As country singer Jelly Roll's weight loss journey continues, the star is setting new goals for himself.
Jelly Roll revealed he’s lost more than 100 pounds thanks to a few lifestyle changes. He's embraced a healthier diet — one that’s balanced and involves less alcohol. And he also began exercising more, particularly during his most recent tour Beautifully Broken, which ran from August to November 2024.
Now, he's looking ahead to newer goals, specifically landing a spot on the cover of Men's Health by March 2026.
In a December 2024 episode of wife Bunni XO's podcast "Dumb Blonde," Jelly Roll publicly revealed this goal which he'd only ever shared with his wife. "That's my new goal," he said. "I want to have one of the biggest transformations."
And he's already well on his way. In recent interviews, he revealed just how much he’s lost. “I’m down like 120 (pounds) now. It’s crazy,” Jelly Roll revealed in a Nov. 7 interview on “The Pat McAfee Show.” He lost most of the weight in 2024.
Jelly Roll began his weight loss journey by setting small achievable goals and continuously meeting them. Ever since, he’s stayed motivated.
Ahead, discover everything Jelly Roll has shared about his recent weight loss and his health goals.
How did Jelly Roll lose weight?
Jelly Roll, whose real name is Jason DeFord, kickstarted his weight loss by running.
He stunned viewers of the Academy of Country Music Awards in May 2024 when he looked noticeably slimmer on the red carpet. The appearance came just a couple of weeks after he ran his first 5K race in recent years (and perhaps ever) — the 2 Bears 5K in Los Angeles.
Reflecting on completing the 3.1-mile run, he said it was “really emotional” because he “couldn’t walk a mile” in January when he started training for the 5K.
“So the fact that we got three point whatever it was done today, I feel really, really good about it. I left here feeling really motivated,” he added.
Training for the 5K race has been a big part of helping Jelly Roll lose weight. After finishing the 2 Bears race, he told Entertainment Tonight that he'd lost "50 to 70-something pounds. I got to double check again — it was a lot of weight."
Jelly Roll said the race was harder than he thought it would be. "I feel great, man. I'm a little tired," he laughed. "A little bit harder than I thought it was, but it's awesome, man."
He added that the coolest part about the 5K was watching other people complete the race, some of whom set personal records.
"I think the coolest thing is how many people stopped to tell us that they were motivated by us, other big guys," he said. "It was just really cool to see — what an eclectic group of people. There was a man running in a bear suit."
In mid-April, while he was still training, he told People that he was "doing 2 to 3 miles a day, four to six days a week. I’m doing 20 to 30 minutes in the sauna, six minutes in a cold plunge every day. I’m eating healthy right now.”
"I’ve been really kicking a--, man," he added. "I’m probably down 70-something pounds."
“I feel really good,” he continued. “I was thinking, I plan on losing another 100, 100-and-something (pounds). If I feel this good down this weight, man, I can only imagine what I’m going to feel like by the time I go on tour.”
In a more recent, November 2024 interview with People, he shared that part of his weight loss success has also involved overcoming food addiction.
“The battle was with the food addiction, changing the way I’ve looked at food for the last 39 years,” he said. “I’ve never had a healthy relationship with food, so that was the hard part. But once you get into that discipline and commitment, it’s like an avalanche. Once that little snowball started rolling, it was on its way.”
“Nobody in my house ever had [a healthy relationship with food], so that was the hard part, really fighting that demon at first and getting into that discipline and that commitment.”
He's brought this new mindset to his tour team, as well. "Now our tour culture is around good eating and around exercising and doing emotional check-ins with our crew every day," he said.
“I hope I continue to lose this weight,” Jelly Roll added.
He's surpassed his 100-pound weight loss goal
Jelly Roll revealed that he's lost 120 pounds during an appearance on "The Pat McAfee Show" in early November.
The “Save Me” singer estimated that he dropped anywhere from 60 to 90 pounds since he and McAfee saw each other at a WWE SummerSlam event in August.
“I’ve been kicking a-- on this tour. I brought out a nutritionist, Ian Larios ... And he’s been really helping me. We’ve been shooting basketball. We’ve been walking. We’ve been working.
“It’s so cool, Pat. Because my culture on tour used to revolve around cocaine and alcohol. But now we’re all in our late 30s and 40s, so now we’re like shooting old man basketball and having lattes for lunch afterward. Yeah, dude. We’re living, man. It’s cool,” he added.
A few weeks before, Larios shared a video update on Instagram on Oct. 22, 2024, to celebrate the fact that Jerry Roll had lost more than 100 pounds at that point.
"You won’t recognize me,” Jelly Roll says in the video.
Sensible food swaps
Larios also shared some cooking tips that have allowed Jelly Roll to eat sensibly while on the road.
Larios has been swapping out some of Jelly Roll's favorite meals for some healthier options while the artist has been staying on top of his workouts. "He's been walking the arenas, playing basketball, boxing," Larios shares. "He's just surpassed a 100-pound weight loss."
Before a show, Larios will prepare a banana bowl for Jelly Roll made with sliced bananas, Manuka honey and some Stevia-sweetened dark chocolate grated over the top.
Once the singer's off stage, Larios says he leans into high-protein meals. In the video, he makes the singer a play on Nashville hot chicken without the oil and batter. Larios' version is air fried and seasoned with potato and rice flour. The french fries he serves on the side are boiled in bone broth for additional protein.
Jelly Roll's weight struggles
Jelly Roll has opened up in the past about living with obesity and addiction.
In a 2018 Instagram post, he shared that he once weighed over 500 pounds, calling the day he realized this "one of the most embarrassing" of his life.
"I’ve been obese since I was a small child . All I’ve ever known was being fat , and I’m f-----g miserable. I wanna sky dive , bungee jump, ride a bull, parasail , ride roller coasters, I want to LIVE a normal life and have a normal relationship with food. I fight addictions and alcoholism everyday," he wrote.
In the same post, he shared that in 2016 he lost 200 pounds but then began overeating again in 2018 and gained 60 back. At the time, he said he was recommitting to living a healthier lifestyle.
For years, he said women were a major source of validation for him when he felt lowest about his body. "I was so insecure in my body for so many years that I found validation through women,” he said on a 2024 episode of the "On Purpose With Jay Shetty" podcast. “I thought if I could pull pretty women, then I wasn’t fat.”
But he found the motivation to make a change. In February 2023, he posted on X that he was "working out daily… praying and meditating …. Eating better — losing weight. Making sure I bring the best version of me on my new album and this tour… this is what growth and gratitude look like in real time."
In January 2024, around the same time that Jelly Roll decided he was going to train for a 5K, he took a break from the internet due to comments about his weight.
"My husband got off the internet because he was so tired of being bullied about his f---- weight, and that makes me want to cry because he is the sweetest angel baby," his wife, Bunnie XO, said during an April episode of her "Dumb Blonde" podcast.
Bunnie XO has defended her husband's weight in the past. In January, she responded to a TikTok commenter who called her stepdaughter and her husband "massively overweight."
"For you to even come on my page and say something about my underage daughter’s body shows the type of human you are and I just hope you have the day that you deserve," she said in a TikTok.
Even though he recently hit a major health milestone with his 5K, Jelly Roll isn't stopping there.
"Next year, half marathon. We're saying it right now," he told ET. "I'm going to speak for them — we're gonna do the 2 Bears 5k again, but we're going to do a half-marathon before."
He's announced his latest goal is to be on the cover on Men's Health
Jelly Roll's first goal was to lose 100 pounds, now that he's met (and surpassed) that goal, he's on to the next.
As a guest on wife Bunnie XO's “Dumb Blonde” podcast, Jelly Roll said his next goal is to be on the cover of Men's Health. And he revealed it on air so that people could follow his progress.
“I did this publicly for a reason,” he said. “I want to be honest about my struggles with it with people. I wore it for so long. I think that people that become as big as I became, when they lose the weight, they’re kind of ashamed. They’re so ashamed that they go out and lose the weight and they come back out and they don’t really know how to interact with the world looking different or feeling different.”
He reflected on some of the other ways he's been candid about his weight loss progress and he has no intention of scaling back. “I wanted to lose it in front of everybody. I want to talk about it. It’s on my daily Roll vlogs. You know what I mean? I mean this is constantly what I’m putting in the air because I want to bring people along with me.”
“And what I want the world to know and what I want the people to see, Bunnie, is that I didn’t become successful because of my weight. I became successful in spite of it. I somehow managed to be this successful with carrying 550 pounds. That’s insane.”