The only reason why “overeating caused this huge fat mass to grow inside my body” sounds more plausible than “overeating caused this huge tumor to grow inside my body” is that the former theory follows the Sin Theory of Obesity
I think the first sounds more plausible because the story “humans store caloric excess as fat in times of plenty and burn it off in times of scarcity” is the kind of thing that we should have as a hypothesis-under-consideration before we look at the link between calorie intake and body mass. Whereas “humans store caloric excess as cancer” (or as fetuses) isn’t. And if that story is true, then “eating lots of caloric excess causes lots of fat to be stored” isn’t automatically true, but again it’s definitely something we should have under consideration.
So if your line here is meant to be taken a priori—that is, if you’re saying “even without actually looking at the link between caloric intake and body mass, there’s no reason to believe overeating-causes-fat any more than you’d believe overeating-causes-cancer”, then it seems just wrong.
Maybe you meant it a posteriori? Something like “okay but overeating studies show that eating lots of caloric excess doesn’t by default cause lots of fat to be stored, so you no longer have a plausible explanation”?
But then at least two other reasons come to mind for why overeating-causes-fat might still seem more plausible than overeating-causes-cancer. One is that someone might not believe that studies show what you think they show. Another is that someone might just be bad at propagating updates. Currently, these both seem more likely to me than your “sin theory” theory.
I think the first sounds more plausible because the story “humans store caloric excess as fat in times of plenty and burn it off in times of scarcity” is the kind of thing that we should have as a hypothesis-under-consideration before we look at the link between calorie intake and body mass. Whereas “humans store caloric excess as cancer” (or as fetuses) isn’t. And if that story is true, then “eating lots of caloric excess causes lots of fat to be stored” isn’t automatically true, but again it’s definitely something we should have under consideration.
So if your line here is meant to be taken a priori—that is, if you’re saying “even without actually looking at the link between caloric intake and body mass, there’s no reason to believe overeating-causes-fat any more than you’d believe overeating-causes-cancer”, then it seems just wrong.
Maybe you meant it a posteriori? Something like “okay but overeating studies show that eating lots of caloric excess doesn’t by default cause lots of fat to be stored, so you no longer have a plausible explanation”?
But then at least two other reasons come to mind for why overeating-causes-fat might still seem more plausible than overeating-causes-cancer. One is that someone might not believe that studies show what you think they show. Another is that someone might just be bad at propagating updates. Currently, these both seem more likely to me than your “sin theory” theory.