Don't let 'dad-bod' syndrome cut short your time as a dad

Fair time is fun-time, and it's not just the talent show, rodeo or tractor pull.

For a lot of us, it's those high-fat, low-nutrition, sugar-laden junk food treats that appear only at the county fair.

If you're a dad thinking about buying a funnel cake to enjoy while watching your tot ride the carousel, think about this: a "dad bod" is a real thing.

According to a study from Northwestern Medicine, the typical 6-foot man who lives with his child gains about 4.4 pounds after becoming a dad, and even those who don't live with their children gain about 3.3 pounds.

Non-dads?

The same average 6-foot man actually lost 1.4 pounds over the same period.

Tracking the weight of more than 10,000 men from adolescence to young adulthood, the study found a 2.6 percent rise in body mass index for resident dads and 2 percent for non-resident dads.

We remember an old Mad Magazine cartoon in which a woman lamented that her weight gain could be attributed to sin.

"My kids leave all this food on their plates, and it's a sin to waste it, so I eat it!"

It's true that a young father with children is more likely to be exposed to leftover pizza, cookies, ice cream and other snack food.

But that's not all.

"You have new responsibilities when you have your kids, and may not have time to take care of yourself the way you once did in terms of exercise," said Dr. Craig Garfield of Northwestern University.

But that responsibility shouldn't come at the expense of your own health.

"The more weight the fathers gain and the higher their BMI, the greater risk they have for developing heart disease as well as diabetes and cancer," Garfield said.

Taking good care of your children includes taking care of yourself so that you can be there for them as they grow up.

Unfortunately, a lot of new dads don't have their own doctors.

That's why pediatricians and primary care physicians should counsel dads about taking care of their own health.

"New dads are coming into the health care system as a pediatric chaperone," Garfield said. "This is an opportunity to talk about things that are important for dad's health and the child's health and to offer dads nutritional counseling and mental health education."

"We now realize the transition to fatherhood is an important developmental life stage for men's health," Garfield said. "It's a magical moment where so many things change in a man's life. Now the medical field needs to think about how can we help these men of child-rearing age who often don't come to the doctor's office for themselves."

So before you overindulge at the county fair, or anywhere else for that matter, take a second to think about staying around for your kids.