Reader TTS

The Voice UK coach Will.i.am – real name William James Adams – had a diet overhaul over one year ago, after realising how unhealthy his lifestyle had become. Will.i.am said he lost 20lbs

thanks to a vegan diet, after originally weighing 15 stone. The Black Eyed Peas star, 43, said the plant-based diet brought down his cholesterol and high blood pressure and reduced his

stress levels. Will.i.am also previously would have just two and a half hours sleep per night, so when he realised the toll his lifestyle was taking on his body he made a big change.

Speaking about his plant-based diet to Arianna Huffington on her Thrive Global podcast in August last year, Will.i.am said the lifestyle change also boosted his energy levels. He said:

"I switched my regimen, went plant-based and it changed my life. I lost 20 lbs. "My cholesterol came down, my high blood pressure came down. My stress levels came down naturally. I

have more energy. My sleep regimen is awesome." "It changed my life, and I would encourage everybody to have a plant-based regimen," he continued. "You don't need

the meat, you don't need to have decaying flesh in your body. “The more I think about it I was like, 'Ew.' I was just, I had death in me. Decayed flesh and crazy chemicals I

can't pronounce. You wouldn't put that s**t in your car." At the start of 2018, Will.i.am said doctors told him he had high blood pressure and high cholesterol and that was

enough of a wake up call. He told The Mirror at the time: “I weighed 15 stone. After we finished filming in December I went home, I became vegan, I biked to work and I lost 15lb.  “I decided

to do it as I was heavy then. I went to the doctor because I had this cough I couldn’t kick. “They said I had high blood pressure and high cholesterol. I was like, ‘Why am I having that?’.

“It is because I work and work and work and travel, travel, travel. I eat whatever I eat, I had no regiment in what I was eating.” Will.i.am now works out more regularly and changed his diet

to become more plant-based, which isn't as strict as a vegan diet. He added: “I thought, ‘OK, I have to get this under control’. So I changed my diet, started working out more and lost

the weight. “The cholesterol is down as well but it runs in my family, and diabetes. So I want to get it under control now so I don’t have to worry about it later on.” He told Loose Women

last year his immune system is now better than ever after cutting meat from his diet. Will.i.am said: “The high cholesterol was a wake-up call, then I had bronchitis for a month and a half

and I didn’t know why I couldn’t beat it. “My immune system was weak and I was eating whatever I could eat for energy, my sleeping patterns were really off, I’d have two and half hours, wake

up, go to work, have a nap. So I really had to get my life in check. “My blood pressure and cholesterol came down without having to take medicine, my nasal drip has gone, both my nostrils

are working – as I always had one nostril that didn’t work! No more nasal drip no more acid reflux.”