Katie Hopkins kicks seagull off pier while eating a Cornish pasty in TV show My Fat Story

The documentary provoked predictable outrage on Twitter

Katie Hopkins appearing on 'This Morning' after she purposefully put on 4 stone. (REX/Ken McKay/ITV)

A seagull was the unexpected target of Katie Hopkins’ wrath during the first part of her My Fat Story documentary.

The programme, airing on TLC, sees the former Apprentice contestant attempt to gain and then lose three stone in her quest to prove her opinion that being overweight is a choice.

It provoked predictable outrage on Twitter and has already resulted in a complaint to the police about “hate crimes against overweight people”.

In one of the most bizarre moments, she was filmed walking along a jetty as she ate a pasty at the beach, kicking a seagull off the end.

For some commentators the outburst was a step too far, with a storm of criticism sparking a tweet from the channel assuring viewers that the bird was “doing OK”.

In an apparent reference to the recent police investigation, Hopkins wrote on Twitter: “S*** I kicked a seagull. Someone call the cops.”

“B*****d seagulls,” she added. “Sod off stealing my food.”

The programme became the top-trending topic in the UK as viewers debated Hopkins’ controversial statements, including “I hate fat people” and “no one should be allowed to feed their kids to death”.

Having consumed 6,500 calories a day for three months, Hopkins put on 3.5 stone.

In the documentary, she cries as she recites what she has eaten in one day, including cereal with chocolate milk, a donut, two pieces of toast, pasta, ten pieces of shortbread, two cans of drink, a jacked potato, chocolate cake and a tube of Pringles.

“This is a stupid project. I hate fat people for making me do this...” she says, crying, to which her husband replies: “Well, it was your idea.”

With characteristic sensitivity, she previously explained on This Morning that she planned to deliberately put on the weight to prove that overweight people should “stop blaming everyone else for problems they can control”.

Hopkins commentated on her own programme as it aired on Monday night, saying that given she “doesn’t watch anything she’s in”, it had a “cringe factor x4000”.