“Tim McGraw decided to change his health habits in 2008, when his young daughter said he looked “big on the screen” in a movie called Four Christmases.
“I was not taking care of myself,” the country singer told Men’s Health. “I was at the peak of my career, and I was not making the most of it.” He weighed 215 pounds at that time, and he knew he had to do something different.
“I want to be there for my family,” McGraw told Entertainment Tonight. “I want to see my kids grow up, I want to have fun with my grandkids. I want to take them diving and spearfishing, all those things that I want to do with my grandkids.”
McGraw and his wife, country singer Faith Hill, have three children together. They lived in the Bahamas for many years, where McGraw learned to love spearfishing and diving, two water sports that keep him active.
“All the people who work hard for me and depend on me to show up—I was not doing that,” he told Entertainment Tonight. “And I thought that if I want to have a long career and I want to stay in this position for a long time, it’s easy to quit now. And I don’t want to quit.”
Now, at 52 years old, McGraw has lost 40 pounds and changed his lifestyle to be healthier. Here’s how the star did it.
He changed his eating habits.
Being on tour can make you feel like you’re always on holiday, because you stay in hotels, order food to your room, eat junk food at stops, and have fun after shows.
“I was not taking care of myself very well 10 years ago. And my lifestyle was bad,” McGraw told CMT. He said he was staying up until 3 in the morning, drinking “an extra beer with the band, eating cheeseburgers, and not going to the gym in the morning. It was getting out of hand.”
When his daughter told him he looked “big,” McGraw decided to stop drinking alcohol, burgers, and truck-stop foods. “’You really need to do something,’” McGraw’s oldest daughter told him. “And the next day,” he said, “I was in the gym.”
He started to exercise more.
The country singer began with easy walks in the morning, which then became 20-minute runs, and finally lifting weights.
McGraw started to exercise on the road and put gym equipment in his tour trailer. He worked out for 90 minutes with personal trainer Roger Yuan before each concert. “There’s such a feeling of achievement that comes from the feeling of being my age and still being at the top of my game,” he told Men’s Health. “I don’t really get tired of training.”
He also said that his fitness has helped him in his career. “I use my whole body to sing—my legs, my butt,” the country star said. “And having more control over those things makes my voice stronger.”
But it’s not only about how he looks.
For McGraw, the weight that he lost with his new lifestyle was a bonus. “It wasn’t like I was trying to lose 40 pounds, I was just wanting to get healthy,” the country star told People. “For me, it is more about feeling good and being where I want to be physically and on stage.”
“I’ve gone through a physical change in the last 10 years, but it’s not just my appearance that has changed,” he said. “My mind is clearer, my sense of purpose is sharper, and my relationships are deeper. Regular physical exercise helps me bring focus to my life and to the people who mean the most to me.”
