Podgy men across the globe rejoiced when college student Mackenzie Pearson wrote her now famous ‘dad bod’ essay, in which she summed up the less-than-perfect physique as:

A nice balance between a beer gut and working out”

And now, extensive research has been published that proves there is a direct correlation between an expanding girth and fatherhood. As Time reports:

In a study published in the American Journal of Men’s Health, Dr. Craig Garfield, a pediatrician at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and his colleagues dove into a database of 10,263 men beginning when they were 12 years old and followed them for up to 20 years. They looked specifically at how body mass index (BMI), a combination of height and weight, changed over time as the men either became fathers or did not, and for those who did, whether they were what the researchers called resident fathers who lived with their children, or non-residents who lived separately.

The results are pretty staggering:

Whether or not they lived with their kids, becoming a father was linked to around a 2kg increase in weight https://www.aldaorg.net/buy-vardenafil/ over the study period, while remaining child-free was associated with over half a kg weight loss for a six-foot-tall man.

This is all very well, except I know plenty of childless dudes in their early to mid twenties who are proud ‘dad bod’ owners.

Men, and in particular young men, are typically less proactive about taking care of their health. Garfield notes that while many men will quit smoking and drink less and otherwise try to become healthier when they become fathers, there may be other factors associated with caring for kids that counteract those good intentions, such as being surrounded by more kid-friendly, high calorie foods and snacks, as well as their leftovers.

Sounds a lot like excuses to me, but at least now we know if being fit and ripped is your number one priority, beware the fattening side-effects of reproduction. Alternatively, embrace the love handles and keep them looking smooth and sexy with a nice pamper session.

Oh and in case you missed it, here’s Derrick Watts & The Sunday Blues’ hilarious dad bod Taylor swift mash-up.

[source: Time]