Fatherhood Makes you Fat!
A new study released in the American Journal of Men’s Health analyzed the BMI of more than 10,000 men from adolescence into their mid-30s through data collected from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. By comparing three groups — nonfathers, resident fathers (who live with their children) and nonresident fathers — researchers from Northwestern Medicine discovered the dad groups showed an increase in BMI between adolescence and fatherhood.
In fact, a regular 6-foot-tall man living with his child gained an average of 4.4 pounds after becoming a dad for the first time, according to the study. There was only a slight difference for the nonresident dads. Those fathers gained, on average, 3.3 pounds.
“Regardless of what kind of father you were,” Garfield said, “Your weight actually increased. So all fathers ended up increasing their weight as they go through fatherhood.” Garfield serves as associate professor of pediatrics and of medical social sciences at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and attending pediatrician at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago.
The study accounted for factors such as race, education, income and screen time as well as marriage status, which has been shown to affect weight. Though all the young men’s BMI showed an increase over time due to age, additional weight gain was shown to be contingent on fatherhood status, according to the study.
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