60 thoughts on “12 Ways Dads Can Stay Lean And Muscular Year Round”

1. No mention of Kratom????

2. My dad is over 60 yrs old. Works out all the time, walks everywhere etc. Never seen this man sick or have any serious injuries a day in my life

3. Wonderful article – a father should be a good role model for his children. If I ever have kids we’ll be spending our weekends in forests and parks and on bicycles, not sat vegetating around the idiot box.
   In terms of keeping lean into middle age and beyond, I’d prioritize eating clean and removing the booze from your life. That’s what kills most men. That’s what gradually turns most of them into Homer Simpson.
   The joy of fatherhood should be to pass on your wisdom, not just directly by talking to your kids, but by example. There are no more strong men depicted on tv; fathers in sitcoms are depicted as bumbling beer swilling idiots, so it’s up to you to set a good example and be a dad that your kids can be proud of, as opposed to becoming another Homer Simpson.

   1. Well said, Dave, examples always speak louder than words! Let’s NOT be Homer Simpsons! 😉

4. My Grandad is a great role model to me on this.. he was a farmer, kept it basic- active lifestyle, meat and 2 veg. He told me his weight didnt change from the age of 20 to where he is now (late 80s). Be a great role model and look after number 1 too. Hes a little hard of hearing but very coherent. Healthy body, healthy mind.

   1. Many of the smartest and longest living people I have met eat a bag of frozen vegetables at every meal.

5. I’m glad we are seeing some of these articles. Me and my wife are expecting our first child – a son – in 4 months.
   This gets the ideas flowing.

   1. i’ve got my first coming in a few months too. i trained the wife pretty well to stay fit before we got engaged, but i’m hoping we can keep it up when we have kids. i’ve seen couples do it, so i know it’s possible.

      1. Keep the calcium in her diet. Not calcium carbonate which is basically inexpensive chalk, but calcium citrate, a premium form. 1st time moms can see their dental health go down drastically. The baby takes up a lot of calcium and the mom’s teeth are the first part of her body to show deficiency. We get grapefruit juice with calcium. Florida’s Natural brand has the citrate form but generic brands have the CaC which is cheap powdered limestone. The citrate form assimilates more properly. I’ve had relatives who got dentures after their second child. This can be prevented with boosting the Ca with proper ratio of magnesium.

         1. I would stay away from sugary fruit juice. Just eat grapefruit instead. Much better.

         2. Pure squeezed is good, especially carrot for vit A.

         3. Its better yes but still not optimal.

      2. Lucky you!

         1. you’ll never hear this piece of advice from the mainstream in this degraded feminist age, but every guy should make sure his girlfriend is serious about staying in shape and controlling her weight before even thinking about getting engaged. not just to avoid being married to a land whale in the future, but also for her health.

         2. Mate, I am seeing a girl at the moment. I have told her in no uncertain terms that she needs to keep herself in shape and watch her diet or she is out the door.
            Introduce your woman to this site: http://www.thefemininewoman.com/

   2. Another motivation for my wife to join me in the workouts is so she has a better time at carrying a child. I was really worried that given her (now past) condition that a pregnancy would physically destroy her (she is well past the prime age to have kids).

   3. Lucky you! Wish you all the best!

6. I just walk the dog and work in the garden. 6’2, 180 pounds. Manage to stay lean, but no muscle definition. Drink too much wine and coffee. High blood pressure.

   1. try to get into lifting. do it gradually. don’t push yourself too hard for the first few months, just focus on making it a habit. if you hate going to the gym as i do, you can accomplish a lot with a few dumbbells and a stability ball at home. beachbody’s “body beast” program is a great one, but there are probably many others.

      1. I need something light. I think I could put to shame a lot of 20 year olds working 5 hours planting and pushing a wheelbarrow. But I am over 50. I am not as strong as before.

         1. that’s why you should start slow and take it easy at first. if you get to where you’re lifting efficiently and you cut wheat, soy, processed foods, and most sugar from your diet, you’ll feel like a new man. sure, it’s a lot of work but the alternative is feeling and looking like you do now.

         2. Will try. I eat mostly rice as far as carbs go. Oatmeal for breakfast. But do love spaghetti. Never eat processed foods. But I need to keep my health up as I want to retire and start a small farm.

         3. yeah man, you’re going to want to be healthy and keep your muscle mass for that. the most important thing is to stick with it. don’t beat yourself up if you have a few bad workouts here and there, just stick with it.
            you might want to check out this book, or at least the article describing it. the gist of it is that as you get older, you’re going to lose most of your muscle mass unless you lift weights:
            http://roguehealthandfitness.com/new-book-muscle-up-coming-soon/

         4. Just curious if you’ve ever read the ‘blood type’ diet by D’Adamo? Your rice and oats are good for A and B blood type. Grains like corn are only good for type A. This book breaks down every food according to blood type. For example some foods are good for one type and very bad for another. Lima beans are bad for A but good for B. Then there are ‘people’s foods’ beneficial for all like broccoli and pineapple. I had an uncle who farmed and he loved sweet corn. Unfortunately corn is a death knell for type O. He was on a nebulizer every winter after regularly eating his corn all fall. I told him to cut the corn and most of his auto immune condition cleared up. Also mushrooms harm type O but benifit A. Any fungal spores wreak havoc with O whereas I being A can eat mushroom salads daily. Also house mold affects O’s but I’ve never been bothered by mold. O’s are red meat & potatoes people whereas A’s are fruigitarian/grains/white fish. B’s are ‘milk & honey’ metabolism literally. Dairy is really only good for type B’s.
            Check this book out. A friend turned me on to the book/diet and she has a lean body like an insect and bikes. The super lean body often results with the blood type diet. I called her a food nazi but then I read the book. I couldn’t put it down until I read all 500 pages.

         5. I am O and LOVE red wine and red meat. Beef stew with potatoes my favorite

         6. Fungal spores things makes sense. Allergies. I replace sugar with honey.Like corn but seldom eat it.

         7. Type O’s burn red meat like feul. It’s type A’s that have problem with it. I used to joke that I can tell a person’s blood type just by looking at them. Actually when I see a married couple, the man is lean and the woman is obese, I know he’s O and she’s A. They eat the same diet but she has problems with arteries and hypoglycemic,etc. No I’m not a vampire but A’s can’t handle red meat well. They’re oats, nuts & greens people. Here’s basically a 1 page food bible for ‘O’. The green column only diet is optimal. If you ate only the ‘avoid’ column, what could go wrong would go wrong in short order.
            https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://top-diet.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/type-o-blood-diet-food-list.jpg&imgrefurl=http://top-diet.com/type-o-blood-diet-food-list/&h=1835&w=1280&tbnid=aAK2foUGlarP0M:&docid=v8RAzWJf5iV6cM&hl=en-US&ei=COl3VvbfIYLCmwGWyKfoBQ&tbm=isch&client=ms-android-boost-us&ved=0ahUKEwj2g7v88uzJAhUC4SYKHRbkCV0QMwgqKA4wDg
            It all comes from this book which takes forever to read. I had to read it slowly.
            http://www.chewfo.com/diets/eat-right-4-your-type-by-dr-peter-j-dadamo-1996-food-list-what-to-eat-and-foods-to-avoid/

         8. Skimmed some of it. Biggest problem for me is eggs. Got 4 chickens and 3-4 eggs daily

7. Keep up the fatherhood articles Return of Kings. That’s what neomasculinity represents as far as I am concerned.

8. Light beers are for pussies my friend!Lol!

9. #7 When going for burger patties I go for 10% fat or less. Less fat to get rid of from my cookware, tastier and leaner, and easier to season or marinade. Either that or I wait for the guys selling wholesale beef to restaurants to show up at my door to sell me leftover meat at discounted prices.

   1. How do you season or marinade? Burger patties should be very lean coming from a real butcher shop since they grind older meat to make hamburgers. If they can’t get the original prime value on days 1-2 they typically smoke or grind that product.

      1. For now, because of the lack of space, I only use lemon juice to marinade.

         1. Lack of space? Seasoning a burger doesn’t require space. Talk to the person you get your meat from. Do you go to a chain?

10. Good article! When I’ll have kids I plan to get really fit like my dad was when I was a child. Good body and a smell of oldschool aftershave.

    1. Foamy and Pinaud

11. Overall an excellent article. 12 “keep”s

12. Thanks for the great article and this is really useful for a lot of guys I’m sure. Personally, I have full custody of a 6 year old son and another part-time (for now) and really need an article like this as a motivator to stay in shape and make healthy choices, particularly for the boys and to be a good example for them.

    1. Just keep doing what you are doing if you are cognoscente improving and have victories under your belt and waistline

13. Copy and pasted from men’s health

    1. That explains it.

14. 13. Avoid added sugar
    14. Avoid processed food
    15. Take kratom supplements

15. A quick note on the myths in the article. Forget about macro-nutrient ratios and lean protein. This stuff grew out of the low fat myth of the Seventies and bodybuilders who claims to get ripped doing this while taking steroids. For that matter I would not call salmon a lean protein.
    Minimize your exposure to sugar, grains and alcohol and eat as much as you want of the rest. Eat light during the day, heavy at night. Do whatever form of physical exercise makes you happy.
    Job done.

    1. sensible macro ratios are needed.
       do you eat92% carbs, 4% protein, 4% fat? didnt think so.
       eat light during day, heavy at night? ha. many say just the opposite. and many others say meal timing is irrelevant.
       id say the truth is in the middle of all that.

       1. Eat heavy during the day and then try and do either physically demanding work or intellectually challenging work. Then try it on a fast (you may have to work up to this) and let me know what happens.
          I have no idea what my macro-nutrient levels are. Neither does my cat. We both stay lean. Consider that.

          1. you probably apply some common sense to your food choices.
             your cat? eats a pre made mix from a bag. unless youve got some ratatouille stuff happening.

          2. My cat doesn’t eat that crap. He’s completely paleo.
             The common sense is not to eat toxins. Sugar, grains and alcohol. Or is that saying the same thing three times?
             Avoid these toxins and eat as much as you want of the rest. No need to worry about calories or ratios.

16. If you neither drink nor smoke, you are way ahead of the game.

17. These steroid filled bodybuilders eat tonnes of lean protein partly because of convention and BB industry bro-science but also because they have insane demands from carrying so much muscle. Your average guy who stays in shape, and has maybe added 15-25lbs(if he’s lucky) of muscle over a lifetime of training has nowhere near that protein or carb demand. Fat can make up a significant proportion of the diet. In fact it’s probably the easiest way to add calories to the diet once other targets(like a minimum protein intake) are met.
    If you are strapped for time and money but need calories, do something like this.
    2 bananas + Milk + 100g ground oats + tblspoon peanut butter/coconut oil/yoghurt. Blend. Drink. Repeat as required. Bare in mind some of us have the opposite to the problem of being too heavy, we forget or don’t have time to eat, and lose our appetite when busy or stressed.

18. Put your kids to work more and make them contribute to the family. They will be raised better and you will have more time to stay healthy. Everyone wins.

19. Some days you just gotta run balls out on black coffee & water, to dump some of that fat into the combustion chamber. Just sayin’

20. When I hit my 40s I turned into a fat slob after a major injury cut my activity level to almost nothing. After getting a health scare (blood test showed my cholesterol was hitting stroke inducing levels) I bought an exercise bike and started into looking into ways of getting back into shape (my right arm was still pretty useless at the time). After my arm healed up enough that I could start rebuilding it (I had extensive nerve damage), I started weight training. Dropped 25+ lbs of fat and my blood work is now excellent. Here is a short version of what I have learned:
    1. Animal fats are good for you. Sugar (including carbs and fruit) is the enemy. When I cut way back on rice, sugar, fruit, fruit juice, and pasta I started losing weight a lot faster. When I added back in fat and protein, I started eating much, much smaller portions and had way more energy in my work outs. I also put on muscle a lot faster and had a shorter recovery time between workouts.
    2. You can eat an unlimited amount of vegetables. Veggies should be a major part of your diet.
    3. If you have high cholesterol, don’t bother with low cholesterol foods. The problem is your body is making too much LDL and maybe not enough HDL. Loosing fat, laying off the booze, supplements (Pantethine which is a version of B-5 and Milk Thistle worked great for me) will go a long way in fixing the issue.
    4.. Endurance training exercises (long distance running and biking) are of limited value. I lost only 5 lbs and it seemed like I was actually losing muscle instead of gaining it. Weight training had the opposite effect. I still use the bike, but I use it in shorter sprints under heavy resistance. It helps build leg muscles that way. Last year my nephew saw me for the first time since I started working out. He went to my wife and said ‘HILN got big!’ (not the fat kind of big). Being strong is good!
    5. A good multivitamin does wonders (again.. I am middle aged). So does some non vitamin supplements like magnesium and boron. Take with care though as you can mess yourself up if you OD on some of them. I take a steady regimen which I tweak every now and then.
    My wife, after getting her own scare finally got on board. She has been doing the above also. Her friends at work (whom she hasn’t told that she is weight training) have noticed she has lost 10+ lbs and gained definite muscle tone in her arms. Even after just a few months, her physique has improved dramatically.

    1. Have to disagree with getting rid of frut.

       1. I was eating 600 to 900 calories a day in fruit. Strawberries, apples, etc. I computed the amount of sugar I was consuming and it was really bad. When I cut out the sugar.. the fat came off and the muscle came on.
          Mind you.. I love fruit.. it was hard to give it up.

          1. Fruit has naturally occurring sugars, plus vitamins and fibre. Obviously, overdoing any food is not good for you.

21. How about lifting weights? This is still the best way to keep muscles (other than injecting steroids).

22. Introducing kids to your life DESTROYS your daily regiment. You need to first prioritize your life so you’ve eliminated a few things so you have the time to eat properly, and that includes obtaining those foods from the market. Otherwise you’ll find yourself without good food in the fridge and going out for more meals. You’ll also face more stress at home and sometimes elect to leave the office just to go out, as you’ll do less of that in your personal life.
    I’d suggest eliminating TV intake and ensuring you go to bed earlier. I’d advocate having some protein shake type meals for when you cannot find time to make a proper meal.
    It’s likely you’ll have less time to exercise so you will not be able to get away with splurges.
    Make better decisions and exercise better time management and you’ll mitigage some of the impact from having kids (and less personal time).

23. I’d also teach your kids how to garden. This will get them learning more about their food choices and gives you some access to veggies. Just keep that TV off.

    1. It will also let them know what real vegetables look like. Their faces light up with pride when they grow, harvest, cook and eat the fruits of their labour

    2. You can do it even if you don’t have land. I have a modest hydroponic setup on my flat roof.

       1. I do a mix of that and use community garden space. There are ample resources for container gardening in limited space.
          I also think people need to add learning that gardening can be year round or outside the short summer season.

    3. I’ve been blessed with just enough property to do my own elevated bed gardening and it makes for great family time as well as gets the kids learning a valuable skill if the SHTF.

24. Just a couple of observations:
    1) Wine is typically better than beer because beer contains xenoesterogens.
    2) I disagree with the lean proteins because your body NEEDS fat. Eating the good fats (steak, eggs, olive oil, coconut oil, fatty fishes) will ensure that you get a full feeling and are less tempted to snack on carbs. Basically a high protein, moderate fat. and low carb diet (especially processed carbs) will ensure that you get down to a good weight, and keep it off.

25. I am not yet a father, but I decided to bookmark this anyway.
    Thanks.

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