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How Men’s Bodies Change When They Become Fathers

parenting.nytimes.com

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Re: How Men’s Bodies Change When They Become Fathers

#41

Post by kristiandupont »

techie128 wrote: post #26

I am sure the author means well. However, this makes little sense from an evolutionary standpoint. Although humans have evolved far more than most animals on this planet, the basic idea of evolutionary biology remains the same. In the wild, males have to hunt (provide food), protect the new born(s) and their mate(s) from threats. Therefore having the same level or higher levels of Testosterone is a biological imperat…

>this makes little sense from an evolutionary standpoint

I am certainly no expert on this area but it sounds to me like you are concluding that the study must be invalid, based on a bit of armchair science.

Re: How Men’s Bodies Change When They Become Fathers

#42

Post by DoingIsLearning »

Looking into the T drop in fatherhood, the original study seems to account for self reports of 'sleep quality' but I wonder if sleep deprivation is not still a confounder in this finding.

Annedoctally as a recent father of a 6 month old, I would likely self report a good sleep quality in a questionnaire. However, objectively I know I sleep about 5 hours 30min yesterday evening, which would be sufficient sleep 'deprivation' to impact T production.

Also I think parents in general will also have strong bias to not want to acknowledge their own child as a 'nuissance' in a survey/questionnaire.

My key point is that it would be important to reproduce this finding with actual sleep tracking instead of self-reporting sleep quality, to confirm if this is indeed linked with a bonding/interaction mechanism with a child or an unfortunate secondary effect of sleep deprivation.

Re: How Men’s Bodies Change When They Become Fathers

#43

Post by bambataa »

btmiller wrote: post #38
ijiiijji1 wrote: post #29

Random Q: I have to lose 40 lbs getting dad-bod sans dadness right now (medication side-effects). 0. Has anyone seriously looked into variations of intermittent fasting &| extended fasting? 1. Did you have brain fog after hunger went away after a few days, or less fog? 2. What about maintenance vitamins, electrolytes and preventing gallstones? 3. How long did you continue for, until hunger returned?

Most reliable method in my own experience: simply eat less. Eat your normal amount of meals, shovel it in your mouth, but stop before finishing the whole portion. I eat maybe 75% of each meals and toss the remaining bits. Do it for a couple months and watch the weight magically shed off. It works because it requires no change in meal-type habits; it’s simply fewer calories. End of the day, that’s always the goal and…

Can’t you just serve yourself less food rather than deliberately wasting a quarter of it?

Re: How Men’s Bodies Change When They Become Fathers

#44

Post by yitchelle »

muzani wrote: post #19
ademup wrote: post #2

"Certain areas within parts of the brain linked to attachment, nurturing, empathy and the ability to interpret and react appropriately to a baby’s behavior had more gray and white matter between 12 and 16 weeks than they did between two and four weeks." For you father-programmers out there: did you notice any changes in your programming/work abilities around the 12-16 week mark?

I always took off 3 months from work per baby. There's no point coding when you're always sleep deprived. Last year the company agreed to about half the salary, so I'd work from home on some things, or come in half the week or half a day as needed. Then again I did notice I was very good at understanding baby talk. Taking from some old notes of my 5 month old baby: "eh eh eh", but no crying at 6 AM = "I need a diaper…

You could extrapolate that into an app. :-)

But seriously, congratulations on getting to that level of bonding with child. It was also the same for me and it is magical!

Re: How Men’s Bodies Change When They Become Fathers

#45

Post by techie128 »

kristiandupont wrote: post #41
techie128 wrote: post #26

I am sure the author means well. However, this makes little sense from an evolutionary standpoint. Although humans have evolved far more than most animals on this planet, the basic idea of evolutionary biology remains the same. In the wild, males have to hunt (provide food), protect the new born(s) and their mate(s) from threats. Therefore having the same level or higher levels of Testosterone is a biological imperat…

>this makes little sense from an evolutionary standpoint I am certainly no expert on this area but it sounds to me like you are concluding that the study must be invalid, based on a bit of armchair science.

The ideas I have presented are not 'armchair science'. They're widely accepted in the field of evolutionary biology.

Re: How Men’s Bodies Change When They Become Fathers

#47

Post by [deleted] »

btmiller wrote: post #38
ijiiijji1 wrote: post #29

Random Q: I have to lose 40 lbs getting dad-bod sans dadness right now (medication side-effects). 0. Has anyone seriously looked into variations of intermittent fasting &| extended fasting? 1. Did you have brain fog after hunger went away after a few days, or less fog? 2. What about maintenance vitamins, electrolytes and preventing gallstones? 3. How long did you continue for, until hunger returned?

Most reliable method in my own experience: simply eat less. Eat your normal amount of meals, shovel it in your mouth, but stop before finishing the whole portion. I eat maybe 75% of each meals and toss the remaining bits. Do it for a couple months and watch the weight magically shed off. It works because it requires no change in meal-type habits; it’s simply fewer calories. End of the day, that’s always the goal and…

[deleted]

Re: How Men’s Bodies Change When They Become Fathers

#48

Post by seventhtiger »

techie128 wrote: post #45
kristiandupont wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>this makes little sense from an evolutionary standpoint I am certainly no expert on this area but it sounds to me like you are concluding that the study must be invalid, based on a bit of armchair science.

The ideas I have presented are not 'armchair science'. They're widely accepted in the field of evolutionary biology.

It's not widely accepted that humans are more evolved than other animals. Whether males are the hunters or not depends on the species. In lions, the males are more concerned with territory while it is the females who hunt.

The species closest to us all don't hunt. They're opportunistic omnivores.

Re: How Men’s Bodies Change When They Become Fathers

#49

Post by lnsru »

After becoming father I experienced biggest weight loss ever. I went from 260 lbs to 200 lbs. During the months not being chained to a table with computer I was living healthy life. Lots of time outside with stroller or baby carrier, healthy food for baby and me. Few years later I am at 220 lbs again.

Re: How Men’s Bodies Change When They Become Fathers

#50

Post by reallydontask »

DoingIsLearning wrote: post #42

Looking into the T drop in fatherhood, the original study seems to account for self reports of 'sleep quality' but I wonder if sleep deprivation is not still a confounder in this finding. Annedoctally as a recent father of a 6 month old, I would likely self report a good sleep quality in a questionnaire. However, objectively I know I sleep about 5 hours 30min yesterday evening, which would be sufficient sleep 'depriv…

> Annedoctally as a recent father of a 6 month old, I would likely self report a good sleep quality in a questionnaire. However, objectively I know I sleep about 5 hours 30min yesterday evening, which would be sufficient sleep 'deprivation' to impact T production.

When our 9 month old started to sleep through the night (at around 4-5 months), we'd get between 5-6 hours of sleep, which after the interrupted sleep of the previous 4 months, felt like a full night's sleep but this is sleep deprivation territory, specially given the fact that it was 7 days a week.

I know I could only survive on this little sleep because I wasn't exercising.

> Also I think parents in general will also have strong bias to not want to acknowledge their own child as a 'nuissance' in a survey/questionnaire.

I think this is one of the biggest taboos in Western society:

Anything about a newborn/small child must be 100% positive

This is absolute bullshit

I can see the downsides of having a child without loving him (in my case) any less

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