The Internet has been buzzing recently with talk of the “dad bod” trend. Apparently many women think a little extra weight around the midsection, what could be considered more common among men with kids, is a welcomed and attractive attribute.
The New York Times decided to take a look at some stats to determine whether or not the softer, rounder dad bod is actually more common among fathers.
They took a look at men ranging from 18 to 45 years of age and compared those who had children who were under 18 and at home with those who did not. They found that on average, dads are 10 pounds heavier than non-dads; they’re carrying nearly an extra two inches on their waist; and their bellies stick out an extra half-inch.
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Here’s how they came to this conclusion:
We know this because the government’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention takes stock of our national beer gut. Every few years the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey herds about 5,000 men and women into medical trailers to be poked, prodded, measured and weighed. Critically for dad-bod science, health care workers measure the sagittal abdominal diameter by having the subject lie flat on a table so that they can measure how high the navel sits above the table surface to get an objective, scientific assessment of the gut.
The latest data from this survey found that half the non-dads in our 18-to-45 bracket had a sagittal abdominal diameter of less than eight inches, but only 29 percent of the dads did. But dads seem to wear their extra paunch with some degree of comfort. Despite the extra 10 pounds, nearly as many dads described themselves as being “about the right weight” as those who are not dads. (The exact proportions are 49 percent and 53 percent.)
Putting on some extra weight can also just be a consequence of aging, and as The Times pointed out, married men tend to carry a little extra weight as well. But they pointed out that there does seem to be a direct correlation with fatherhood and a slightly cushier frame.
So how come the “mom bod” isn’t a thing? Not shockingly, there seems to be a double standard in play.
Nobody’s talking approvingly about the “mom bod,” even though the same data show approximately equal parenthood gains in weight, waistline and belly size for men and women. Parents of both sexes adjust their expectations in the same way: Moms in our age bracket were eight pounds heavier than the non-moms, but much like the dads, they adjusted their average desired weight targets up (by four pounds). Yet both moms and non-moms are much more likely than dads and non-dads to report that they tried to lose weight in the last year, and on average women report they would like to lose about twice as much weight as men.
Unfortunately it seems that women more often feel the pressure to shed those extra pounds while men can get cozy with the dad bod status. As long as both moms and dads are staying generally healthy, that’s all that should really matter.
