Everyone’s weight loss transformation is different. Just ask Mustard.
The superproducer has seen his fair share of stops and starts, going through different trainers, diets and more, all in an attempt to live a healthier lifestyle and shed the weight. Even after dancing on the stage of all stages at the Super Bowl last February, he can relish the fact that he’s lost over 120 pounds on a health journey he says has gone on “his entire adult life.”
“I’ve had five different trainers. I’ve done every diet you can think of,” Mustard told Men’s Health in a new feature on his weight loss transformation. “I remember the doctor would always tell me I have a fatty liver. So I’d say, ‘How do I get rid of a fatty liver?’ He’d say, ‘Lose weight.’ How do I get rid of high blood pressure? Lose weight. I got tired of hearing that.”
At one point in 2018, the 35-year-old producer behind Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us” and “tv off” stood at 5’7″ and weighed in at 340 pounds. He needed a change. Fast.
After the death of close friend Fredo Santana, who dealt with kidney and liver failure due to Xanax and lean abuse in 2019, Mustard put his lean drinking days behind him. “I had a full bottle of lean, and it was expensive lean, and I poured it down the drain and never drank lean again,” he said.
The initial motivation worked. At one point, thanks to clean eating and cutting back on drinking, he lost 70 pounds. Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and every gain he had quickly went away.
“I weighed like 270 and said to myself, ‘If I get COVID, I am going to die.”
The feeling of anxiety and guilt racked his brain after he sold the bulk of his catalog for a life-altering amount of wealth. To counter those thoughts, he started doing something that is natural to many people.
“So I started walking around my block,” he said. “My walking turned into a sprint. Then three sprints turned into five.”
He leaned on the healthy habits of his friends, such as his cameraman, who put him onto a meal he’s come to love: grilled tilapia, spinach, and corn. He ate it almost daily. Three months after his latest journey began, he weighed himself and felt proud: 215 pounds.
Around the Super Bowl last year, Mustard floated around 225 pounds, a far cry from his heaviest days but still not near his goal weight of 190 to 200 pounds, a weight he considers to be “perfect” for his body frame. Another habit that he’s now become obsessed over? Tennis, thanks to frequent collaborator Ella Mai. Ever since being introduced to the sport nearly five years ago, Mustard has become an active player and participated in a few celebrity events. He says he plays tennis for a couple of hours a day, shedding 1,000 calories during matches.
“I’m just an extremist,” he said of his foray into tennis. “When I start to feel like I’m gonna be good at anything, I’m going to try to be better than all my friends.”
