With the US presidential race becoming increasingly personal, the spotlight has temporarily shifted from Hillary Clinton’s health to that of her opponent, Donald Trump.

But Democrats have jumped on inconsistent reports about Mr Trump’s weight – which vary from the candidate being just overweight to the concerning: obese.

Mr Trump taped an appearance on The Dr Oz Show this week, during which he presented the celebrity doctor with two medical reports: one from his longtime personal physician Dr Harold Bornstein and one from Lenox Hill Hospital in New York.

A press release from the show said that Dr Oz took the candidate “through a full review of systems including the following: nervous system; head and neck; hormone levels; cardiovascular health and related medications”, among others.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qtn5BO_oATQ

Media were banned from the taping, but conflicting reports claim Mr Trump either weighed in at 107 kilograms (overweight) or a whopping 121 kilograms, which would make him obese according to the Body Mass Index calculator.

Mr Trump told Dr Oz he’d like to shed 7–9 kilograms, and revealed he takes medicine to control cholesterol and blood pressure.

The bizarre medical ‘coming out’ follows the Trump camp releasing a much-derided letter from his personal doctor in December 2015, who assured his health was “astonishingly excellent”.

Health a hot topic in the presidential race

Mr Trump, along with a number of conspiracy websites, has long questioned Mrs Clinton’s health, and the issue came to the fore on Tuesday when she was seen stumbling in public after a 9/11 memorial event.

After originally blaming the fall on the New York heat, Mrs Clinton’s public relations team later released a statement saying the candidate had been diagnosed with pneumonia.

Hillary Clinton is helped into her car by aides

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCx0x0rigeQ

On Thursday, Mr Trump jumped on the bandwagon, questioning whether his opponent was up for the job.

Referring to the hot room in which he was hosting a rally, he said: “You think Hillary Clinton would be able to stand up here and do this for an hour? I don’t know.”

Questions about Trump’s doctor

In late August, Mr Trump’s New York physician Dr Harold Bornstein wrote a four-paragraph letter in five minutes, declaring “Donald Trump would be the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency”.

The letter provided by Dr Bornstein. Photo: NBC

Mr Trump sat outside Dr Bornstein’s office for just five minutes while he waited for the letter.

Later, during an interview with American news station NBC, Dr Bornstein admitted the letter was at least in part dictated by Mr Trump.

When asked how he could justify his assertion that Mr Trump would be the “healthiest” president elected in US history, he told NBC all the other presidents were “either sick or dead”.

Dr Bornstein also claimed his hyperbolic language may have been influenced by Mr Trump himself – who in December 2015 announced he was certain his medical check would “show perfection”.

As a presidential candidate, I have instructed my long-time doctor to issue, within two weeks, a full medical report-it will show perfection

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 3, 2015

“I think I picked up his kind of language and then just interpreted it to my own,” Dr Bornstein said.

And that fact has been picked up on, with one Atlantic article claiming the hallmarks of Mr Trump’s trademark language can be read in the letter.

This includes beginning a sentence with the word “actually” (“Actually, his blood pressure and lab results were astonishingly excellent”).