Boris Johnson: 'I Was Too Fat'

Boris Johnson says his COVID scare has made him a changed man in one respect: He's trying to become more physically fit. "I was too fat," the British prime minister says in a new video, put out in tandem with a government initiative to lower obesity rates. Johnson says he weighed about 240 pounds when he went into the ICU and has lost roughly 15 pounds since coming home. "I was way overweight," he says. "I'm only about 5-foot-10." He now starts each day with a "gentle" run with his dog, reports the Telegraph.

A government policy paper notes that obesity is one of the factors that makes people more susceptible to the coronavirus, reports CNN. "In the last few months we have seen that being overweight or living with obesity puts you at risk of dying from Covid-19," it states, noting the impact that "excess fat tissue has on vital organs like the heart, lungs and liver." Johnson has previously opposed government "nannying" about weight, and he says he hopes the new initiative won't be carried out in an "excessively bossy" way. (More Boris Johnson stories.)