My wife was 5’9 140 or so when we got married. She’s in her mid 30’s and has had 2 kids now, so she’s probably bigger than she’d like to be, but she was tall and thin when we got together.
I dated a girl that was about 5’4 and maybe 130 pounds back in college. Had another girl I dated that was 6’3 and in really good shape(collegiate volleyball player, no idea what she weighed).
I went on a lot of dates but only had a couple girlfriends before marriage. I’m certain that there were a ton of women who wanted no part of a fat guy, but I can honestly say that I never asked a woman to go on a date and had her say no. I wasn’t walking up to 9’s or 10’s I’d never met and asking them to go on a date, but I was always dating attractive women who I had spent at least some time in a social setting with. Figure out who thinks you’re smart and or funny and hope that “tall” and “smart” or “funny” checks enough boxes. Failing that, offer to pay.
I’ll stop short of saying I was an athlete, but I was athletic. I had multiple offers to walk on at D1 schools for football, and was going to go to a D2 school on partial scholarship before an injury the summer after high school. So, I was muscular while being fat, but at 6’7, I look less fat than I really am. I also was constantly hanging around big dudes, so I think women were tricked a bit. My brother is 6’5 260, my best friend is 6’4 280, the 2 guys I lived with in college were a 6’4 330 and 6’5 280. Between coming from a family of big dudes(dad is 6’7 300, both grandfathers were over 6’4), having a large part of my social circle being football players and working bouncing gigs in the summers, I was just always around people who made me look more normal, and I think it worked. My wife has been falling for that trick for 10 years now.