Flat Dad Dave

Pizza baker. Father of 4. Helping 40+ dads lose weight sustainably while keeping their pizza, sanity & family. AI coach. No extremes. 🧔‍♂️🍕

[Flat Dad Dave @FlatDadDave]

https://t.co/lhg6Vapt4M

[Flat Dad Dave @FlatDadDave]

@Codie_Sanchez Awesome. I’m buying this and I’m going to read it with my 11year old

[Flat Dad Dave @FlatDadDave]

The diet food is gone.

The effort to make a brownie out of soil and beef or something weird is gone and instead the kitchen closes after dinner.

The rest of the time real food, simple, repeatable.

If it needs a marketing budget to be edible, it isn't food.

[Flat Dad Dave @FlatDadDave]

I'm done with on the wagon off the wagon.

No more binary thinking about my health.

Now it's a dial. Some weeks life is at max and the dial is close to zero but we are still moving towards the goal.

[Flat Dad Dave @FlatDadDave]

@joeyyochheim That’s why I don’t really trust those measurements and even with weight it’s a longer term progression your looking for

[Flat Dad Dave @FlatDadDave]

Recognise this?

[Flat Dad Dave @FlatDadDave]

@BowTiedYukon I’d like to think they’ll see it when they look back on their childhood: a present dad with energy to chase them round the park.

[Flat Dad Dave @FlatDadDave]

I run a pizza business. Two days a week I'm a joiner. Four kids, the youngest 12 weeks old.

And I'm losing weight while keeping Friday night pizza.

This isn't a "shred." It's a system that works in a messy life.

[Flat Dad Dave @FlatDadDave]

My kids don't care what I can bench or if I've got abs (that are carefully protected!).

What they want is a dad who's not afraid to jump on the trampoline at the park. My 11-year-old still wants to get beaten in a sprint. My 4-year-old wants me to lift her up one-armed to see the toys on the top shelf while I've got the baby in the carrier.

Fitness for a dad isn't a mirror result. It's an energy result.

I train so I can keep up. I'm ready to chase or catch or make laugh.

You don't need to be a ripped dad. You need to be a present one.

Dads: what's the one thing you want to be able to do with your kids that you can't right now? 👇

[Flat Dad Dave @FlatDadDave]

Dads don't have a knowledge problem, just an exhaustion problem.

In 11 weeks I've lost 5kg, ~0.5kg per week except one week where I put on 1kg.

That would have derailed me in the past, and have me reaching for the Hobnobs.

But the truth: that week was a week from hell. Not much sleep, one of the most stressful pizza pop-up nights. And all that stress, the cortisol, makes you hold onto water.

The system works and I trust it now in the mess of a normal dad's week from hell.

Trusting the process is all it takes sometimes.

[Flat Dad Dave @FlatDadDave]

The fitness industry loves you failing.
It means you'll be back for the next program or the next magic pill.
They don't care if the pain of the failure means it's a year, two years down the line when you feel like switching back to health again.
When I had barely the mental capacity to brush my teeth, I knew that my health was going to suffer, but I still held onto my goal. Instead of switching off, I dialled down.
This is the key to the long-term success of any lifestyle change.
At one point the dial was down to a level that was barely noticeable: maybe thinking about choosing a high protein meal.
As the mental load lightened, I didn't have to start again. I just had to dial it up.
Hit protein.
Hit steps.
Make it to CrossFit.
Dial down. Don't dial out.

[Flat Dad Dave @FlatDadDave]

The goals were never really set down.
New baby. No sleep. 3 other kids meant that for a few weeks the goal seemed further away.
I dialled the system down to almost nothing and left it there, waiting.
No shame about it. That was the design.
Eleven weeks ago I started dialling it back up.
Protein first. Showing up for 6:30am CrossFit class running on fumes. Then everything else, one lever at a time.
5kg down in those 11 weeks.
The system survived the part where there was no plan. That's why I'm back here instead of starting from zero.
You don't need a plan for your best week. You need one that's still standing after your worst.
Dads: what's the one thing you kept hold of when life went sideways? 👇

[Flat Dad Dave @FlatDadDave]

There was one week I didn't. I know exactly why (most people hide the bad weeks like the skint gambler who only ever wins).

The system doesn't need perfection. It needs honesty.

[Flat Dad Dave @FlatDadDave]

10 weeks. No posts. Newborn in NICU, then home. Peak Pizza eating season. Three kids on school holidays. No sleep. No tracking. Barely functioning.

Still lost weight after the initial weeks of hospital craziness.

[Flat Dad Dave @FlatDadDave]

@itscharlieelmes It really is that simple- a small restriction over a long time for the win

[Flat Dad Dave @FlatDadDave]

@flabbytofit99 Most fitness transformations also don’t take into account 4 kids, 2 jobs and a heathy love of pizza😂

[Flat Dad Dave @FlatDadDave]

The online gurus want you to feel guilty. It's how they sell.

I'm just a tired dad trying to lose 10kg, telling you what's working as I go.

Anyone else in the trench? What's actually working for you? 👇

[Flat Dad Dave @FlatDadDave]

Don't read another "if I had 30lbs to lose I'd do this" post. These lads have never been in the trench. Here's what I'm actually doing to lose 10kg — thread 🧵

[Flat Dad Dave @FlatDadDave]

Half a kilo a week. That's it. Slow, boring, and some weeks the scale just shrugs at you.

I stopped caring about the flat weeks. What matters is showing up again on Monday. Twenty weeks of that. That's how 10kg actually gets lost.