Andrew Jackson was one of the roughest and toughest presidents. The hero of the War of 1812 loved the outdoors and was willing to compete in just about anything from fighting to horse-racing. His political adviser and successor Martin van Buren, however, preferred the theater and opera to physical fitness.

So it comes as little surprise that after former President John Quincy Adams -- a much better athlete than his father -- visited President van Buren at the White House in 1839, he recorded in his diary that "Mr. Van Buren is growing inordinately fat."