Harry Jameson’s 10 rules for beating the midlife paunch, plus a 20-minute strength workout to try at home. As originally published in The Times.
“Don’t fool yourself into thinking that 1-2lb gained every so often is not a bad thing,” says Jameson.
For 20 years Harry Jameson’s career as a hands-on personal trainer and coach ― pushing politicians and celebrities to their physical best ― meant it was no stretch to stay in shape himself. “I was always in a gym or in an environment where it was very easy for me to work out,” he says. “I was always incredibly physically active and never had a problem maintaining my weight and physique.”
As most parents will recognise, things got trickier with the arrival of his son and daughter, now five and three. “Your responsibilities change when you have your kids, quite rightly, and you just don’t have the same amount of time you once did to exercise,” says Jameson, who has just turned 42. As he quickly discovered, even if you are supremely fit, “if you aren’t careful, it can quickly show on your waistline”.
Then two more challenges were thrown into the mix. Last year he underwent a hip replacement procedure after years of intermittent but progressively debilitating pain caused by osteoarthritis and partly inherited risk factors. This was followed by him starting his burgeoning health business, Pillar, which involved setting up wellbeing centres and restaurants around the world.
“Running my own company, I found I was a lot more deskbound,” he says. He began to see a slight thickening around his waist and creeping pounds on the scales. “I have noticed a big physical difference in the past couple of years. I gain small amounts of weight much more easily than I used to. If we have a week away on holiday, eating and drinking well every day, I can definitely feel it around my middle when I get back.”
It is a phenomenon common among fathers. A study in the American Journal of Men’s Health analysed data on 10,263 males from the age of 12 and for up to 20 years afterwards. What the researchers from Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine found was that becoming a father, regardless of whether or not the dads lived with their children, meant that men were an average 4lb heavier than those who remained child-free.
During the study period, first-time fathers experienced a 2.6 per cent increase in their BMI whereas men who didn’t become fathers typically lost 1.4lb in weight. Of course, many men gain weight as they age, but in this study the researchers had accounted for other factors that might explain the increases and deduced that the gains depended on whether or not the men were dads, thanks to changes in eating, activity and leisure schedules.
It resonates with Jameson. Becoming a father often coincides with hormonal changes due to ageing and rising demands at work. “Your routine changes dramatically and there are constant new challenges, which are all part of being a dad,” he says. “I love to be home for bathtime and to read to them but one of us has to get up if they wake in the night, so sleep is often disrupted, and some men I know say they find themselves snacking more and moving less than they used to.” But, he says, a dad bod is not inevitable. “Even small changes can help you to combat the paunch and weight gain,” Jameson says. “You will also feel more energised to run around with your kids.”
Here’s how he juggles family life with running a business and keeping the dreaded dad bod at bay.
1. After the age of 40, stretch for 10 minutes a day ― no excuses
This is the No 1 rule. We become less flexible as we age, a result of hormonal and joint changes, but also less mobile as we spend more time sitting down. My hip flexor muscles are so much tighter since I have been spending more time in meetings and at a desk, so mobility needs to be a focus. Even if all of my other workouts get pushed aside or rearranged, I always fit in my daily stretching routine. I focus on full-body mobility with some yoga-inspired exercises such as the cat-cow stretch, windmill circles with the arms and hip flexor stretches, each performed for 60 seconds. I usually finish off with a breathing exercise ― just lying down and closing my eyes, breathing in for a count of four and out for a count of eight ― which helps to de-stress.
2. Slash portion sizes and eat more protein
I really love my food and don’t want to give up my favourites, such as a Sunday roast with a glass of red wine. As I get older I have to be more mindful about how much I eat and do more to offset it. Before having children I was a big fan of the 16:8 time-restricted eating. This means consuming all your daily food within an eight-hour window and fasting for the remaining 16. I used to do this four or five days a week ― skipping breakfast and eating between 11am and 7pm. It kept me in good shape.
As I got older, I found myself getting really hungry in the evenings. I still think it is a great way to eat if it suits your lifestyle, but I now focus more on managing portion control. I’ve simplified my life by eating more consciously and try to avoid ultra-processed foods and have cut back on sugar, salt and alcohol.
My staple diet is a large bit of protein with lots of vegetables for main meals. I love steak or salmon with potatoes and a pile of greens. I feel much better for eating three meals a day but it does require discipline to put a bit less on your dinner plate. Sometimes I will have a glass of red wine with a meal but if you overdo the alcohol it impacts sleep and heads straight for the middle. Every three or four months I might do a three-day fast as a detox and a reset, but only if it fits in with family life.
3. Take more power naps
Anyone with a young family knows that sleep patterns go out of the window with children. Because a new baby or a toddler doesn’t sleep through the night, neither do you. It is a cruel irony that just when you need more sleep, you typically get less than you used to. It can be a hard grind but the only option is to get as much shut-eye as you can, knowing that any extra minutes are beneficial to body and mind. Taking power naps when you can and sleeping when the baby sleeps are a good idea if that works for you.
It’s during sleep that a man’s body produces hormones such as testosterone that are essential for muscle maintenance and health. In an ideal world the target is seven to eight hours’ sleep, but you might not manage that when your children are young. Psychologists from the University of Warwick who contributed to a study in the journal Sleep found that after the birth of a first child the sleep satisfaction and duration of mothers and fathers does not recover to pre-parenting levels for up to six years. In the first three months after the birth of a child, fathers got approximately 15 minutes less sleep a night, which continued until the child was four to six years old (admittedly the mothers fared worse). Try not to stress about lost sleep and get as much as you can.
4. Make yourself exercise even when you don’t feel like it
It is easy as a new dad to let your fitness drop off a cliff then struggle to regain it. Keep things ticking over as much as you can in those early days. For me it was trying to lift weights twice a week, running a couple of times and keeping my mobility up. We all have days when we don’t feel up to it. Doing a little bit of exercise when you least feel like it can have a powerful effect on future motivation, so keep it up.
5. Morning is the best time to work out
Develop a strategy to fit in some exercise as early in the day as possible. For me it is in the morning between 6.30am and 7.30am before everyone else is up. If I leave it until later, life takes over and there are more opportunities for me to find excuses not to do it. I also find that working out early makes me feel infinitely better for the rest of the day. I am more energised, focused on work and I feel good for having done something. “Win the morning, win the day” is my motto.
6. Even gaining 1-2lb is a sign to act
Dads don’t put on weight or gain a paunch overnight. It is the imperceptible creeping pounds that you need to keep an eye on. Don’t fool yourself into thinking that 1-2lb gained every so often is not a bad thing. My weight had always been fairly stable, but the combination of less time to exercise and lots more travel with business lunches meant I gained a couple of kilograms last year and that was incredibly hard to shift.
The harsh reality is that hormonal changes, such as a drop in testosterone levels, mean your metabolism slows after 40 and losing 2-3kg in time for your summer holiday is much harder than it was in your twenties. Keeping tabs on your waist circumference is a good idea. In health terms a waist circumference below 94cm (37in) is considered low risk by experts, but try to avoid any additional centimetres. With middle-age spread comes the risk that your organs are surrounded with dangerous visceral fat, which is a risk factor for metabolic disorders and type 2 diabetes.
7. Do squats and lunges ― the best defence against midlife muscle loss
One of the big negative signs of ageing is sarcopenia, the gradual loss of muscle mass in your forties. It happens to everyone, but men experience bigger muscle mass losses because they have relatively higher amounts of muscle mass to start with. This means the effects can be pronounced, both visibly and in terms of strength reduction.
A strong predictor of longevity is the extent to which men are able to hold on to muscle as they age. If time is limited, you need to focus on weights exercises that give the biggest bang for their buck. Compound exercises use more than one muscle group at a time to execute a move and are essential for the avoidance of a paunch. They include squats, lunges, push-ups and pull downs.
Focus on compound exercises that target the large muscles of the body, such as those outlined in my plan, in two or three weekly strength sessions, and you can help your body to naturally increase its testosterone production, which is important for strength maintenance and muscle health.
8. Have a sauna regularly ― for healthy joints and better immune function
For years I have taken a sauna four or five times a week and believe it to be immensely helpful for my joints and general health. Research backs up my theory. A review of sauna benefits in the journal Mayo Clinic Proceedings showed that saunas are helpful for people with all forms of arthritis and have beneficial effects on circulation and immune function.
Just sitting in a sauna helps me to relax and the practice has been shown to relieve stress. Results of global sauna reviews by Australian researchers in the Complementary Therapies in Medicine journal found that people who used a sauna 5 to 15 times a month had better mental wellbeing, while 83.5 per cent of them said they slept better after a sauna session. Check with your GP before using a sauna if you have underlying health conditions, but otherwise I recommend it.
9. Run (or walk briskly) twice a week to boost heart health
As you reach your forties, maintaining cardiovascular fitness as well as strength is hugely important for longevity and health. Try to do some form of aerobic exercise two or three times a week for at least 30 minutes to keep your heart and lungs healthy. For me, that means running, because the mental and physical lift I get from it is unrivalled. It is hugely therapeutic.
I used to love five-a-side football but the twisting and turning movements of sports such as football, squash, tennis and rugby are notorious for causing injuries, whereas brisk walking and running have been shown to stimulate healthy joint cartilage rather than destroy it.
It shocks and saddens me that more than half the dads I know in their thirties and forties would not be able to put on their trainers and go for a 5km run. They complain their knees are shot, their back hurts or they are scared they might harm themselves. Running gets a bad press as being harmful to the body, yet studies have shown that it can be good for joint health in the long term and it is certainly a lot better than doing nothing. One paper in the British Journal of Sports Medicine showed that only 3.5 per cent of recreational runners have osteoarthritis of the knee or hip compared with 10.2 per cent of sedentary people.
10. Take up golf (or something else you enjoy)
It is important to carve out a bit of time for yourself when you can and for me that means heading to the golf course with friends. You clock up a fair amount of steps playing golf, and that is always a good thing, but for me the benefits are for my mind and brain. It is time away from the daily routine and we all need that sometimes.
Last year research from the University of Eastern Finland and the University of Edinburgh published in the BMJ Open Sport & Exercise Medicine journal showed that playing an 18-hole round of golf was as effective as completing 6km Nordic walking or regular walking in immediately boosting cognitive function in older adults, as measured in a series of tests before and after they played. It doesn’t have to be golf, but find an activity or hobby that leaves you feeling energised and refreshed.
If you are new to strength training, start without weights. Once you can do the exercises with good form, add light dumbbells and increase the weight as you build strength.
Start with lighter weights and 8-12 repetitions (or as many as you can manage) and build up to 3-4 sets. Increase the weight you lift when it becomes too easy (about every fortnight). Do this circuit 2-3 times a week ― it should take you 20-25 minutes.
Bent-over row
Stand with feet shoulder-width apart and hold a dumbbell in each hand with arms straight at your sides. Bend forwards, hinging from the hips. Bend your knees, keeping your back straight and allow the arms to hang straight down. Squeeze your shoulders together to “row” the weights up to chest level. Slowly lower back down and repeat 8-12 times.
Deadlifts
Stand with feet shoulder-width apart and hold a dumbbell in each hand by your side. Keep toes pointing straight ahead, back straight and shoulder blades pinned back. Push your hips back and allow the dumbbells to lower towards the floor, keeping the weights close to your thighs. At the point the weights reach just below your knee, bend the knees slightly to lower the dumbbells slightly closer to the floor. Next drive up through both feet to raise the dumbbells, pushing your hips forward and squeezing your glutes until you return to the standing start position. Repeat 8-12 times.
Bench press
Lie on a bench with feet flat on the floor and a dumbbell in each hand. Raise the dumbbells to the side of your chest with palms facing forwards, elbows bent at a 90-degree angle. Keep shoulders pulled down and back. Press the weights up overhead until elbows are fully extended. Don’t flex the wrists ― this might cause unnecessary strain. Slowly lower the weights back down to chest height so they are almost level with the armpits. Repeat 8-12 times.
Split squats
Hold a weight in each hand and stride forward with your left leg. Squat down by flexing the knee and hip of the right leg. The right leg should almost touch the floor. Push back to the start position. Repeat 8-12 times.
Squats
Stand with feet shoulder-width apart and with your toes pointing slightly outwards. Hold a dumbbell in each hand and bend the elbow so the weights are positioned just in front of the shoulders, facing forwards. Keep your back straight and head facing forward. Squat down until your thighs are almost parallel to the floor. Push through the heels to return to the start position. Repeat 8-12 times.
Thrusters
Hold a weight in each hand in front of your shoulders, palms facing each other. Drop into a squat by bending the knees. Forcefully drive up with the legs and simultaneously press the weights straight overhead until your arms are fully extended. Return to start position. Repeat 8-12 times.