Donald Trump told to lose weight by White House doctor

United States President Donald Trump has been told to cut down on red meat and highly fattening foods since his doctor told him he needs to lose a few pounds.

Trump passed a cognitive test and is in overall excellent health, but needs to lose 10 to 15 pounds (4.5 to 6.8 kg) by eating better and starting to exercise, the White House physician said on Tuesday.

Trump has cut down his red meat intake and is eating more fish, salads and soups. Reports said that the last time he ate a hamburger was about two weeks back. 

White House physician Dr Ronny Jackson, who in January announced that Trump at 6'3" and 239 pounds was just one pound below being classified as “obese.”

President Trump has reportedly embraced the new menu choices he is being offered and is enjoying his new diet.He is said to have had one cheat day this week, when he enjoyed a hearty bacon breakfast.

"We are going to do both (referring to diet and exercise)," the doctor said after administering his physical.

"He is more enthusiastic about the diet part than the exercise part,” Jackson said of Trump at the time.

The Navy doctor exhausted reporters' questions during an unusually lengthy hour-long session, at Trump's request, and said he did not withhold any information in the interests of privacy.

"He said, 'I want you to get out there and I want you to talk to them and I want you to answer every single question they have,'" Jackson said of Trump.

Trump, 71, is known to enjoy high-fat foods like fried chicken, hamburgers and steak - and while he plays golf, he does not have a daily exercise routine.

"He had a longtime fear of being poisoned, one reason why he liked to eat at McDonald's-nobody knew he was coming and the food was safely premade," Michael Wolff's book Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House stated.

It's an about-face from his campaign trail regimen, which reportedly included two Big Macs, two Filet-O-Fish sandwiches and a chocolate milkshake for dinner. One way Trump supposedly justified his love for McDonald' was the reassurance it offered. 

"I'm a very clean person. I like cleanliness, and I think you'e better off going there than maybe someplace that you have no idea where the food's coming from. It's a certain standard," Trump had said of McDonald's.

Trump's mental fitness for the job had come under intense scrutiny after a controversial, best-selling book, "Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House," portrayed him as childlike and mercurial.

Jackson, who speaks with Trump a few times a day and travels with him, said he did not think the president needed cognitive testing based on medical guidelines - but added the 30-question Montreal Cognitive Assessment at Trump's request.

Trump scored 30 out of 30 on the test, Jackson said. "The president is mentally very sharp, very intact," he said.

(With inputs from agencies)