You guys are thinking about this in the wrong perspective. Disregarding the social acceptability of what is "attractive" in terms of body weight, you have to think of the following:
Obesity means morbidly overweight. Overweight means you're overweight in a fat to muscle/makeup sense. Like you guys are saying, the numbers themselves mean absolutely nothing out of context with the physical makeup of the person. You wouldn't call a 200 pound guy who's 5' 6" in height but with a 2 percent body fat composition and the rest muscle "overweight" in the same sense you call a 200 pound guy who's 5' 6" in height but with a 65 percent body fat composition "overweight".
The important thing to look at is what your natural physical build is, and whether you are in that general area considering body mass index, Basal metabolic rate (as far as diet is concerned) and any other factors that contribute to you personally.
It's fairly obvious as to what a natural body composition is for certain people of certain size and conditioning, but morbid obesity is not a naturally funded condition and that's evident in the health toll it takes, especially blood pressure issues.
That's even compounded by the sodium consumption of most folks now days with the way our food is processed.
While no one is arguing that a person "this" tall should weigh "this" much, which would be an assumption ridiculously ignorant of body composition variations and totally reflective of societal standards, it's pretty safe to assume that an obese or overweight person is not operating at optimum health by standards of even nature itself, much less some arbitrary idea of an ideal society.
As far as junk food is concerned, yea it's horrid because it A) Provides very little nutritional value, and B) Packs so many calories, carbs, fat, and sodium.. not to mention other crap, that by the end of the day you're overlimiting your maintenance caloric intake level without even getting a day's worth of nutrient. So you gain weight without even the benefit of eating a decent meal that's going to benefit you and meet the requirements of your physical needs.
Having lived in America my entire life, minus 6 years, I can tell you that our culture here is mainly based on food that fulfills 2 categories only... Fast, and Tasty. Unfortunately most of these meals contribute the most unhealthy combination of factors that almost always leads to never getting what you really need nutritionally, but in a caloric aspect, far too much than you should ever be consuming if you're trying to maintain your natural composition (if you're not actively weight lifting, which requires a lot more calories than sedentary or lightly active people).
I think the trend is mostly based on "looking good" because of the way media portrays iconic symbols of cultural fascination. People who use that as a goal when trying to be fit are often met with disaster because it's unrealistic.
Simply being educated enough to know what you're putting in your body and either maintaining, or getting down to, your optimal weight/body makeup is a matter of health benefits and "looking good" serves merely as a visual byproduct of that regardless of how it's compared to a media-driven image.
But it's definitely foolish to assume that just because there's a media-driven image of what people "should" look like that you don't agree with, that you shouldn't be cognizant of how your lifestyle affects you physically.
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