DJ Khaled is on a mission to lose weight, and he teamed up with Weight Watchers to get it done.
On his Instagram page, the Miami based producer announced that he’s been named the company’s social media ambassador, and he’ll try to live a healthier lifestyle for his son Asahd. Khaled also revealed that he’s already lost a good amount of weight.
“Weight Watchers is all about being great and being your best self,” he said in a statement. “My son is my love, my life and I need to be great for him. To be great is to be healthy; to be healthy means a shift in my lifestyle, and the new WW Freestyle program is all about healthier habits for my life. The WW program and community is my partner in this process to greatness, and I’m grateful for what’s to come and to share my journey with you all.”
Khaled joins a growing list of male celebrities who’ve been open about wanting to lose weight, which challenges the stereotype that only women in entertainment have such concerns and deal with body image issues.
In the past, late rappers like Heavy D, the Notorious B.I.G. and Big Pun have embraced their large size and at times used it to symbolize a successful lifestyle that was filled with joyful excesses. But it seems these days less men in entertainment are doing that.
Instead, many have been open about wanting to shed pounds but is that desire attached to health or wanting to be more appealing to a often judgmental, weight conscious audience? According to some of the celebrities’ very own words, it’s a combination of both.
Over the years male entertainers like Rick Ross, Dr. Dre, Timbaland, Fat Joe and Scarface have been open about losing weight and changing their lifestyles. Others, meanwhile, have opted to get gastric bypass surgery, where a part of the stomach is split into a smaller section to reduce one’s food intake.
Some of the people who received weight loss surgery include Tamar Braxton’s estranged husband Vincent Herbert, “American Idol” alum Randy Jackson and the “Today” show’s Al Roker, who said his struggles with obesity affected his marriage to ABC News’ Deborah Roberts.
“My wife is a size 4; she runs, she works out and it became a problem in our marriage,” he wrote on the “Today” show website. “On a Saturday she’d get up, get dressed to run and I’d be sitting on the couch or making breakfast for the kids and was quite happy about our choices. She, on the other hand, was not. Unless you communicate that, it’s going be a problem.”
“She was upset about it,” Roker continued. “She was frustrated, she was angry. She thought ‘Why don’t you care enough about yourself and why don’t you care about me and our relationship enough to change?’ And I said ‘Look, it’s not about you. It’s about me.’”
Gucci Mane didn’t receive gastric bypass surgery like the famed weatherman did, but in 2016 he lost a lot of weight after he left prison. Gucci also didn’t shed the pounds because of relationship issues like Roker, in actuality, he did it for vanity reasons.
“Before I was incarcerated, I had gotten so overweight that I couldn’t fit into any of the clothes I wanted to wear,” he told Vogue. “So with the time I was away, I decided I was going to lose weight so I could be able to wear all the brands that I really like … [Losing weight] definitely gives me a chance to experiment more with my style. It gives me something to look forward to … I really love to dress, and I really love to stay fresh, so that keeps me in the gym and motivated.”
California producer DJ Mustard also spoke about dropping weight and like Gucci, said it was about getting into the clothes he likes among other reasons.
“I like dressing in designer clothes and it’s hard to buy them if [you’re] overweight,” Mustard explained. “I got tired of going in stores and I couldn’t fit anything, and overall I wanted to be healthy. “My son runs around the house, and I want to be able to catch him.”
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Timbaland is another male entertainer who was honest about wanting to lose weight for other reasons besides physical health. In fact, a couple of years ago, the superstar beatmaker said he suffered from body image issues, which led him to make some drastic changes.
“The past eight months I’ve lost over 130 pounds,” he wrote on Instagram. “With a positive mindset I knew I had to take the initiative to make myself happy and healthy. When you realize that the only thing that is getting in the way of your goal is self-doubt you’ll want to push yourself harder. You got to do this for you. This isn’t about anybody. Live for you. Honor you. Never lose sight of that.”
But there are other male celebs who’ve lost weight only to improve their health. Either that, or they received a negative diagnoses from a doctor that forced them to shift a few things.
In fact, that’s exactly what happened to actor Anthony Anderson a few years ago after he was diagnosed with Type II diabetes. In a past interview, he said shedding pounds had nothing to do with vanity or appearance, it was much bigger than that.
“When I was cast in “Law & Order” I decided to make a drastic change,” he recalled. “I got more serious about my health and appearance, not from a vanity standpoint. I just started making healthier choices.”
As far as hip-hop goes, a number of rappers have talked about having to lose weight because of serious health issues, which may be a sign of the genre and its participants getting older.
Like Scarface for example, who was candid about trying to stay alive and talked about shedding 100 pounds.
“I was stroke level, I was heart attack level, enlarged heart, congestive heart failure, sleep apnea, asthma, borderline diabetic, malignant high blood pressure,” he revealed in 2014. “My life was threatened, so if a motherf—– threatens my life, so if someone in the street threatens my life, he better make good on it. Because I have to kill him or he’s going to kill me. So I had to kill bad health.”
As far as Khaled, it’ll be interesting to see if he motivates the hip-hop, urban community to shed pounds and speak even more about health and weight loss.
