Does excess weight alter body shape?

Einhard

Apologies if the answer to this is obvious, but it's not to me. I was thinking about it today because of my own experience. When I was in my early teens I was quite tall and very slim. My height levelled out, and I remained not only slim but quite slight. Around 15 I started putting on weight, and I kept it up so that I hit 18 stone a few years back. As well as putting on fat, I also bulked up quite a bit. I'm relatively broad of chest and shoulder, especially compared to my younger self, and indeed to my brothers. So, I was wondering, could this broadening of my body have been due to carrying all that weight around? I've lost a good bit of the weight now, and am delighted with my shape...could it have been an accidental "good" side-effect of my weight?

If you're putting on weight in your teens especially I would've thought the calorie excess would allow for constant maximal growth during the teens. My dad was always very slight til his late 30s, everyone in his family was, same in my mother's. When I look at cousins other than the gym rats they're pretty much all slightly built whereas I ended up a lot thicker even sans the fat.