Chronic inflammation is a bad thing - it greatly increases your risk of suffering age-related disease, and may be one of the more important mechanisms linking excess fat tissue to risk of disease and lowered life expectancy. Here is more evidence to show that being overweight exposes a person to greater inflammation: "Postmenopausal women who were overweight or obese and lost at least 5 percent of their body weight had a measurable reduction in markers of inflammation. ... Both obesity and inflammation have been shown to be related to several types of cancer, and this study shows that if you reduce weight, you can reduce inflammation as well. ... Women in the trial who were assigned to a weight loss intervention had a goal of 10 percent weight reduction during the course of one year achieved through a diet intervention with or without aerobic exercise. ... The researchers measured levels of C-reactive protein, serum amyloid A, interleukin-6, leukocyte and neutrophil in 439 women. At the end of one year, C-reactive protein reduced by 36.1 percent in the diet-alone group and by 41.7 percent in the diet and exercise group. Interleukin-6 decreased by 23.1 percent in the diet group and 24.3 percent in the diet and exercise group. ... there were greater reductions in these measures among women who lost at least 5 percent of their body weight. They also found that exercise alone, without a dietary weight loss component, had little effect on inflammation markers."

Link: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-05/aafc-wll042412.php