Dean McMenamin Fitness

Dean McMenamin Fitness Former Army Trainer. Men's coach. Join the FREE Dad Bod Debrief and build the 2.0 version of yourself here: https://deanmcmenamin.co.uk/the-daily-debrief-2/

25/09/2026

Should you feel hungry when losing body fat?

We want to do a lot of things the off-sets hunger, like eat more protein, lots of food bulk and fibre from low calorie foods like veggies and fruits. High fibre, slow digesting carbs, and drinking plenty of water.

But even if you get all of that right, you have to expect a little bit of hunger pangs, especially leading up to your next meain meals - and that's a good sign as your body will likley start tapping into those fat reserves for fuel.

So lean into that.

Try to avoid reaching for a snack everytime you feel a bit of hunger.

It's a good thing. Healthy for you, even.

Dean

PS - I write and send regular free emails helping busy dads over 35 with nutrtion, training, and mindset to lose fat, get stronger and live a fit life. Want in on it? Comment the word 'debrief' below and the details will land in your inbox.

24/09/2026

Is it bad to run the day after training legs when you have DOMS?

There's 2 ways to look at this:

1) Recovery run.

An easy run at a conversational pace is one of the best things you can do to help your lower body recover - more blood flow, faster recovery.

Whereas barely moving will mean you take much longer to fulkl recover.

A really ahrd run though, like a long run or hill sprints would be bad crack for most people and just totally set you back recovery wise.

2) Fatigue resitsance training

In some cases, say if you're training for a trail race that has a lot of elevation and running on fatigued legs, then it's actually mega effective training to strategically add in longer runs the day after a really hard lower body day, or even immediatly after a legs session, purely for the specific training affect.

Is that the best thing for feeling great? F**k no lol. But super effective training for the right pperson at the right stage in their training program.

23/09/2026

It might feel counter productiv eto start your day with a 'big boy' meal feeling totally full.

But teh knock on effect is having better energy to crush it at work and not need those 'pick me up' snacks when lethargy kicks in late morning or afternoon.

Plus it makes it way easier to hit your total daily protein target when you start your day with around 33% of it boxed off.

If you comment the work 'breakfast' below, my free anti dadbod breakfast guide will land in your DMs/PMs.

Martin described himself as a fat bloaty mess.48 years old. Offshore worker. Living in Brazil with his wife, 8-year-old ...
22/09/2026

Martin described himself as a fat bloaty mess.

48 years old. Offshore worker. Living in Brazil with his wife, 8-year-old twins, and four dogs.

Covid lockdowns started the problem - less movement, more sitting about with a b**r in hand, and a body that didn't match the man he knew he was.

He'd did loads of cardio before, hitting the treadmill, rowing machine, lost a lot of weight but wondered why he never looked any better. Turns out he was probably losing muscle alongside the fat the whole time.

So he started working with me.

Now? Almost all the unwanted fat is gone. Stronger. Visible muscle definition. His cardio is still good, but he also trains properly now and knows his way about the weights room.

But the thing Martin's most proud of isn't the body.

It's that he got there despite the dips. The low motivation patches. The weeks where he had to give himself a mental talk and drag himself to the gym anyway.

And he always felt better on the other side of it.

That's not a fitness hack. That's just what consistency actually looks like in real life for a man in his late 40s with loads on his plate.

Martin now has the knowledge and skills to keep building this for the years ahead because he understands how to train and eat in a way that fits his life, both at home and away off-shore.

Dean

PS - I write and send free emails that help busy dads over 35 who train but aren't seeing the results they want, with training, nutrition, and mindset. Want in on them? Comment the word 'debrief' below and the details will land in your DMs.

Great weekend and brilliant 10k race route in Arrochar with some of the gang 👊 Special shout out to my client James Blac...
20/09/2026

Great weekend and brilliant 10k race route in Arrochar with some of the gang 👊

Special shout out to my client James Blackshaw who's been working really hard on his running game and the addition of lots of threshold intervals in a bid to beat his previous time on this race from last year - he only went and knocked over 4 minutes off it 🫡

I knew this was a good route for big Paul to set a strong time on for his first time on this route, and he came in 7th place with a 44 minute something finish 👏

Roddy also had a time in mind which he came in over 5 minutes ahead of and was over the moon with 👊

And the only regression this weekend was from myself 😂 crossing the line 3 minutes slower than I did on this one 2 years ago - but this was expected as I've been man down with a virus for 3 weeks and still not out of the woods yet. I really enjoyed it though.

Love this race route as it has a bit of everything - land rover track, dirt trail, tarmac, some elevation, woodlands, lochside, and stunning views 🏔️🌄.

We will be back on this one again 🫡

Grip strength and VO2 max get a lot of the limelight for how long and well you live.But your leg strength is the ultimat...
18/09/2026

Grip strength and VO2 max get a lot of the limelight for how long and well you live.

But your leg strength is the ultimate predictor of your independence.

Think about it.

Once they go, you're fu**ed.

One of the lads who's on week 2 of my Rebirth program was just saying how surprised he is at how weak his legs are.

He always thought his legs got enough from lots of walking and running.

I speak to loads of lads who make the same mistake.

Here's the thing.

Walking and running are billy basics.

They don't get you stronger or make you better at much else.

But if you get your legs stronger?

It makes you better at running and other athletic activities.

Your legs are designed to lunge, squat, jump, and lift stuff from the floor.

If you don't do them, you lose them.

And your joints get fragile.

It's why so many guys who don't train their legs pick up silly injuries just lifting a bit of furniture, or kicking a ball about with their kids.

The most they do with their legs is walk, the odd jog, and sit on their arse.

Then they put the injuries and niggles down to age.

Age can be part of it.

But lack of use and function is most of it.

Weak legs don't just make you fragile. They make you less present. Less capable. Less the man you want to be in your own family.

Because trained legs will help you go all day on family hikes or activities with your kids, having them struggling to keep up with you.

That's just what trained legs really does for your life.

Case in point:

Last September I graduated from walking in crutches with 1 leg completely deteriorated after my 3rd meniscuses injury.

I used Luke Fletcher's 'athletic legs' program, where I trained nothing but legs 3 times a week, which rebuilt my leg and got me trekking 3 circular laps of the Ben Ledi mountain 3 month later.

Of course you don't need that much leg training.

Unless you're also rehabbing a serious injury.

But even just a few simple leg exercises a week make a huge difference.

I also do assessments for the lads I coach.

Every quarter in my Inner Circle, and at the start and end of my Rebirth program, we have a Full Body Fitness MOT week.

Two of the main lower body strength endurance assessments we use are:

20 rep max goblet squat.

100 walking (or static reverse) lunges.

The standard to work towards on your goblet squat is half your bodyweight, and beyond.

And you're aiming to complete the 100 lunges unbroken - then you can take it further by wearing a weighted vest.

If you can get yourself to those standards, you'll be in bloody good condition.

Dean

PS - I write free emails/content like this helping men aged 35+ with training, nutrition and mindset to get in shape and feel capable again. If you want them landing in your inbox when they go out, comment the word 'debrief' below and the info will land in your messenger.

18/09/2026

I'm going to rant a little about SOME 'coaches' in the online training space.

This is not one of those posts about sh****ng on someone's methods to try and make my style look superior (I feel I have to declare that because a lot of that goes on within this space too).

What pi**es me off a lot is how a lot of 'coaches' treat and serve clients. I just seen a mate of mine from the Army who coaches a lot of Hyrox athletes and rehab/injury clients, say that he spoke with a prospect recently who told him the coach they worked with previously often took 10 days to reply to messages or adjust their training plan.

This isn't the first I've come across this type of thing.

I was part of a fitness business mentorship once and remember another online trainer asking advice on one of the calls around how to go about getting clients to send him less exercise form videos as giving them feedback was killing his time and he wanted to work more on sales and growing the business. (he was charging each client £350/month, and was trying to cut the time he was giving them by coaching them less).

Come again?

This business IS coaching.

Helping clients improve their training, habits, nutrition etc is the fu***ng bread and butter.

I just don't get it.

Yes, having done coaching now since 2012, I attest it's a very time consuming game to work in. And the boom of the online coaching space in the past 6-8 years I believe has attracted a lot of coaches into the space who are more attracted to the idea of being an Entrepeneur, or an influencer, and making lots of money whilst having that locational freedom.

I have no problems with any of those things, working as a coach online is very attractive and I certainly enjoy the benefits of it.

It's also A LOT of hard work.

Much of which comes from actually coaching clients and being available when they need help (within reasonable times).

It may just be me, because I'm a military guy and was good at looking after my team and staying on top of things, but I believe if someone's paying you their hard earned money, I don't care is it's £300/month or £30 a month, answering some questions, looking at a from video and giving pointers, or making a simple 3 minute adjustment to their workout when needed is the bare acceptable minimum.

Like way say in the Army:

No coms, no bombs.

Dean

PS - The online coaching industry is not all negative. I know A LOT of really fantastic coaches. Whether they train people in person or online, who are top at what they do, not because of their methods, workout or diet philosophies, purely because they actually care about helping people improve as a fundamental, and their service reflects those values.

But you do need to do some proper due diligence on any potential coach, so you can make informed decisions about whether they belong in your corner to help you with your goals. The point of bringing a coach on board in your life is to help you, period.

15/09/2026

💩 happens. But you need to suck it up and soldier on.

Ever feel like you take 4 steps forward then 3 steps back? Next Saturday, I'll be running the Arrochar a 10k race. I did...
11/09/2026

Ever feel like you take 4 steps forward then 3 steps back?

Next Saturday, I'll be running the Arrochar a 10k race.



I did this 2 years ago when I first got back into running after 5 or so years struggling with chronic knee pain.



So after 2 years of running you'd think I'd be all set to smash me previous time.



And you'd be wrong lol.



For the past 2 weeks I've been getting my arse kicked by a honking virus that Leanne brought back from the Cure gig in Edinburgh a few weeks ago.



I've had some rough flu's in my almost 40 years.



This one was up there with the worst of them.



Even now, 12 days in, I still can't walk 10 meters without the windchill triggering me into fits of coughs.



So god knows when I'll be able to get some running done in prep for next Saturday.



I feel like my whole aerobic fitness base is gone.



And I'm starting from scratch again.



You ever get that feeling?



But here's the thing -



Although this sucks in the short term, and I'll be far from beating my previous time on this 10k, I need to give my head a wobble and remember that simply taking part and enjoying the run is a big deal.



Like I said, a few years back I wasn't able to run without pain.



And had been told by at least 2 medical professionals never to run again.



Because at this stage I've had ACL repair, 3 separate meniscus tears, and arthritis all in the 1 knee.



So despite the recent illness setback, I've made massive progress over the past few years.



Why am I telling you?



You're human just like me.



You'll get periods where you feel like you're flying, then something happens to completely knock you off the saddle.



An injury that makes training less fun and more grind.



Work life taking over and causing stress.



Kids and wife taking priority.



Or losing someone close that turns life on it's head for a while.



Life has it's way of pulling the rug from under your feet, and when it does we can all be guilty of letting the moments get the better of us.



Feeling like we're failing when in fact we're only being slowed down.



Long term progress is more like 4 steps forwards...



2 steps back...



Another 2 forwards.



The guys I've coached who make the best transformations are no exception to this.



And in fact,



I believe your success in achieving a goal is just as correlated to the little choices you make in the tough times to hang on, as it is to the big efforts when you're flying.



Peaks and valleys.



It's all part of the journey, my mate.



Enjoy your weekend.



Dean

PS - If you relate to any of this, I write free emails on training, mobility and nutrition for men in their 30s, 40s and 50s who want to get in shape and stay ready without wrecking themselves. Comment 'debrief' below and I'll send you the details.

Want a rough idea how long you'll live (and the strength of your heart) without dissecting a complicated blood panel?Jus...
02/09/2026

Want a rough idea how long you'll live (and the strength of your heart) without dissecting a complicated blood panel?

Just hanging from a bar will tell you a lot.

Before I get into this, here's your reminder that the doors are open to my 6 week Rebirth program until Friday.

If you want the details comment 'Rebirth' below and I'll get them to you.

Back to it...

A massive study published in The Lancet tracked nearly 140,000 adults across 17 countries. It found that for every 5kg drop in grip strength, a person's risk of death from any cause increases by 16%.

The same study concluded that grip strength is actually a more accurate predictor of cardiovascular death than measuring systolic blood pressure.

Basically...

A strong grip directly correlates with a lower risk of stroke, heart attack, and age-related physical decline.

And carries over to a strong handshake 🤝🏻

In general, your strength is also correlated to how your body looks.

When Gerry first signed up for Rebirth, I got him to hang from a bar as long as he could. Part of my Full Body Fitness MOT.

He lasted 26 seconds.

Which was a bad sign for a guy in his mid 40s - less than halfway to what I consider good (60 seconds).

His pride was hurt more than anything else.

Because the last time Gerry remembered grabbing a pull-up bar was in his 20s, when he could do them for fun.

And as a dad who coaches his son at football, he was embarrassed about his lack of physicality.

The hang test exposes a lot.

If you're too heavy, too weak, or just not in great shape, you'll struggle.

The good news?

That strength comes quickly with the right training.

This motivated Gerry to hit that 60 second benchmark. Then he got his first pull-up. Then 5. Then 10. Then 18.

Just look what that journey did for the muscle on his back.

Two points here.

First -

Having a few tests to measure your physical capability every couple of months is genuinely motivating.

Losing belly fat and looking more defined is great, but when that's your sole focus it can get a bit flat.

The right tests give your training more meaning.

Second -

The September Rebirth cohort kicks off next week and one of the first things we'll do is put you through the Full Body Fitness MOT.

You'll get clear insights into your full body strength, joint mobility and flexibility, and your CV health - which matters more than most men realise after 35.

You'll find out exactly where your weak links are and what needs attention first.

Then you'll see improvements across the board by the time we hit week six.

Tap here to take control of your fitness and physique.

Doors close Friday.

If you want a look at the info, comment 'Rebirth' below and I'll send it to your messenger.

Dean

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18 Gordon Avenue
Glasgow
G696HJ

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+447580135023

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