Eminem was so obsessive about exercise that he burned off 2000 cal per day

Eminem

Eminem and running are two of my favorite subjects, so I had to hit this new Shady interview in Men’s Health. Marshall Mathers gets real about fitness and his obsessive personality. It all started with his sleeping pill addiction, which led to an ulcer in his stomach. He ate to kill the pain, which eventually took him up to 230 pounds. I remember reading an Enquirer article that showed a rare paparazzi photo from around 2007. They called him “M&M,” which is just awful.

A few years ago, Eminem told Rolling Stone how he finally realized how heavy he was when he heard two teenagers talking about him. The boys were trying to figure out if he was really Eminem. In the end, one decided, “No it’s not, man – Eminem ain’t fat.” Shortly thereafter, Mathers overdosed on pills and went to rehab. Once he finished the program, he replaced one addiction with another. Eminem threw himself into exercise and ran over two hours every day. He became obsessed with burning 2000 calories by running 17 miles without fail. To no one’s surprise but his own, the heavy mileage tore down his body. Now he’s found a fitness solution:

How he started exercising: “When I got out of rehab, I needed to lose weight, but I also needed to figure out a way to function sober. Unless I was blitzed out of my mind, I had trouble sleeping. So I started running. It gave me a natural endorphin high, but it also helped me sleep, so it was perfect. It’s easy to understand how people replace addiction with exercise. One addiction for another but one that’s good for them.”

He totally overdid running: “I became a f***ing hamster. Seventeen miles a day on a treadmill,” admits the rapper, who says he ran to the point of injury. “I would get up in the morning, and before I went to the studio, I would run eight and a half miles in about an hour. Then I’d come home and run another eight and a half. I started getting OCD about the calories, making sure I burned 2,000 every day. In the end I got down to about 149 lbs. I ran to the point where I started to get injured. All the constant pounding from the running began to tear up my hip flexors.”

Now he loves fitness DVDS: “I know a lot of these DVD guys are wacky, but I’m alone in my gym; I need someone on the TV yelling to motivate me. Besides, some of this sh*t is entertaining. When I first started the Insanity workout, I alternated my routine, running one day and doing the Insanity the other. Then I stopped running altogether because it was too much to do them both. The Insanity won. After a while, I mixed it up. I did the P90X for a little while (and I still do that ab workout because it’s the most challenging). Now every morning before I go to the studio, I do the Body Beast workout with free weights, bench, and pullup bar at home. It’s just me, so it helps that the Body Beast dude is over-the-top.”

[From Men’s Journal]

The DVD thing is hilarious because it’s quite a mental image to think of Eminem at home, working up a sweat in front of the television. I used to do tv workouts during college, but those days are over. I spend so much time at home in front of the computer that getting out for a run is a necessity, but 17 miles per day is too much for even the pro athletes. No human body can sustain that kind of mileage. Eminem loves his DVDs and says sometimes he can’t “walk for two days” after starting a new one. It sounds like he’s still overdoing it, perhaps, but this habit is healthier than a pill addiction.

Eminem

Eminem

Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet & WENN

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