I’ve watched my weight creep up with growing angst as I near the threshold for becoming overweight, so I was tempted to rejoice after reading the new study finding that moderately overweight folks live the longest.

But there’s a potential danger in allowing the latest research to free us from the scale and abolish our “absurd fear of fat,” as a New York Times op-ed writer declared, adding that “our current definition of ‘normal weight’ makes absolutely no sense.”