UK PM says was obese but lost weight since virus scare

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson revealed Tuesday he was obese when he contracted coronavirus earlier this year, but after losing weight said he now felt much better.

The 56-year-old spent three nights in intensive care in April after contracting Covid-19, and there have been swirling questions about his health ever since.

“I am fitter than I was before, it may irritate you to know,” he said, when asked by a reporter about his health following a speech on education.

“I am fitter than a butcher’s dog, thanks basically to losing weight.

“When you reach 17 stone six (around 111 kg, 244 pounds) as I did, at a height of about five foot 10 (around 1.78 metres), it’s probably a good idea to lose weight, so that’s what I’ve done. And I feel much much better.”

An online calculator provided by the state-run National Health Service (NHS) suggests that a man with Johnson’s age, weight and height would have a body mass index (BMI) of 34.9 — classing him as obese.

It is not the first time Johnson has boasted about his health, using a newspaper interview in June to make the “butcher’s dog” analogy and even doing push-ups to prove his fitness.

But the issue has returned as a talking point amid disquiet among his Conservative lawmakers over his handling of a new uptick in coronavirus cases.

The outbreak has so far killed 42,000 people in Britain — the worst toll in Europe.

Johnson has recently been spotted running with a personal trainer in a park near his Downing Street office. As London mayor between 2008 and 2006, he was a keen cyclist.