City worker, 36, went from ‘dad bod’ to six pack

A new father who refused to succumb to having a ‘dad bod’ after the birth of his son has showed off the results of his impressive 10kg weight loss. 

City worker Alex Royle, 36, was ‘fired up’ to drop fat after his friends warned him he would struggle to get fit after welcoming his first child. 

Determined to prove them wrong, Mr Royle, who works in financial services, signed up to Roar Fitness – the brainchild of Olympian Sarah Lindsay which promises clients a complete transformation and the ‘body of their dreams’ in as little as 12 weeks.    

Following a high protein diet and lifting heavy weights, Alex, who is from London, went from 12st 4lb to a lean 10st 8lbs in just 12 weeks.  

Alex told MailOnline: ‘I started the programme because I wanted to fight the classic ‘Dad bod’ trope. Previously I’ve been relatively fit and played sports a lot but a combination of lockdown and a new job and baby wasn’t helping.

‘If I’m being honest, all my mates who’ve had kids were like, ”this’ll happen, get used to it, you’ll be fat and tired all the time” – but that actually spurred me on.

‘I was fired up and wanted to prove my mates wrong. You don’t have to have to give up.’

As he embarked upon his weight loss journey, the city worker replaced his desk-based convenience lunch with a protein-laden tupperware and started training four days a week. 

The workout programme involved a split phase of lower and upper body training and saw Mr Royle increase his weights over time.

He said: ‘I trained four days a week, Monday to Thursday, so the trainer had to manage it so that I wasn’t having a break.

‘We did consistent weight progressive overload. The weights that I was moving went up every week and I was lifting heavier weights all the time. So it was always good mentally to look forward to it because I had an expectation of what I could do.

‘I was relatively fit and strong before and so I wasn’t surprised initially because I got back to that position I was in when I was younger – but the increase continued beyond where I’d been previously.

‘But I was able to maintain having that strength that I had, while being 10kg lighter.’

He added: ‘I thoroughly enjoyed it – I had a preconception it’d be a challenge both physically and mentally which helps. I also wanted it to be a shock to the system. 

‘I thought I knew what I was doing in the gym, how to count macros, and how to diet but obviously I didn’t.

‘Before the programme, I’ve never been shy of doing weights and I did CrossFit. During lockdown, with the gyms being closed, we had a Peloton so I was doing that in order to keep going and to keep some structure but I wasn’t really doing anything constructive.

‘After lockdown I started Roar in the middle of summer, which everyone said was a strange thing to do. 

‘But I thought everyone’s going to go nuts, spend loads of money going out eating and drinking, and obviously there is a cost to do these sort of things. 

‘Over the course of 12 weeks I probably would’ve spent the same amount of money going out every night so I decided to do it as a way to abstain from that.’

The city worker said his wife was ‘very supportive’ during his journey and his colleagues would even stop him from having a beer in an effort to help him, which Mr Royle found ‘phenomenally flattering’. 

Mr Royle (left and right after his transformation) replaced his desk-based convenience lunch with a protein-laden tupperware and started training with weights

The father-of-one said the workout programme involved a split phase of lower and upper body training 

Mr Royle signed up to Roar Fitness which is the brainchild of Olympian Sarah Lindsay (left and right)

Alex worked with Roar trainer Luke Grahame (pictured) throughout his 12-week transformation 

The Roar menu: ‘Basa Amor’

Roar Fitness nutritionist Matt Lindsay shares one of his dinner recipes  

INGREDIENTS:

Frozen basa fillets 

Green beans 

Cous Cous 

Spices, for seasoning 

Stock cube (optional) 

METHOD: 

Preheat oven to 180C

Wrap two frozen basa fillets in tin foil and place in an ovenproof dish 

Season with salt, pepper, paprika and a squeeze of lime for a zesty and tangy flavour 

Bake for 25 minutes 

Steam a handful of green beans for seven minutes  

Take 170ml of boiling water and add to 110g of cous cous, stirring a couple of times before leaving to absorb 

Add stock cube and any veg to the cous cous for added flavour 

Serve, and enjoy  

He continued: ‘My wife was very supportive – we’d eat different things throughout the week while looking after our son as well. 

‘She was incredibly supportive throughout and I think she was surprised when you look at the photos alongside one another.

‘I can be fairly bloody minded and I threw myself into it.

‘I didn’t tell many other people that I was doing it but my colleagues were supportive to the point where they’d allow me to go to the pub  but stop me having a beer. They’d defend my investment in myself, which was phenomenally flattering.

‘I didn’t tell anyone else until the end and everyone was quite surprised.

‘The way they did it was if I had something to do – like our wedding anniversary meal – I didn’t want to ruin the anniversary because I’d decided to do this quite frankly, vain thing.

‘Everyone was very accommodating to life happening and that was nice because I was expecting to be told, ”If you don’t stick to it, you won’t get results.”

Alex said he ate ‘a lot more fish than he had ever done’ during his programme and made a conscious decision to eat less meat – opting for tofu curry instead of chicken.

He said: ‘I ate a lot more fish than I ever have done and a lot of tofu. I wanted to make a conscious decision to eat less meat. 

‘I would make a Tofu curry instead of chicken and I enjoyed trying to make that using spices as opposed to a simple stick a chicken-in-a-pot meal.

‘I drank the odd bit of wine throughout. 

‘Did I miss cheese – yes. That’s the one thing that I did do but that’s offset by the fact that you train, see the changes in yourself.

‘I prepared meals and cooked a weeks’ worth of lunches in the evening. If I was preparing something I might have a glass of wine with it. Maybe once or twice a fortnight. It’s something I enjoy but it was still able to be built into it.

‘I’ve carried an awful lot of it into my everyday life and routine now. I still prep food and take meals into work, if only because doing that saves a remarkable amount of money over time.   

‘I’m more relaxed around things now. In the evening I can eat with my wife and share meals without it having to be onerous on the other person. 

‘If I want to have a pastry in the morning then that’s absolutely fine. But the core backbone about how I think about food has been carried over. I enjoy the process and its very simple. Knowing that is quite empowering.’

Alex said he was now more mindful of his diet and ‘it is as much an education as it is a transformation’.

He added: ‘I am more mindful now – I’m more mindful of wanting to eat vegetables. Instead of loading up a plate with loads of bread, I am thinking about what I’m putting in my body and I feel good about doing that.

‘It was definitely an education as much as it was an exercise. 

‘A lot of the people I have spoken to say things like, ”you’ll have month off after and you’ll end up in a worst place”, but I think you get out what you put in. It is as much an education as it is a transformation. 

‘I had an old injury but working with Luke so closely – four hours a week over 12 weeks – we worked on some things and I feel like I have less niggles than I did before the intervention. 

‘It’s about looking after your body, working on weakness, building muscle. It is completely therapeutic and I’ve had a very positive reaction and outcome.’ 

Roar Fitness has gyms in Kensington, Bank and Liverpool Street and new weight training classes done online from home, or in the Kensington studio. 

Roar Fitness has gyms in Kensington (pictured), Bank and Liverpool Street