Boris is the proof you cannot be fat AND fit

W HEN Boris Johnson was admitted to hospital more than a month ago, he was a middleaged 5ft 9in man weighing a massive 17-and-a-half stone.

His BMI or Body Mass Index — a measure of whether you are a healthy weight — was 36, placing him firmly in the obese category. Even though he is only 55, as a heavily overweight male, he ticked the boxes for those most likely to suffer the most severe symptoms of coronavirus.

Before he became ill, he probably thought he was a little on the heavy side. But so what? He’d always thought of himself as fit — he cycled everywhere, walked his dog, squired a much younger lover, he jogged, played tennis, had boundless energy and managed to run the country, too.

Boris had always been vehemently opposed to sugar taxes. ‘The recent proposal for a tax on milkshakes seems to me to clobber those who can least afford it,’ he said last summer when Theresa May planned to introduce what he called ‘sin’ taxes.

‘If we want people to lose weight and live healthier lifestyles, we should encourage people to walk, cycle and generally do more exercise,’ he said.

How things have changed. Now after his hospital experience, Boris has had a Damascene conversion and is launching a war on fat, preparing a ‘much more interventionist’ drive to tackle the problem. ‘I’ve changed my mind on this,’ he told advisers drawing up the new strategy, as he shed his principles almost as fast as the stone he’s lost since entering hospital.

All I can say is it’s a welcome change of heart. The unavoidable truth is that a quarter of all people who have died from Covid-19 are overweight.

Almost a third of British adults are now clinically obese and some experts believe this helps explain why the death toll here is so high. And yet absurdly, in some circles, anyone suggesting a person was overweight was branded a fascist or a ‘fat shamer’.

Fashion magazines and social media parade body-proud plus-sized models such as the gargantuan Ashley Graham, and singers like Lizzo, who’s hardly svelte. Adele has been pilloried for betraying the sisterhood because she’s shed 7st and looks fabulous.

But fat is not fabulous. If Boris is serious about tackling obesity, he will have to convince us all to accept that fact.

Doctors should feel free to use the ‘F’ word to help tackle obesity — yes, with kindness and care but also without fear of being attacked for bullying or insensitivity. Because, as Boris now realises after his brush with death, you can’t be fat and fit.