Lifestyle Health New Kids on the Block's Jonathan Knight Lost 21 Lbs. Just by Cutting out Meat New Kids on the Block's Jonathan Knight dropped 21 lbs. in seven months just by going vegetarian By Julie Mazziotta Julie Mazziotta Twitter Julie Mazziotta is the Sports Editor at PEOPLE, covering everything from the NFL to tennis to Simone Biles and Tom Brady. She was previously an Associate Editor for the Health vertical for six years, and prior to joining PEOPLE worked at Health Magazine. When not covering professional athletes, Julie spends her time as a (very) amateur athlete, training for marathons, long bike trips and hikes. People Editorial Guidelines Published on July 27, 2016 05:55 PM Share Tweet Pin Email Photo: Laura Cavanaugh/Getty Images It’s goodbye meat, hello veggies for New Kids on the Block singer Jonathan Knight! After feeling like “the fat New Kid,” Knight decided to cut meat from his diet and managed to lose 21 lbs., he tells Entertainment Tonight. The singer had a wake-up call during a vacation in Southeast Asia in November when he stepped on a scale and saw his weight had snuck up to 209 lbs. At the same time, Knight, who now lives on a Massachusetts farm, was concerned about animal cruelty, and decided to test out vegetarianism. “Just seeing how animals are raised and the slaughterhouses freaked me out,” he says. “I had never thought too much about where meat comes from and was like, ‘This is not right.’ ” The fields of fresh vegetables in his backyard made the transition fairly easy, and Knight, 47, immediately noticed a difference. Two weeks later I noticed I had lost weight, so I decided to start weighing myself every day and it just kept dropping. It was crazy,” he says. “Seven months later, I m down to 175 lbs. and I didn’t work out or anything. His meat-free diet even ended a long battle with his digestive system, one that even doctors couldn’t diagnose. “A lot of the time I was going to the doctor because my stomach was always bloated. I would eat then just feel really nasty,” Knight explains. “The doctor was always like, ‘I don’t know what’s wrong with you.’ They couldn’t diagnose anything. Then just from eating clean, healthy, organic that has gone away.” RELATED VIDEO: Shonda Rhimes Opens up About the Moment That Sparked Her Dramatic Weight Loss Going veggie helped Knight understand the importance of nutrition, especially as he gets older. “When you’re 20, your body is amazing, but now that we’re older it’s more of a struggle to make sure we maintain ourselves and don’t become these big, 300-lb. pop stars!” he says. Plus, Knight adds, there’s a bigger focus on appearance these days. “Body image is more in your face now than it was back then,” he says. “You look on social media and Instagram and it’s all these buff people! Body image is such a big thing for people.”