The Michael Jackson Diet: What Did MJ Eat?

Michael Jackson is shown during his June 23, 2009, concert rehearsal at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.

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Once-a-Day Meals Could Lead to Weight Problems

Keith-Thomas Ayoob, a nutritionist at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in Bronx, N.Y., said he would not be surprised if reports that Jackson had only been eating one meal a day turned out to be true -- especially if the singer had been taking a number of different medications, as some of those close to him have suggested.

"One meal a day is not enough, but it is not unusual for someone who was on a lot of medications," he said. "If he was on Demerol, for instance, this slows the gut down, and he may have felt full a lot."

Regardless of the reason, however, Ayoob said he believes Jackson's skinny appearance suggests a problem.

"He may not have had an eating disorder in the sense of anorexia or binging and purging," Ayoob said. "It may be that the medications he was on made food taste funny or suppressed his appetite. So it may not have been an eating disorder in the traditional sense. As far as keeping his weight down, I'm not sure that was Michael's intention."

Michael Jackson's Weight: How Skinny Is Too Skinny?

Still, some have attributed Jackson's apparent low weight to the strenuous schedule he adopted for his upcoming concert tour.

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"He was always thin, but he was also in the middle of a very stressful time, getting ready for the tour," said LaPerruque, who noted that he last saw Jackson about four weeks ago at a Beverly Hills restaurant. "I even said to him, 'Michael, this is the skinniest I've ever seen you.' He said, 'Well, I've been rehearsing.'

"It was always a running joke with us, that I needed to put meat on his bones."

During his appearance on "Good Morning America," Ferrigno's statements appeared to support that explanation.

"He might have been a little thin because he was under a lot of stress training for the tour," Ferrigno said. "But when I put him through the routine and everything, I mean, it was just fine -- I mean, very energetic."

Meanwhile, the singer's representatives have said Jackson passed a four-hour physical in preparation for his London concerts.

But Ayoob said he harbors doubt about the veracity of the physical.

"I'm very concerned about all these pseudo-reports that Michael received a 'clean bill of health' to do these concerts," he said. "I don't know who examined him but, at reports of 5'10" and a reported 125 pounds, his body mass index was 17.9. That spells wasting.

"He may have been allowed to do a concert in Spain, but he could not have walked a fashion runway there," Ayoob added. "They have laws about models being too thin to work."

Ayoob said that if the reports that Jackson was only 112 pounds are true, his health situation could have been even more dire than many of his acquaintances knew.

"In terms of his weight, if was still at 125, he was emaciated," he said. "If he was at 112 -- if those reports are true -- he's cachexic."