Trump Has Gotten Obese in the White House but His Cholesterol Is Down: Demystifying His Physical Exam

President Donald Trump has gained weight but lowered his cholesterol since his last physical, which stirred controversy based on its glowing prognostication even as outside experts raised concerns.

According to his second physical exam, conducted Feb. 8 at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center outside Washington, D.C., the president weighs 243 lbs. with a total cholesterol of 196 — HDL of 58 and LDL of 122.

Trump is taking rosuvastatin (better known by its brand name, Crestor) and received two immunizations: Pneumovax 23 and Shingrix.

What does all of that mean?

For help translating the president’s medical information — released Thursday by the White House — PEOPLE turned to Dr. Travis Stork, a member of the PEOPLE Health Squad and The Doctors.

The president has long trumpeted his own health, and his personal doctor during his presidential campaign later claimed Trump personally wrote a medical letter attesting to his “astonishingly excellent” blood pressure and predicting he would be “the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency.”

That sunny view has not entirely abated since Trump has been under the care of government doctors. Last year, despite what outside experts told the New York Times was troubling evidence of high cholesterol and weight, he was declared in “excellent” health.

“God, no,” Dr. David Maron, a Stanford cardiologist unconnected to the White House, later told the Times.

Trump’s then-physician Dr. Ronny Jackson’s framing of his 2018 physical was criticized as exaggerated — at one point Jackson said, “I told the president if he had eaten healthier over the last 20 years, he might live to be 200” — and this year the results, released to the press, were not elaborated at a news conference.

Dr. Sean Conley, the president’s physician and a Navy commander, said only that Trump was “in very good health overall” and was expected to remain so.

Dr. Stork tells PEOPLE that both the president’s blood pressure (118/80) and resting heart rate (70 beats per minute) are within normal ranges.

From 2018 to 2019, Trump’s physical shows his LDL, or “bad” cholesterol because it builds up in arteries, is still above the ideal range (100 or below) but has declined to 122 from 143, Stork says.

Likewise Trump’s HDL, or “good” cholesterol” because it removes cholesterol from arteries, is slightly below the ideal range of 60 or higher.

Trump has been prescribed rosuvastatin, Stork says, to lower his LDL and increase his HDL. He is taking 40 mg daily, up from 10 mg.

“It is a class of medicines called statins that work by reducing an enzyme in the body that is used to make cholesterol — it should be used in conjunction with a proper diet,” Stork explains.

He says the vaccinations Trump received, Pneumovax 23 and Shingrix, are for 23 types of pneumococcal bacteria, primarily to ward off pneumonia, and for shingles, respectively.

As the Times noted on Thursday, the president’s weight for his height of 6-foot-3 classifies him as obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He gained four pounds from last year’s physical to this year.

Stork says “the normal weight range for his height is between 148 and 199 lbs.”

The president is a well-documented lover of fast food but not a fan of outdoor recreation, except for golf. Last year, in otherwise effusive comments to reporters following his physical, Dr. Jackson said Trump was “more enthusiastic about the diet part than the exercise part.”

Ted Vickey, who had run the White House Athletic Center, gave the Times this advice last year: “I’d say, ‘Mr. President, we could knock four strokes off your golf game if you exercised for the next three months.’ And the Secret Service probably wouldn’t like it, but I’d tell him to walk the golf course rather than ride a golf cart.”