Why do we get so fat during the winter?

Consider your expanding waistline a not-so-friendly reminder of your evolutionary ancestry

Pizza
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Your bathroom scale isn't lying: You really are gaining winter weight. Consider it an unmistakable reminder that long before we were regularly bombarded by ads featuring the immaculate abs of celebrities and multi-day cleanses that taste like grass clippings, our ancestors needed those extra couple of pounds to protect them against the season's inclement weather. From an evolutionary standpoint, it's why that extra helping of pasta, that greasy slice of pizza, or even that stale, sprinkled donut all appear extra tempting when the temperature drops a few degrees.

Indeed, Dr. Norman Rosenthal explains at Psychology Today that winter's waistline-sabotaging ways may have something to do with a brain chemical that prods us into craving carbohydrates:

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Chris Gayomali is the science and technology editor for TheWeek.com. Previously, he was a tech reporter at TIME. His work has also appeared in Men's Journal, Esquire, and The Atlantic, among other places. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook.