Ricky Gervais thinks he’s fat. And he thinks it’s all his own fault. Ricky says, in his own no-nonsense way, that he’s “fat” because he eats too much and he’d rather not give it up. I find both the premise and the explanation debatable. Ricky’s not fat, he’s just got more to love! And scientists are finding out more and more that body weight has a lot to do with genetics.

Ricky Gervais has accepted that he’ll never have a toned body. The comedian enjoys stuffing himself.

‘I’m fat because I eat too much and I’d rather not give up food,’ he says. ‘It’s not glandular, it’s greed.’

Ricky, 47, has had a gym installed at his New York apartment and he reckons it’s helped stop him from growing any bigger.

‘If I didn’t work out I’d still eat as much but instead of being probably 20 pounds overweight, I would be 40 pounds overweight,’ he tells The Observer Food Monthly.

‘I don’t think a comedian should be worried about their weight.’

From Now Magazine

First, I love that Ricky Gervais gave an interview to a food magazine. That alone is something to be appreciated. Second, Ricky’s right: comedians shouldn’t be worried about their weight. There is a grand tradition of overweight comedians, from John Belushi to Chris Farley to Jackie Gleason (who wasn’t really a comedian, he always wanted to be a dramatic actor). Ricky is fine the way he is, and if some manorexic Hollywood producer tells him to lose weight, that guy will have to answer to me.

Furthermore, lots of women love a man who’s a little bit bigger – I’m one of them. I like to eat, and I appreciate that quality in men. Too many guys think that the key to getting women is washboard abs, when it’s so not the case.

Ricky Gervais is shown on 2/17/09 leaving Capital Radio studios in Leicester Square. Credit: WENN.com