I was looking at some historic photos recently and I noted how much leaner people were. This is old news of course that people are fat, but what I noticed is how better men looked. Young men on these photos are lean with not a lot of muscle, but their clothes did fit much better and their faces were way more defined. On women the difference in attractiveness was not as noticeable.

Unless we get into morbidly obese territory, a lot women can have cute feminine faces even if they are somewhat overweight. Sure they won't be smoking hot, but attractive enough for most guys not to instantly reject.

On the other hand a man with equivalent amount of fat will look much less masculine, his face will be chubby and unattractive to most women, and unless very muscular his body will have a bad looking shape.

Majority of people I meet in my age range (late 20s - early 30s) are somewhat overweight due to sedentary jobs and shit food they consume. I think if they got to around 12% bodyfat their outlook on dating would change. Sure there are some that would still be ugly, or even get uglier, but I argue they are a small minority.

There is also my own anecdotal experience, as a regular lifter with good amount of muscle, but struggling with regulating my food intake and yoyoing with weight all my life. When my bodyfat gets below 20% I become much more visible to women and start having success. Currently at 25%+ I might as well be 80 years old...