Charles Barkley revealed Friday night that he’s going to attend a “fat farm” in San Antonio, Texas, to lose weight.
The former basketball star told his TNT cohosts on “Inside The NBA” that he would be taking six weeks off to focus on his weight and overall health.
Barkley discussed his personal struggle with his body during the NBA finals post-game report.
“Listen, I am embarrassed about how fat I have become,” he said. “I have become lazy. Number one, I’m not healthy.”
Barkley’s cohosts were surprised, remarking that they thought he was just going on a vacation. The panelists were unsure as to whether he was being serious, but he insisted that he wanted to get fit again.
“I’m taking the next six weeks to get my fat ass in shape,” he said. “Not around anything. So, I don’t drink, I gotta eat healthy, and I gotta work out. So, I’m disappearing until I see y’all.”
The sports legend already lost 27 pounds back in 2011, when he became a spokesman for Weight Watchers “Lose Like a Man” program.
Barkley has been open about his body struggles, which he has said began after the Houston Rockets gave him a pay cut to help bring Scottie Pippen on the team. The former power forward told Bill Simmons on “Any Given Sunday” last year that the cut was less than he had agreed on, and it left him feeling unmotivated.
“The only year that I was fat was my last year in Houston, because they had promised me $12 million,” Barkley told Simmons. “When I showed up, the contract was only for $8 million. And I said, ‘What happened to my other $4 million?’ They said, ‘Well, we just decided to keep it.’”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warns against “fad” diets. Instead, it recommends that weight loss comes from a lifestyle change that includes “healthy eating, regular physical activity, and balancing the number of calories you consume with the number of calories your body uses.”
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