Fat Is In - Should it Be?

In the Boston Globe's G magazine on Tuesday, Leah Mennies ran a story about Lesley Kinzel who is 300 pounds and proud to be fat.  Kinzel "feels free of society's obsession with the 'compulsory skinniness'" and has a fat activist blog called Fatshionista that receives 70,000 hits a month.  I applaud Mennies for bringing the story to us and Kinzel for raising public awareness of how obsessed we are with skinniness.  Such a culture is not healthy for any of us, particularly our young girls, and these efforts will help to change that.  Nevertheless, there is a part of me that is somewhat troubled with the story.  As I have noted in a prior post, obesity is a huge problem in our country and has been growing at an explosive rate.  It is causing enormous personal pain for many and it is greatly contributing to our exploding health care costs.  I don't believe it is something we should be actively encouraging.  Isn't there a middle ground between moving society away from a skinny culture, allowing people to feel good about themselves - wherever they are - and at the same time not promoting obesity?  I am curious as to other views.  As always, I am open to be corrected or educated on what I am missing.