What you want to do is create a lifestyle that best suits what you've got on your plate. You mentioned depression for women who gain weight but not for men who do the same. Society has created unreasonable weights for all. Besides that there might be some more complicated hormonal shift that occurs with extra fat cells. It is a great question.
Men enjoy having a little pot belly.
They seem to have a place to rest their hands. Woman need to represent some physical ideal as a trophy for society. But, Barry, you see so many overweight women today on TV, in film, in business. Many of them look great, dress well and seem emotionally centered and are accepted as they are. Or, I should say larger people.