Busta Rhymes shares scary health experience that led to him ultimately losing 45kg

Music legend Busta Rhymes pulled off an amazing feat, losing over 45kg after a near-fatal health scare.

The 51-year-old musician revealed in an interview with Men’s Health that at his heaviest, he weighed 154 kilograms, and his body felt the toll of his poor health.

At one point, while in bed with his then-partner, he experienced what felt like an asthma attack.

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“I had a breathing issue after the intimate interaction,” he said, recounting how he left the bedroom and tried to calm down with deep breathing.

“That was scaring me so much that it was a mindf–k, because I had to stay calm and make sure she didn’t hear me panic or hear me struggle to breathe,” he revealed. “I’m butt-ass naked in the living room, trying to calm myself down.”

When the rapper returned to his bedroom, his now-ex-partner shared his concern. “She was like, ‘Yo, this is not who I fell in love with. You gotta lose this weight. This breathing is scaring me… I need you to get back to who I fell in love with’.”

A few days later, this concern over his weight was compounded when his son slapped his belly instead of returning a fist-bump. ”Those are two moments that really made me say, ‘Right, I gotta fix all of this’,” he told the magazine.

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This began the start of his health and wellness journey. Rhymes began a new diet and workout regimen, and also scheduled surgeries that he’d been putting off.

He says he had “a 90 per cent blockage in my throat because of polyps on my vocal cords, and my breathing was bad”, but was too scared to have surgery because his voice is his livelihood.

But when a doctor said that the polyps were so bad that he could die in his sleep, Rhymes scheduled the surgery.

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In October 2020, Rhymes showed off his weight loss progress in an Instagram post.

The musician told Men’s Health that now he’s slimmed down, he’s focused on building muscle. His routine includes two-a-day workouts of “weights, circuits, sauna, [and] cryotherapy”.

Rhymes also touched on the importance of getting his head in the right place too: “Find that balance mentally and spiritually so that you can find that peace of mind and that happiness to be your best self. Not just for you, but for the people that you love.”

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