So, Dr. Sharma (IMO, one of the best reads on the subject of obesity) has a post on his blog looking at the York University study that suggests that the idea of “obese, but healthy” is not common. At least as far as mortality risk goes, a pretty big concern!
Based on the mortality data over 8 years, both the metabolically healthy and metabolically abnormal obese individuals had around the same roughly 2.5 to 3-fold elevation in mortality risk compared to the metabolically normal normal-weight individuals.
However, unlike most of the media and blogosphere who’ve glommed onto this story, Dr. Sharma also makes this observation:
With current conservative obesity treatments only a small minority of patients will achieve and maintain clinically relevant weight loss - the vast majority of weight-losers will simply yo-yo back to their excess weight. I therefore maintain that for most obese individuals weight stabilization may be a far more realistic and sustainable goal than losing weight and keeping it off.
It is also important to remember that associations (as in this paper) do not imply causality and that these new findings therefore cannot be seen as certain proof that weight loss will decrease risk or increase longevity. This question can only be resolved with appropriately designed and conducted intervention trials.
As Dr. Sharma says, given the difficulty of actually maintaining weight loss, maybe preventing weight gain is a good first step.
Weight Maven is written by Beth Mazur. Beth believes that obesity is more symptom than cause and that the real problem is our modern culture -- especially diet. Beth writes about ancestral health, health policy, & mindfulness. And cats! 
What do you think? (Comments from Weight Maven first-timers are moderated.)