Busta Rhymes’ 100-pound (about 45kg) weight loss was sparked by a post-sex asthma-like attack.

The rapper, 51, real name Trevor George Smith Jr, weighed around 340 pounds (about 154kg) in 2019, but started to lose the weight after the incident convinced him he needed to overhaul his lifestyle.

He told Men’s Health: “One night I was getting ready to have, make, you know … I was getting ready to have an intimate moment with my ex.

“I had a breathing issue after the intimate interaction.”

Busta added he was having a “really difficult time breathing” so he “got up and walked out of the bedroom” so his ex “wouldn’t panic seeing me trying to keep myself calm”.

He went on: “I was trying to inhale, and it felt like it wasn’t working. I felt like I was having like, an asthma attack – but I don’t have asthma.

“So I walked out of the bedroom and went into the living room, and I was forcing myself to inhale, to relax.”

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After the rapper walked back into the bedroom, he said his ex said something to him that “really f*****” him up.

He said: “She was like, ‘Yo, this is not who I fell in love with.’

“She didn’t know what had happened outside, but she was looking at my body and the weight.

“She was like, ‘You gotta lose this weight. This breathing is scaring me.’”

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Busta’s dramatic weight gain started after he lost his father, Trevor Smith, in 2014.

He said: “I drowned myself in work. I just kept drinking, smoking, eating bad – the whole nasty – and recording a bunch of songs just to escape the pain.”

After his breathing troubles, which were caused by polyps on his vocal cords, the dad-of-six said he got in the gym and altered his eating habits.

He is now preparing to go on tour with 50 Cent and told Men’s Health he works out twice a day as he doesn’t want to be the “weak link” on stage.