How to Build a Muscular Dad Bod

Let’s be honest, REAL dad bods are not attractive, but let’s learn how to build a muscular dad bod.

It’s true that the media has sensationalized the allure of the dad bod. Polls say that women like dad bods more than their shredded counterparts. I was very skeptical at first, because let’s be honest, that is not how it works in reality.

Women may say that they would prefer a dad bod in the moment, but is it actually true? I went to the internet to find out what kind of dad bod that these women are looking at to make their decisions.

Let’s first talk about the dad bod. The term itself came about in the early 2010’s, but can be traced back as far as 1994. Dad bods are essentially the body of a man who is not obese, but not skinny. They are in the transitioning phase between the two.

Now, we have to make a distinction between actual dad bods, and the dad bods that the media portrays to viewers. Let’s have a look.

Actual dad bods

Muscular dad bod according to the media

As you can see, there is a discrepancy, because what the media wants us to believe are dad bods are actually muscular celebrities that are taking a break.

In fact, the muscular celebrity dad bods are fairly desirable for most people, because they all have a good amount of muscle under there. All they have to do is diet for a few months and then the media will go nuts because of how shredded they are.

Now that we have made this important distinction, it’s time to see what we can do to build a muscular dad bod of our own.

Step 1: Hit the gym

If you want a muscular dad bod, the first thing that you are going to have to do is go to the gym. It’s fairly simple and straightforward. What do we mean by going to the gym though? It is important what type of workouts you do.

Strength training is your friend. Are you the type of person who can stick to a plan? All you have to do is strength training 3-4 days per week. If you need help with how to do this the easy way, download All Workouts: Personal Trainer (iOS | Google Play). This app has FREE built in workout plans and was created for building muscle.

If you are not the app type of person, you can also check out our exercises to gain weight for skinny guys.

Really, there is no secret here. You need to go to the gym to build muscle, and if you are doing that, then you are well on your way to getting the body you want.

Step 2: Eat a ton of food

We are making the assumption here that you want a muscular dad bod because you are skinny. Or maybe you are overweight, but you want that muscular physique. If you are overweight and want a dad bod, you might want to check out our workout guide for overweight nerds.

Ok, so you are skinny or average, and you want to put on muscle and weight in order to achieve that dad bod with muscle look. You are going to want to eat! You must listen here. If you are already skinny, you aren’t eating enough food to achieve this look.

My goals were never to have a dad bod, but the same rules apply here as they did to me when I was trying to break free from scrawny jail.

Learn how to find your maintenance calorie intake, and go from there. The goal is to eat more food than your maintenance calories.

What I normally recommend for people looking to build muscle is to eat 500 calories over your maintenance per day. But since you want to build a muscular dad bod, let’s crank it up to 1000 calories per day to ensure that we gain not only muscle, but also fat.

Step 3: Monitor your progress

This is something that I had to learn the hard way on my journey. I never took pictures of myself before. I never weighed myself before. Now I just have to go with pictures that were taken around the same time to monitor progress.

When you are working out all the time, and eating a ton of food, you aren’t going to notice your progress. While it is fast to the outside observer, it does not appear fast to someone who sees themselves in the mirror everyday.

Use an app like MyFitnessPal to track your calories. Use an app like All Workouts: Personal Trainer to track your weight training progress and use the workout plans. Weigh yourself every week and note that.

Main Point: Building a muscular dad bod is easy

If you have read any fitness advice before, it may seem overwhelming with the amount of precision that it requires.

Luckily for those that want to build a dad bod with muscle, it is way easier than that. All you have to do is eat a ton of food, and do weight training 3-4 days per week. That’s it!

The key to getting the look that we want here is to build muscle AND fat. This may seem counterintuitive, because this is against the mainstream view that we must eliminate fat immediately.

This is your life, and if you want a beast dad bod, this is what we are going to have to resort to. Best of luck on your journey.

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