Top Ten Reasons People Are FatThe Washington Post points us to a report in the International Journal of Obesity whose authors looked at more than 100 studies on potential contributors to obesity, besides diet and exercise, The experts concluded that there was at least some scientific support for the following ten reasons:1. Inadequate sleep. (Average sleep amounts have fallen, and many studies tie sleep deprivation to weight gain.)2. endocrine disruptors, which are substances in some foods that may alter fats in the . Nice temperatures. (Air conditioning and heating limit calories burned from sweating and shivering.)4. Fewer people smoking. (Less appetite supression.)5. Medicines that cause weight . Population changes. (more middle-agers and Hispanics, who have higher obesity rates.)7. Older birth moms. (That correlates with heavier children).8. Genetic influences during . Darwinian natural selection. (Fat people outsurvive skinny ones).10. Assortative mating, or "like mating with like," as Allison puts it. Translation: fat people procreating with others of the same body type, gradually skewing the population toward the heavy the way it feels, losing weight isn't a mysterious process. It's a simple matter of burning more calories than you eat. But, if it were really that simple, none of us would have a weight problem, would we? Weight loss can be such a struggle that we start thinking we have to do something drastic to see results -- diets, pills or those weird fitness gadgets on infomercials that promise instant success. The true secret to weight loss is this: Make small changes each and every day and you'll slowly (but surely) lose those extra pounds. The key is to forget about instant results and settle in for the long run.