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Zhirinovsky Tells Deputies to Lose Weight

Liberal Democratic Party leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky, who seems to be amassing a collection of health-related headlines, told his State Duma colleagues on Tuesday to begin shedding kilograms.

The bombastic Duma deputy said that the world is in a fight against obesity and no officials should weigh more than 80 kilograms no matter how old or tall they are, RIA Novosti reported.

After asking about the weight of party member Alexander Starovoytov, who weighs 98 kilograms, Zhirinovsky said that he himself had lost 10 kilograms and now weighed 98 as well. He promised that he would drop below 90 kilograms before the end of the year but did not comment on the fact that 90 is still 10 kilograms above the limit he prescribed for others.

Zhirinovsky also mocked British Prime Minister David Cameron, who recently announced he would go without sugar for a day, saying the British leader was "like a child" in his appetite for soda and candy.

The LDPR leader has recently become a common dispenser of health advice. Earlier this month Zhirinovsky said that deputies should have sex no more than four times a year and told his party last year that they should all become vegetarians.

The weight drop may be a tough task for some officials like Zhirinovsky, but it will not affect President Vladimir Putin. The president said in 2011 that he weighs 77 kilograms, Moskovsky Komsomolets reported.

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