President Trump gained four pounds in the year since his 2018 physical, and his now obese, his latest medical exam shows.
Dr. Sean Conley said in a Thursday memo that Trump weighs 243 pounds or four over the 239 that the president weighed in at last year.
It was just enough for the 6 foot three president to be designated ‘obese’ by the federal government’s standards.
In a letter to the president’s chief spokeswoman, Conley said that Trump is ‘in very good health.’ He made the same observation in a Friday letter that said Trump is expected to ‘remain so for the duration of his Presidency, and beyond.’
Trump’s previous doctor put him on a diet and exercise regimen that was intended to help him lose 10 – 15 pounds over the course of the year. He gained weight, instead, after failing to ‘religiously’ follow it.
Conley said that no other major changes to his medical or surgical history took place and those routine labs were conducted during the four-hour physical at Walter Reed medical centre.
He released very little data on the president’s health aside from his height (6′ 3″), weight (243), age (72) resting heart rate (70 beats/minutes) and blood pressure (118/80 mmHg).
Trump’s Body Mass Index, or BMI, is 30.4 — height and weight radio that makes him obese by the National Institute of Health’s guidelines.
Additional reports and recommendations for the 72-year-old president who weighed in at 239 pounds at the time of his last check-up were still being worked up, Conley said on Friday.
He offered no public assessments of Trump’s lifestyle or dieting habits, in a second memo to White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders.
Conley did reveal that he was increasing the president’s dosage of Rosuvastatin, a statin used to fight cholesterol.
Trump had a cholesterol level of 196 mg/dL on the day the tests were taken. He also received a Shingles vaccine, the doctor’s letter revealed, and a vaccine that fights bacterial infections.
Conley did not provide any details about Trump’s health in the original letter the White House provided to press last Friday, aside from his assessment that the president is under no reasonable threat of developing a life-threatening condition.
“The President is very grateful for the outstanding care he received today, and he especially wants to thank all the doctors, nurses, enlisted and civilian staff who participated,” Conley wrote.
The results of Trump’s previous physical were disclosed by his doctor at a televised briefing for the press, where the president’s doctor at the time, Ronny Jackson, made comments about his patient’s health that were considered to be hyperbolic.
He said that the president’s ‘good genes’ had kept him in ‘excellent’ health, even though he admitted Trump need to shed some pounds.
The president was deemed to be overweight, by government standards, but not quite obese.
Jackson put him on a diet and exercise plan and gave him a goal of losing 10 to 15 pounds.
The White House admitted on the eve of Trump’s 2019 physical, however, that the president hasn’t always followed it.
“The President received a diet and exercise plan last year after his annual physical, but the President admits he has not followed it religiously,” White House spokesman Hogan Gidley told CNN.
The U.S. president is a known lover of fast food who consumed McDonald’s regularly on the campaign trail.
He paid out of pocket last month for the Clemson Tigers to devour fast food when the 2018 College Football Playoff champions visited the White House amid the partial government shutdown when serving a large meal cooked by staff was out of the question.
“We ordered American fast food. Paid for by me. Lots of hamburgers, lots of pizza, I think they’d like it better than anything we could give,” Trump told reporters in January.
“We have some very large people that like eating, so I think we’re gonna have a little fun.”
Trump brought in Big Macs from McDonald’s and burgers from Wendy’s and Burger King, along with Domino’s pizza and french fries.
“We have pizzas, we have 300 hamburgers, many, many french fries, all of our favourite foods. I want to see what’s here when we leave because I don’t think it’s going to be much,” he told reporters as he showed off the food at the start of the event.
His choice of fast food for the event was unusual, but it is the president’s favourite.
The New York Times even dubbed him the fast food president once.
Former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski and deputy campaign manager David Bossie described a typical campaign meal Trump would order from McDonald’s in their book on the campaign.
“On Trump Force One there were four major food groups: McDonald’s, Kentucky Fried Chicken, pizza and Diet Coke,” they wrote.
They recalled that Trump would have ‘two Big Macs, two Filet-O-Fish, and a chocolate malted’ shake on regular basis.
Lewandoski later clarified to CNN that Trump skipped the carbs, and that’s why he ordered so many sandwiches.
“Well, he never ate the bread, which is the important part,” Lewandowski said.
“He was busy campaigning. We didn’t have time to sit down for a meal.”
During the campaign, Trump posted photos of his fast food meals on social media: eating Kentucky Fried Chicken (with a knife and fork) or a McDonald’s hamburger with fries.
In May 2015, while campaigning the president told DailyMail.com that he ate fast food because ‘it’s quick,’ as his ex-campaign manager later wrote about.
Jackson, who served as physician to the president before and was named medical adviser to him this month, gave Trump an ‘excellent’ report on his health after his last physical exam.
He told reporters during a press briefing at the height of speculation that Trump was in a mental decline that he passed a cognitive test with flying colours and had such good genes that he could have lived past the age of 200 had he taken better care of himself.
The medical doctor who worked on Barack Obama’s team, and was later nominated by Trump to be his Veteran’s Affairs secretary, acknowledged that Trump needed to lose weight, however.
“I think a reasonable goal over the next year or so would be to lose 10 to 15 pounds,” he said.
“We talked about diet and exercise a lot. He is more enthusiastic about the diet part than the exercise part, but we’re going to do both.” -DAILY MAIL
