METALLICA Challenges Radio Personality To Lose Weight

According to the Idaho Statesman, METALLICA has accepted a #MetallicaDiet Challenge from radio personality Big J of Boise station 100.3 FM The X.

All four members of METALLICA — James Hetfield, Kirk Hammett, Lars Ulrich and Robert Trujillo — will grant Big J an in-person interview if he loses at least 100 pounds by the time the band plays his hometown's Taco Bell Arena on November 28.

Big J, whose real name is Jeremi Schlader, weighs around 424 pounds and has chronicled his battles with the scale on social media.

"See, I need to lose a crap ton of weight, so I thought I would ask METALLICA for some incentive," Big J told BLABBERMOUTH.NET.

Two months after he contacted METALLICA's management company pitching the idea for this challenge, the band posted a video addressing his weight.

"Big J, we wish you the very best of luck," Ulrich said in the clip. "Become ... a smaller J."

Schlader, who was diagnosed with binge-eating disorder, told BodyBuilding.com that his relationship to food is like an alcoholic's relationship to drinking.

"Imagine being an alcoholic in recovery, but to stay alive you have to have a drink every day," he said. "Every meal's a challenge, and it's exhausting."

To achieve his goal, Big J will be taking an over-the-counter drug called human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG). He has taken the drug in the past and lost more than 200 pounds.

The American Psychological Association (APA) defines binge-eating disorder as "recurring episodes of eating significantly more food in a short period of time than most people would eat under similar circumstances, with episodes marked by feelings of lack of control." The APA says binge-eating disorder affects about 2 percent of the general population and 8 percent of people who are obese.