Singer JoJo Recounts Being On A 500-Calorie Diet In Order To Convince Her Record Label To Release Album

#Roomies, singer JoJo is back and is sharing very candid details– including how she was put on a 500 calorie diet and received injections to curb her appetite–about her struggles in the entertainment industry.

In an interview with UpRoxx, the 29-year old filled us in on what happened with her former record label, Blackground Records, owned by Aaliyah’s uncle, Barry Hankerson.  As she details those accounts, the Massachusetts native also discussed how she didn’t feel good enough and felt if she lost weight, the label would release her album.

“I remember being sat down in the Blackground office and the president of the label saying like, I want you to look as healthy as possible. I was like, I’m actually the picture of health. I look like a healthy girl who eats, who is active. I don’t think this is about my health. I think that you want me to be really skinny.”

She continued:

“I ended up getting put with a nutritionist that had me on a 500-calorie a day diet. I was on these injections that made you have no appetite. I was like, ‘Let me see how skinny I could get cuz maybe then they’ll put out an album. Maybe I’m just so disgusting that no one wants to see me in the video and they can’t even look at me.’”

At one point, in the interview, she also discussed her struggle with substance abuse.

“I felt that how I must’ve not enough, must’ve been dissatisfying. I started getting f-d up drinking. Making out with strangers, looking for validation and attention. Looking to feel pretty, looking to feel good, looking to feel worthy.”

JoJo also stated:

“There were definitely nights I stumbled out of clubs and that I blacked out and was completely reckless–did not care. I needed to feel a buzz to feel OK. I would go to the edge and stand on my tip toes, on the edge, and then come back.”

She also added:

“I should be dead.”

The singer signed her first record deal, in 2003, at the age of 12. In 2004, she dropped her hit single “Leave (Get Out),” which later went gold. In total, JoJo has sold over 7 million records worldwide.