Dijon “Mustard” McFarlane may be lean and chiseled today, but just a few years ago, the musician weighed 340 pounds. Back then, he battled terrible consumption habits, 20-nugget meals, fried chicken with wings, tequila, and “lean.” His diet was a mess until reality came crashing down.

Why He Started Taking Care of His Health

When his close friend Fredo Santana, a Chicago-based rapper, died from Kidney and Liver failure due to in 2019, it all came crashing down on him.

After the revelation, he soon changed his eating habits, which helped him lose 70 pounds. However, when COVID hit the world, it proved to be even more drastic for him. "I am an extreme hypochondriac," he told Men's Heath.

The anxiety gripped him. "I weighed like 270 and said to myself, If I get COVID, I am going to die," he added.

Reality hit him harder than anything else, and that’s when he decided to turn his life around forever. “So I started walking around my block. My walking turned into a sprint. Then three sprints turned into five,” said Mustard.

He further added, “I’ve been trying to lose weight for my whole adult life,” Mustard says. “I’ve had five different trainers. I’ve done every diet you can think of.”

Once weighing over 270 pounds, the artist has now shed nearly 120 pounds, and one of the most important factors behind this transformation was his diet.

How Does Mustard keep himself fit?

The man who once ate 20 chicken nuggets a day started eating healthy, and Mustard credits his cameraman for that change.

“I found the one meal that I liked the most: grilled tilapia, spinach, and corn," he told Men's Health.

So he started just eating that meal on a regular basis for three months. When his birthday rolled around on June 5, 2021, three months later, he weighed 215 lbs. As of 2026, he is weighs around 225 lbs.

His go to workouts now consist of repetitive cardio and playing tennis almost daily. So did you find the DJ's story inspiring? Tell us in the comments.

Written by

Suryakant Das

Edited by

Sagnik Bagchi