Part of the mismatch between statistics and what one observed is surely social class. Most people I know are also a normal weight (I think) but there other parts of the city or country where one will see many overweight people.
Another part is that people often don’t know what an overweight or obese person looks like. That is, people hear the word and think of someone who waddles instead of walking or who takes up two seats on an aeroplane or who needs a mobility scooter to get around. But the actual boundaries are much closer to normal weight and often lie inside what we think of as normal. (See The BMI Project, dead link: https://kateharding.net/bmi-illustrated/ and photo album: https://www.flickr.com/photos/77367764@N00/sets/721576021990... )
it might be true that there's a false perception of what overweight looks like, but I don't notice even a little bit of fat. I did my undergrad at a technical university where the standard was noticeable lower and overweight/obese people did actually exist. But it's very different here and it actually motivated me to work out every week. I didn't want to be the only one not really in shape. I wasn't overweight, just not really in shape either.
Another part is that people often don’t know what an overweight or obese person looks like. That is, people hear the word and think of someone who waddles instead of walking or who takes up two seats on an aeroplane or who needs a mobility scooter to get around. But the actual boundaries are much closer to normal weight and often lie inside what we think of as normal. (See The BMI Project, dead link: https://kateharding.net/bmi-illustrated/ and photo album: https://www.flickr.com/photos/77367764@N00/sets/721576021990... )