Hello Shannon. Sarcasm is easy, but the fact is that the various ailments that people cite as being the “real” cause of problems with weight simply didn’t exist prior to our current over-abundance of calorie-heavy but nutrition-lite foods. I grew up in third world countries and the first fat person I ever saw was a visiting American. Likewise European obesity rates only began to rise with the advent of McSlop & Co and the move to highly processed calorie-intensive foods. So yes, we can all cite a wide range of “causes” that helpfully avoid the need to make better lifestyle choices for ourselves, but I’m not sure that’s actually a very helpful approach.