The "dad bod" is a relatable physique characterized by a bit of softness around the waist, often accompanied by decent arms and legs but with extra belly fat. This phenomenon is often attributed to the lifestyle changes that come with partnering and parenting, including increased stress, altered sleep patterns, and changes in dietary habits. While the dad bod may seem like a harmless stereotype, it can have adverse implications for your health, including increased body fat and a greater risk of chronic diseases. Fortunately, the dad bod is not an inevitable consequence of fatherhood and can be reversed with the right approach. This article provides a comprehensive guide to reclaiming your health and transforming your dad bod into a leaner, stronger physique.
Understanding the Dad Bod Phenomenon
The temporal patterns of serum testosterone levels can vary markedly among men throughout their lifecycle. While testosterone is known to regulate reproduction and reproductive behavior, studies have shown a neuroplasticity component of testosterone, with responses to social and environmental cues, including partnerhood and parenting. A ten-year follow-up of 1,113 men showed an influence of marital status on testosterone levels. While the social and environmental factors that reduce testosterone levels in married men appear to be somewhat commensurate and complementary with the changes that occur with mothers, there are adverse implications of this phenomenon as reduced testosterone has been identified as a risk factor for numerous chronic diseases, increased body fat, a greater risk of dying and the Dad Bod Phenomenon.
The dad bod is typified by carrying excess fat, particularly around the midsection. This increase in abdominal adiposity is associated with metabolic inflexibility, impaired fuel switching, and energy dysregulation. Research shows that 56% of new fathers fall into negative health behaviors within the first 12 months after their child is born, with poor sleep being the primary driver. Even a sleep deficit of just two hours per night has been shown to impair fat loss and accelerate muscle breakdown during dieting. Sleep loss increases levels of ghrelin (the hunger hormone), reduces leptin (the satiety hormone), and elevates cortisol - a stress hormone that encourages fat storage around the midsection. The result? And it’s not just about energy or fat gain. Sleep deprivation weakens motivation, mood, immunity, and your ability to stay consistent.
Fatherhood adds an entirely new layer of pressure. That stress doesn’t just live in your head - it has a direct, measurable impact on your body. Over time, chronic stress has been linked to a wide range of serious health consequences - including increased risk of heart disease, diabetes, and accelerated aging. What’s more, stress often leads to short-term coping behaviors that make things worse: skipping workouts, drinking more alcohol, relying on ultra-processed food, and cutting corners on sleep. If you want to stay lean, strong, and energized, stress management isn’t a ‘nice to have’.
New fathers lose an average of five hours of physical activity per week compared to their pre-parenthood baseline. That drop has real consequences - not just physically, but mentally. Muscle is metabolically active. When you stop training, you don’t just lose strength - you reduce your body’s ability to burn calories. Without resistance training, muscle mass declines, your metabolic rate slows, and fat storage increases. Regular strength training reverses that trend.
Read also: The Hoxsey Diet
The dad bod doesn’t just affect you. Fathers often act as the physical activity role models in a household. Studies show that kids mimic their parents’ eating, movement, and lifestyle habits from a young age. These early influences shape a child’s relationship with food, fitness, and self-care for life. You’re not just training for yourself.
Reversing the Dad Bod: A Multifaceted Approach
There are a number of factors that can potentially reverse the Dad Bod Phenomenon. Most of these are related to the lifestyle circumstances that became situationally out of balance with partnering and parenting. To effectively combat the dad bod, it's crucial to address the underlying lifestyle factors that contribute to its development. This involves a multifaceted approach that encompasses diet, exercise, sleep, stress management, and environmental factors. In previous articles I discussed using SPEED (Sleep, Psychological Stress, Environmental Factors, Exercise and Diet) to biohack your metabolism.
1. Prioritizing Sleep
Sleep modulates neuroendocrine function and glucose metabolism. Loss of sleep, a common occurrence in parenthood, has been correlated with metabolic and endocrine alterations, including glucose intolerance, insulin resistance, elevated cortisol, increased ghrelin and decreased leptin, all of which can increase hunger and appetite and the risk of obesity. Aim for 7-9 hours of quality sleep per night. To improve sleep quality, consider the following:
- Establish a consistent sleep schedule: Go to bed and wake up around the same time each day, even on weekends.
- Create a relaxing bedtime routine: Engage in calming activities like reading, taking a warm bath, or listening to music before bed.
- Optimize your sleep environment: Make sure your bedroom is dark, quiet, and cool. Invest in blackout blinds or an eye mask to eliminate light and use white noise to drown out environmental distractions.
- Limit screen time before bed: The blue light emitted from electronic devices can interfere with sleep.
- Avoid caffeine and alcohol before bed: These substances can disrupt sleep patterns.
- Split night duties with your partner strategically: If one of you is bottle feeding, alternate shifts so each gets a block of uninterrupted sleep.
2. Managing Stress
Stress is a state of disrupted homeostasis. It can be caused by both intrinsic and extrinsic factors. The body’s response to stress is mediated by the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal-axis and the autonomic nervous system. Chronic stress can lead to a wide range of diseases and syndromes, including metabolic syndrome, which is characterized by the combination of central obesity, insulin resistance, dyslipidemia, and hypertension. In addition, obesity represents a low-grade systemic inflammatory condition that plays a key role in a number of chronic diseases. Effective stress management techniques include:
- Mindfulness meditation: Practicing mindfulness can help you become more aware of your thoughts and feelings, allowing you to better manage stress.
- Yoga: Yoga combines physical postures, breathing techniques, and meditation to promote relaxation and reduce stress.
- Spending time in nature: Studies have shown that spending time in nature can lower stress hormones and improve mood.
- Acupuncture: The effects of acupuncture stimulation at PC6 (Neiguan) on chronic mild stress-induced biochemical and behavioral responses.
- Transcendental Meditation: Altered responses of cortisol, GH, TSH and testosterone to acute stress after four months' practice of transcendental meditation (TM).
- Music-assisted relaxation: Music-assisted relaxation to improve sleep quality: meta-analysis.
3. Minimizing Exposure to Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals (EDCs)
Environmental chemicals, also known as endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs), have significant impacts on health. Exposure to these chemicals can dramatically alter disease susceptibility. There are a wide range of toxic substances thought to cause endocrine disruption. Some of these include: pharmaceuticals, dioxin, polychlorinated biphenyls, pesticides, and components of plastics such as bisphenol A (BPA) and phthalates. EDCs are found in many everyday products, including plastic bottles, metal food cans, detergents, flame-retardants, food additives, toys, cosmetics, and pesticides. Because EDCs interfere with the synthesis, secretion, transport, activity and elimination of natural hormones, they can block or mimic normal hormone action, causing a wide range of effects. To minimize exposure to EDCs:
Read also: Walnut Keto Guide
- Choose BPA-free and phthalate-free products: Look for products labeled "BPA-free" and "phthalate-free," especially when it comes to plastic containers and food packaging.
- Avoid heating food in plastic containers: Heat can cause EDCs to leach into food.
- Wash fruits and vegetables thoroughly: This can help remove pesticide residue.
- Choose organic produce when possible: Organic farming practices minimize the use of pesticides.
- Use natural cleaning products: Many conventional cleaning products contain EDCs.
4. Incorporating Regular Exercise
In a cohort of 10,500 men [mean age = 58 years], as compared with those who did not engage in any weight training activity, men who engaged in ≥25 min/day of weight training had a smaller waist circumference and a lower body mass index, spent fewer hours watching TV, consumed less trans-fat, ate more fiber, engaged in more moderate to vigorous aerobic activity, had a higher glycemic load diet and had a better diet quality overall. Exercise is the foundation of any transformation, and it's crucial for combating the dad bod. Aim for a combination of strength training and cardiovascular exercise.
- Strength training: Strength training is the single most effective tool to fight fat gain, preserve muscle, and maintain a high metabolism. Focus on compound lifts like squats, presses, rows, and deadlifts. A well-structured strength workout can be completed in 45 minutes, three to four times a week - whether that’s in the gym, or at home. Muscle is the engine that keeps fat gain at bay. Three to four focused strength sessions per week, lasting around 45 minutes, is more than enough to drive body recomposition (building muscle, and losing fat). Prioritise compound movements like squats, deadlifts, presses, and rows. When your schedule is under pressure, strength training is essential - and it’s the most time-efficient way of getting results. Neglect it, and muscle loss, weight gain, and energy dips are almost guaranteed to follow.
- Cardiovascular exercise: Engage in moderate to vigorous aerobic activity for at least 150 minutes per week. This could include activities like running, swimming, cycling, or brisk walking. Not every workout has to be inside a gym. Daily movement outside of structured training, known as NEAT (Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis) plays a huge role in increasing your daily calorie burn and keeping fat off. Push the pram for an hour-long walk while your partner rests. Play active games at the park. Every bit of movement counts. Daily activities beyond exercise are important to increase overall energy expenditure and support fat loss.
- Cory Gregory's Shred Your Dad Bod program: A Men’s Health workout program, showcases that philosophy, letting you pack on muscle and strength and redefine your body in just 40 minutes a day, four days a week. All you need is a set of dumbbells and a bench-along with the will to fit in these quick training sessions. You’ll do efficient, powerful exercises that torch fat and build muscle, including:Farmer’s Walk Few moves are more multipurpose than the farmer’s walk. The simple exercise gets you lifting heavy, and simply by the act of carrying those heavy loads, you’ll build serious forearm strength and midback strength, while challenging your core muscles, too. And as you move from place to place with your weights with no rest, you can expect to ramp your heart rate, making this a unique blend of strength work and cardio all rolled into one. Pushup and Incline Dumbbell Press Superset In order to place new challenges on the body without always making you simply increase the weights, Gregory frequently programs supersets like this one. You’ll do 10 pushups to start each set, prefatiguing your chest and triceps, then flow right into incline dumbbell presses. Blends of moves like this (and circuits) continually set you up to build muscle and strength, while keeping your mind engaged with fresh, interesting workouts.
- Jim Stoppani's Workout Plans: Jim Stoppani, Ph.D., has the ultimate blueprint to make it happen. With his science-backed workout plans, tailored diets, award-winning supplements, online coaching, and cutting-edge workout app, the Dad Bod Destroyer approach is your ticket to a leaner, stronger you. His most popular programs-Shortcut to Shred and Shortcut to Size-are perfect for obliterating a dad bod.
- Shortcut to Shred: A 6-week fat-burning beast, Shortcut to Shred combines heavy lifts with high-intensity cardio acceleration (think burpees between sets) to melt fat while preserving muscle. That stubborn gut doesn’t stand a chance. The program’s supersets and cardio bursts target visceral fat, helping you slim down while keeping your strength.
- Shortcut to Size: A 12-week muscle-building program, Shortcut to Size focuses on foundational lifts (squats, bench press) with progressive overload to pack on lean mass. More muscle means a faster metabolism, burning fat even at rest.
5. Optimizing Your Diet
Diet plays a major role in reclaiming your buff body. As previously discussed, the Dad Bod is characterized by an increase in abdominal adiposity, which is associated with metabolic inflexibility, impaired fuel switching and energy dysregulation. Nutrition is where most new dads struggle. When energy is low, takeaway food and processed snacks become the default. The solution doesn’t have to be complicated diet plans or macro tracking spreadsheets. Build repeatable meals around lean protein, vegetables, and a controlled portion of fats or carbs. Keep go-to staples like rotisserie chicken, microwaveable rice, eggs, Greek yoghurt, and frozen veg ready to go.
- Prioritize protein: Aim for 1-2 grams of protein per pound of body weight daily. Good sources of protein include lean meats, poultry, fish, eggs, dairy products, and legumes. Eat protein every 3-4 hours to support muscle repair.
- Control carbohydrate intake: Carbs fuel workouts but should taper off later in the day-start at 0.5-1 gram per pound and adjust based on fat loss. Choose complex carbohydrates like oats, rice, and vegetables over simple carbohydrates like sugary drinks and processed foods. On rest days, cut carbs slightly to keep fat loss on track.
- Incorporate healthy fats: Healthy fats are essential for hormone production and overall health. Good sources of healthy fats include avocados, nuts, seeds, and olive oil.
- Limit processed foods and sugary drinks: These foods are high in calories and low in nutrients, and they can contribute to weight gain. Consumption of Ultra-Processed Foods and Health Status: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.
- Stay hydrated: Drink plenty of water throughout the day.
- Consider intermittent fasting: Have an early dinner and don’t eat until noon the next day.
- The goal of this diet is to keep everything simple and easy to follow. Grab a food scale and your favorite food tracker and make sure that you’re adding in everything. Remember, everything is measured in grams and ounces, don’t use percentages because they’re useless. Find an app or simply write down your current weight to track your progress. You can have a weekly cheat meal, like a burger and fries (just an example), and make sure that it is not excessive. My personal alternative: Blend all this together and drink it.
- Jim Stoppani's Diet Plans: Jim’s diet plans, like Dieting 101 and Super Shredded 8, are customizable to fit your life, whether you’re grilling for the family or grabbing lunch on the go.
6. Supplementation
- Pro JYM: Jim recommends 1-2 grams of protein per pound of body weight daily (think steak, eggs, or Pro JYM shakes) to build muscle and stay full.
- JYM Supplement Science line: Jim’s JYM Supplement Science line is designed to amplify your Dad Bod Destroyer plan. These aren’t magic pills-they’re research-backed tools to boost performance and recovery.
- Pre JYM: Pre JYM fuels workouts with caffeine, creatine, and beta-alanine for energy and endurance. Take Pre JYM 20-30 minutes before training.
- Post JYM: Post JYM, with BCAAs and glutamine, speeds recovery to keep you hitting the gym hard. Sip Post JYM within 30 minutes after.
- Vita JYM: Vita JYM delivers key vitamins and minerals (like zinc and magnesium) lost during intense workouts, supporting overall health. Take Vita JYM with breakfast and Omega JYM with any meal.
7. Reducing Alcohol Consumption
For many new dads, a nightly drink can become a coping mechanism - a way to unwind after a chaotic day. Alcohol consumption is one of the most common negative health behaviors among new fathers, particularly in the first year after a child is born. Alcohol disrupts sleep quality, lowers testosterone, impairs muscle repair, and ramps up cravings for sugar and processed food the following day. Reducing alcohol to just social events - or cutting it out entirely - is one of the fastest ways to improve energy, fat loss, and sleep quality.
Staying on Track: Tips for Success
- Set realistic goals: Don't try to overhaul your entire lifestyle overnight. Start with small, achievable goals and gradually build from there.
- Track your progress: Monitor your weight, waist circumference, and body composition to track your progress and stay motivated. Use the app to log waist size and lifts.
- Find a support system: Connect with other dads who are on a similar journey. Share your experiences, challenges, and successes.
- Be patient and persistent: It takes time and effort to transform your dad bod. Don't get discouraged if you don't see results immediately.
- Online coaching: Jim’s online coaching via jimstoppani.com is like having a Ph.D. in your corner. With access to over 300 programs, live Q&As, and personalized advice, you’ll get tailored guidance to crush your dad bod.
- Community Support: The JYMARMY, with 125,000+ members, shares tips and keeps you motivated.
- Jim Stoppani Workout App: Busy dads need flexibility, and the Jim Stoppani Workout App delivers. Available on iOS and Android, it’s your portable trainer, tracking every set, rep, and meal.
The Importance of a Healthy Lifestyle
The ‘dad bod’ isn’t just a harmless stereotype. This isn’t solely about how you look. It’s about how you feel, how you perform, and how long you stay healthy for your family members who rely on you. The dad bod doesn’t just affect you. Fathers often act as the physical activity role models in a household. Studies show that kids mimic their parents’ eating, movement, and lifestyle habits from a young age. These early influences shape a child’s relationship with food, fitness, and self-care for life. You’re not just training for yourself.
Beyond the physical risks, it impacts energy, sleep, mood, and productivity. You can get lean and strong without living like a monk - but it does require trade-offs and sacrifices. Occasional treats like pizza or a beer can be fine within a structured plan. What most dads discover is that feeling fit, strong, and energised is far more rewarding than short-term comfort eating. With efficient workouts, smarter nutrition, and better habits, you don’t have to choose between being fit and being present for your family.
Read also: Weight Loss with Low-FODMAP