Summer’s coming… but don’t give up the dad bod
With middle-aged men under pressure to ‘muscle up’, Lauren Libbert has a confession to make
Iturned into the magazine aisle when I spotted him: the grey-haired 56-yearold Swedish model, Anton Nilssen, on the cover of April’s Men’s Health magazine – flaunting a bronzed, muscled torso and six-pack most twentysomethings would die for.
The cover lines screamed “Fit at Any Age” and “Dad Bod to Dad Strong” – a rallying call to any midlife man with a paunch passing by, to abandon their trolley full of crisps and frozen pizza then and there and head for the nearest cross trainer.
I thought momentarily of my perfectly lovely and cuddly partner, who’s just a couple of months off Anton’s age and tries his best to eat healthily, swimming every weekday morning and running on the treadmill twice a week, but can never quite get rid of his dad tum.
Gawping at this Adonis, I suddenly felt aggrieved, on his behalf, that all this chisel and hunk was being presented as an attainable goal for midlife men – when it clearly isn’t.
“Not only do genes play a big part but this guy has probably been training all his life, or at least since his 20s,” says personal trainer James Crossley, founder of fitat40plus. co.uk, “To look like this – at any age, really – you have to live like a monk and train at least four or five days a week, watching your diet closely, packing in a good night’s sleep and not drinking or going out to eat. It’s especially unrealistic for a normal middle-aged man, as testosterone levels decrease as you get older and muscles start to shrink, and your metabolism slows down. So even if you eat the same amount of food, you’ll put on weight because the body doesn’t burn up fat as efficiently – leading to the famous ‘dad tum’.”
I manage to speak to Swedish muscle man Anton himself, who concedes that
physical activity has always been a huge part of his life.
“I try and do exercise every day, seven days a week, even on Christmas Day,” he says. “This can be anything from a 45-minute high-energy training session in the gym to playing tennis, swimming, kayaking or cross-country skiing as I love being outdoors. I never see exercise as a burden. Yes, it’s my job as a model but it’s always a pleasure.”
He also watches his diet very carefully and is a flexitarian, eating mainly fish and vegetables – “lots and lots of vegetables” – and swears by one dietary secret: fermented food. “I buy sauerkraut in jars from the supermarket and eat it before or with every meal,” he explains. “It helps with my metabolism and seems to keep all the bad things from my body away.” He says his girlfriend is less active than him, as she has a fulltime job, and I am suddenly flooded with empathy for her. What fun is it being a fitness widow? I think I speak for most women when I say I’d rather have a slightly tubby partner than a salad-eating gym bore I never see.
There’s more pressure than ever on men to keep in shape – and that’s not such a bad thing when you consider the statistics. In England, only 22 per cent of men aged 45-54 are considered to be a normal weight, with a third obese and 46 per cent overweight.
But there’s something depressing in the same impossibly youthful ideals that women have been presented with for decades now being targeted at men. While age-defying Anton may look incredible, the chiselled models on the cover of Men’s Health are not where your average Joe should be looking for inspiration.
The Bodyguard star Richard Madden made headlines after expressing concerns over the drastic body transformations actors are pressured to undergo in preparation for their roles.
“We’re projecting a very unrealistic body image,” he admitted. “I find myself with actor friends – after we’ve done a kind of barely eating, workingout-twice-a-day, no-carbing thing for these scenes – looking at each other going: ‘We’re just feeding this same s--that we’re against’.”
“Midlife men are definitely worrying about their waistline and love handles more and, just like women, they’re feeling the pressure to keep looking good as they get older,” says Crossley, who’s 48. “We’re living longer and 40 doesn’t feel that old. But while changing your body shape is very possible midlife, it has to fit into your lifestyle and be realistic.”
Rock-hard abs are not only a nigh-on impossible dream for men in their 40s and 50s – they’re just not necessary for success and sex appeal.
Leonardo Dicaprio is proud of his human-looking tum, drinking beer and boasting to models at a pre-fourth of July bash a couple years ago about how he doesn’t work out. Actors Paul Rudd, Jason Segel and Vince Vaughn have also made highly successful careers on the back of being funny and cuddly.
So, Anton Nilssen, your six-pack and discipline are truly admirable – but I for one am standing up for the endangered, and ever-lovely dad bod.
Men are definitely worrying more about their waistline – just like women