Eminem overdosed in 2009. He tells Men’s Journal that a side effect of the drugs was weight gain.
“I was close to 230 pounds,” the Detroit rapper says. “I’m not sure how I got so big, but I have ideas. The coating on the Vicodin and the Valium I’d been taking for years leaves a hole in your stomach, so to avoid a stomachache, I was constantly eating, and eating badly.”
The road to recovery not only included sobriety, but also plenty of exercise. Along with helping him lose weight, Eminem’s workout routine replaced the high. He chose running to burn calories and to build cardio for performing.
“I started running. It gave me a natural endorphin high, but it also helped me sleep, so it was perfect,” he says. “It’s easy to understand how people replace addiction with exercise. One addiction for another but one that’s good for them. I got an addict’s brain, and when it came to running, I think I got a little carried away. I became a fucking hamster. Seventeen miles a day on a treadmill. I would get up in the morning, and before I went to the studio, I would run eight and a half miles in about an hour. Then I’d come home and run another eight and a half. I started getting OCD about the calories, making sure I burned 2,000 every day. In the end I got down to about 149 pounds. I ran to the point where I started to get injured. All the constant pounding from the running began to tear up my hip flexors.”
When the addiction to running started to wear on Em’s body, he turned to workout videos. He first tried Shaun T’s Insanity and then moved on to P90X and Body Beast.
“I know a lot of these DVD guys are wacky,” he says, “but I’m alone in my gym. I need someone on the TV yelling to motivate me. Besides, some of this shit is entertaining.”
Eminem says that now he has a daily routine with Body Beast. He says he is happy with his physical health and maintains a regiment out of fear of regression.
“I guess I’m pretty compulsive working out,” he says. “I feel like if I step away from it for too long, if I have a crazy week and take a five-day break, it’ll be like starting over. I’m afraid that if it goes beyond that, I might lose the motivation. Once you’re at a place where you’ve made progress and you’ve got some time invested in it, you don’t wanna quit and give up what you started.”
For additional Eminem coverage, watch the following DX Daily:
Eminem is too health conscious, Eat a Bag of Dorito’s Em, but not 3 bags, just 1, you’ll be happier!
Em thanks you for your interest. He never literally ate 3-4 bags and now rarely eats anything with artificial preservatives.
Dorito’s are Extremely unheathy, fruit & veg is better, The USA promotes such garbage food on TV
Addiction is d worse thing that can unsettle and make u hate urself,i was an addict too,after overcoming its,good u get addicted to something good dat helps u fight on,its not easy,it takes time and discipline to master self
Who cares about this 50 year old loser lol
Tryna get smacked?
Every one cares about him so do you also he’s not 5″ or a loser
*50*
ive never had any problems just dont drink or take drugs even if you feel bad it just makes it worse by making you numb ive seen that happen to my closest friends
Well at least is at a healthy weight I’m 12 and I was sick for two weeks and lost 25 pounds so I weighed like 80also I didn’t want to eat because yeah um I was not happy with my life and myself