“What’s up,” asks a trimmer Timbaland, 47, in the video that Men’s Health uploaded in December. The creative mind behind some of the biggest bangers of the last decade took the publication on a tour of his fridge and gym to show how he was able to drop 130 pounds. At the first stop, Timbaland opened up his fridge to show that his diet contains an abundance of fruits and veggies. “Health is wealth,” he said. “Right now, I just do as a bodybuilder would do. They eat very plain jane. There’s no taste. You’re not eating taste. You’re eating for them to be fuel. … It’s different when you’re trying to hit a destination. You have to be on point, very precise. Which, I like to be. I don’t like to break or bend the rules.”
Timbaland dished on what he drinks to help him stay ripped, including alkaline water and the ingredients to his smoothies (“Pineapples, cantaloupes, kiwis and strawberries, to give it a little flavor.”) He also revealed that he doesn’t engage in “Cheat Days.” Tim passes on the temptation to indulge – except for one instance. “The one thing that gets me is when we go to the movie theatre because we go to the certain theatre [where they serve food] and you gotta order something off the menu. I try to order a salad, knowing that’s the only thing – that’s really not healthy – that I’m going to get.”
As to his gym regimen, Tim spends time at DBC Fitness in Miami. Co-owner David Alexander told Men’s Health that Timbaland came in “grossly overweight” at about 350 pounds. He designed a program for the hip-hop icon that involved seven general movement patterns: squat, lunge, hinge, push, pull, twist, and gait. “He has a no-quit mentality,” David told Men’s Fitness. “He understands that this is his new life. It’s not something that’s going to go away in three months. And he’s committed. Tim is one of the most mentally strong guys out there.” After a year, Tim had lost 50 pounds. He dropped 40 more, and today, he’s dropped 130 pounds while packing on the muscle.
For years, Timbaland struggled with his weight, and the turning point came when he looked at pictures of himself and was in complete disbelief at what he saw. “I knew … what was under the fat, I knew what I could look like,” he said. A doctor’s visit revealed that he was close to having diabetes, which was another wakeup call. Timbaland kicked his addiction to prescription drugs, and did “a two-year [180].” He’s been sober for five or six years, stopped eating out, and is a regular at the gym.
The transformation changed not just his body, but his whole life. “I believe [fitness] helped me to be more focused on my business, to be sharper. I used to have a problem with getting up, being on time. Now, I’m the earliest person to the place.” As an artist, his new life “helps me create better,” helps him find kindred creative spirits, and help him “understand what the brand of Timbaland is. … it [helped me] understand my value because I don’t believe I understood my value when I was the other Tim.”