Bernard O'Shea — The Dad Bod Diaries: Five things I learned about the fart walk
The fart walk won't change your life overnight. It won't magically remove your dad bod.
The first thing that surprised me was discovering just how new the term actually is. The phrase was coined by Canadian cookbook author and nutrition educator Mairlyn Smith.
In 2024, she posted a video explaining how she and her husband always took a walk after dinner. Because they ate plenty of fibre, she joked that these walks often helped release trapped wind.
The internet immediately fell in love with the phrase, and within weeks, “fart walk” was everywhere. The funny thing is that the habit itself is far older than the name.
The Italians have the evening “passeggiata”, a gentle walk through town after dinner. Traditional Chinese culture includes the practice of taking 100 steps after a meal. Similar customs exist across the world.
Most health advice seems designed for people with unlimited free time. You need an app, a fitness tracker, specialist trainers, a standing desk and a level of motivation usually associated with elite athletes.
The fart walk asks almost nothing from you. You’ve already eaten. You’re already upright. All you have to do is walk for a few minutes. That simplicity is perhaps its greatest strength.
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One reason many people struggle with exercise is that we tend to make it too complicated. We convince ourselves that if we can’t do a full workout, then there is little point in doing anything at all.
I’ve certainly fallen into that trap. The fart walk removes every excuse. It doesn’t require planning. It doesn’t require changing clothes. It doesn’t even require breaking a sweat. For once, the barrier to entry is refreshingly low.
This was the piece of science that really caught my attention.
After eating, blood sugar naturally rises as glucose enters the bloodstream. Research has shown that even a short walk after a meal can help reduce the size of that spike because your muscles begin using some of that glucose as fuel.
Now, I don’t pretend to fully understand every aspect of metabolism. Like many people, my scientific knowledge tends to fade rapidly once expressions like “glycaemic response” enter the conversation. What I do understand is the afternoon slump.
Most of us know exactly what that feels like. You eat lunch, feel perfectly content, and then, 45 minutes later, you’re gazing vacantly into space, wondering whether you need a coffee, a nap, or a completely different career.
A short walk after eating appears to help smooth some of those energy highs and lows. Anything that lowers the likelihood of me falling asleep in front of my laptop deserves serious consideration.
If an alien landed on Earth and observed modern humans, they would probably conclude that sitting was our primary activity. We sit while commuting. We sit while working. We sit while eating. We sit while relaxing. Then we sit while watching programmes about people renovating houses. The average day involves an astonishing amount of sitting.
Human beings, however, evolved to move. For most of history, people didn’t finish dinner and immediately spend three hours motionless on a couch while browsing through videos of strangers cleaning their kitchens. Movement was built within daily life.
Walking after eating helps stimulate digestion and encourages food to move through the digestive system more efficiently. Many people report less bloating, discomfort, and digestive complaints when they adopt the habit.
Modern science appears to be confirming something surprisingly simple: your digestive system likes it when you move. Who knew? Well, probably every health professional since the dawn of time.
Perhaps the biggest lesson I took from the fart walk is that small habits matter. I’ve spent years treating health and fitness as an all-or-nothing proposition. If I couldn’t fit in a proper workout, I’d often convince myself there was no point doing anything. The fart walk completely dismantles that way of thinking.
Ten minutes doesn’t sound impressive. Nobody boasts about walking around the block after dinner. Nobody creates inspirational documentaries about it. Yet the maths tells a different story.
Walk for 10 minutes after lunch and dinner, and you’ve added 20 minutes of movement to your day. Add breakfast, and you’re at 30 minutes. Over a week, that’s more than three and a half hours.
The older I get, the more sure I become that health is rarely transformed by dramatic actions. The internet loves miracle cures because they’re exciting. Real life is usually much less glamorous.
The fart walk won’t change your life overnight. It won’t magically remove your dad bod. It won’t transform you into a wellness guru. What it will do is get you moving, help your digestion, support your blood sugar and add a little more activity to your day.
For a trend with such a ridiculous name, that’s actually quite impressive.
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