidding himself to think of his current state as "healthy."  Because, probably more accurately stated...

health is not simply the lack of disease.

He is not diabetic or cancerous or any of these hazardous and traumatic states we associate with being "unhealthy" but should we not begin to give the correlational credit where it is due and rightfully consider that obesity bears a striking resemblance to disease?

And couldn't we also consider that simply because it may not seem immediately life threatening, there is nothing healthy (and certainly nothing beneficial or economical) about being overweight or obese?

Isn't it time to question being happy with being not unhealthy?

Or maybe more absurdly, isn't it time to consider being unhealthy... unhealthy?