Houston rapper Paul Wall recently opened up to Ozone Magazine about his massive weight loss of close 100 pounds. Wall, who released his fourth studio album Heart of a Champion this past summer, explained that being approached by representatives from VH1’s Celebrity Fit Club prompted him to look more closely at his weight. He also said that he opted to go for a gastric sleeve surgery to ensure that he would keep off the weight permanently.
“Honestly, when we were in Afghanistan and [representatives from VH1’s] Celebrity Fit Club were contacting [me] about coming on the show,” he said. “That was a hell of a wake-up call. [Being fat] isn’t a secret. You can look in the mirror and try to hide it and cover it up, and it may work here or there, but there ain’t no shirt or hat you can put on or haircut you can get to hide the fact that you’re morbidly obese. That’s what the doctor said: I was ‘morbidly obese.’ I decided not to do [the show] but it was still a wake-up call to have people calling you saying, ‘Hey, you’re really, really fat.'” (NecoleBitchie.com)
He also added, “The surgery I got is called gastric sleeve….[My weight] has been up and down my whole life, so I wanted to do something to permanently fix the problem. Since going back and forth on the drugs for years and taking diet pills, my metabolism was really gone. So I decided to go with the gastric sleeve, because it’s a little more serious than the lap band. They also cut out the hormones that make you hungry. So I actually don’t even get hungry anymore. The doctor talked me out of doing the lap band; he told me it’s the most popular, but it’s not as effective. With the lap band, you lose about 50% of your excess weight. I was 120 pounds overweight. I weighed 320 pounds, and I’m six feet tall. So with the lap band I still would’ve been morbidly obese. With the gastric sleeve, you typically lose 80% of your excess fat. I lost 100 pounds with it, so that’s putting me in a more healthy weight class.” (NecoleBitchie.com)
Since undergoing the surgery, Wall says that his life has turned around dramatically. He says that dropping the 100 pounds has relieved him of the worry of heart attack, saying that it “…literally saved my life.”
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“I feel like I got my life back,” he explained. “When you’re so big like that, it’s embarrassing. I didn’t want to go out and be seen. I felt uncomfortable because I’m not used to being that big. People would see me and say something about it, because it was no secret. I was morbidly obese, 120 pounds overweight. It was just embarrassing. I’d be on stage feeling like I was about to collapse. I’d get dizzy spells. I’d be on the airplane and have to ask for seatbelt extensions. Once you go up in the air, it’s really hard to breath. I was just thinking, ‘What if I have a heart attack?’ I want to be here for my kids. I don’t want to have a heart attack. My son is four and my daughter is two and a half. The doctor told me that when you’re 50 pounds overweight, it takes 15 years off your life. So it literally saved my life.” (NecoleBitchie.com)
