Fat code is filled with unnecessary tags and information. Fat code also tends to be illogical and messy. Let's take a comparative look at a short passage of code generated by an HTML conversion utility, and the same code as I would create it.
Here's the code from the conversion utility. The one I used is Word 8.0's integrated application:
***List 4.1***
Code Prepared by a Conversion Utility
***End List***
And here's the same code as I would create it by hand. Note the cleanliness, and take a look at how "slim," or free of extraneous tags, my code is: