Timbaland is sharing the secrets behind his impressive weight loss in a new interview, revealing how overcoming addiction led him to bettering his health and dropping 130 lbs.
The 47-year-old producer started his weight loss journey in 2016, after he beat a narcotic addiction, divorced his ex-wife, and battled financial troubles including a $4 million IRS lien.
‘God has me under construction, which I’m still under,’ he told Men’s Health for the magazine’s Jan/Feb 2020 issue. ‘I don’t feel like I’m complete. I don’t want to ever feel like I’m complete, ’cause my mind would probably get idle.’
Slimdown: Timbaland is sharing the secrets behind his weight loss, revealing how overcoming addiction led him to dropping 130 lbs. (pictured left: before, right: in October 2019)
Strength: The 47-year-old poses for the January/February issue of Men’s Health
Very impressive: He has spent several years transforming his body
Overcoming problems: The producer spent the first half of the 2010s struggling with pill addiction, a divorce, and financial issues
Timbaland, born Tim Mosley, found success early with music for Missy Elliot and Aaliyah, and later Justin Timberlake, but he made up for it with hardship later in life.
In 2011, he underwent root canal surgery, which led to an addiction to the narcotics. OxyContin and Percocet.
In 2013, he began divorce proceedings from his wife of five years, and not long after, he was faced with a $4 million tax lien from the IRS for unpaid taxes.
He also gained weight and developed prediabetes.
Facing all of these problems, he realized he needed to get better, if only for the sake of his 12-year-old daughter and two sons, who are 17 and 27.
‘It’s like a bright light going on in your brain. That’s how you know what true love really is,’ he said.
Fixing it: He realized he needed to get better, if only for the sake of his 12-year-old daughter and two sons, who are 17 and 27
High point: At 5′ 7″ and 350 lbs., he also started working out, taking up boxing at Punch Elite Fitness in Miami
He started picking his life up. He settled his divorce, downsizes his home, paid his taxes, and went through the hell of withdrawal to get off the drugs .
‘One of the toughest things I’ve been through. The only things that got me through it were my kids, my girl, the help of God keeping my mind still,’ he said.
At 5′ 7″ and 350 lbs., he also started working out, taking up boxing at Punch Elite Fitness in Miami.
‘When you get beat up the way I got beat up mentally, this ain’t hard,’ he said.
It was tough, but he eventually graduated to twice-daily workouts, boxing in the morning and doing cardio and weights at night.
Eventually, he started working out at DBC Fitness, where the co-owner gave him a nutrition plan.
‘When you get beat up the way I got beat up mentally, this ain’t hard,’ he said (pictured left in 2006 and right in 200&)
New diet: Eventually, he started working out at DBC Fitness, where the co-owner gave him a nutrition plan
Healthy: Timbaland has a chef deliver him meals of things like chicken, salmon, and vegetables
Fuel: Opening his fridge in a Men’s Health video, Timbaland showed off the fresh fruit and vegetables, hummus, almond milk, chicken breast, and beverages inside
‘Health is wealth,’ he said, while revealing a refrigerator filled with healthy drinks, including Perrier and Kevita kombucha. ‘Right now I just do as a bodybuilder would do’
Timbaland has a chef deliver him meals of things like chicken, salmon, and vegetables, and he banned processed food and drank three and a half liters of water every day.
Opening his fridge in a Men’s Health video, Timbaland showed off the fresh fruit and vegetables, hummus, almond milk, chicken breast, and beverages inside.
‘Health is wealth,’ he said. ‘Right now I just do as a bodybuilder would do. They eat very plain Jane. There’s no taste. you’re not eating for taste, you’re eating for the fuel. For your body to keep going.
‘It’s a difference when you try to hit a destination. You have to be very on point, very precise, which I like to be because I’m very focus-minded. I don’t like to break or bend the rules.’
On a typical day, he gets prepped meals delivered to him, and he said he always keep alkaline water in his fridge.
‘You have to be very on point, very precise, which I like to be because I’m very focus-minded. I don’t like to break or bend the rules,’ he said
Timbaland also showed off the gym he exercises at, saying that his goal is to ‘look like an action figure’
Dedicated: He eventually graduated to twice-daily workouts, boxing in the morning and doing cardio and weights at night
Brrr! In a video for Men’s Health, he works out and then takes an ice bath
He also makes protein shakes with almond milk, pineapples, cantelope, kiwi, strawberries, kale, and spinach.
‘Once I started to train, I started to look at food as fuel. So I don’t miss nothing,’ he said of cheat foods, explaining that while sometimes he wants Krispy Kreme donuts or a fried chicken sandwich, he doesn’t need it.
‘The only time that it gets me is when we go to the movie theater,’ he said.
He also said he takes flax seed oil, fish oil, and a multivitamin.
Timbaland also showed off the gym he exercises at, saying that his goal is to ‘look like an action figure.’