Jelly Roll‘s successful weight loss journey led him to achieve one of his biggest personal goals — landing the cover of Men’s Health magazine. Check out the “American Idol” season 23 artist-in-residence’s cover photo and inspiring story.
Goal Achieved: Jelly Roll Graces the Cover of Men’s Health
Jelly Roll is showing off his 275-pound weight loss on the cover of Men’s Health magazine, a goal he’s spoken about in the past.
On January 2, the Men’s Health Instagram account shared the Jelly Roll cover, writing in the caption: “When Jason Bradley DeFord, better known as Jelly Roll, first began his fitness journey, he told people close to him that he wanted to be on the cover of Men’s Health one day.”
The caption continued, “At the end of 2024, on his wife Bunnie XO’s podcast, he publicly set the goal of making it happen by March of this year. Well, he’s two months ahead of schedule. The Grammy-nominated country star is on the cover of our Winter 2026 issue.”
“For his cover story, we followed Jelly over the course of a year to chronicle his epic transformation. When we first met up with him, he weighed 380 pounds — already down 160 pounds from his heaviest, in 2020,” the magazine noted. “On the morning of our cover shoot at the end of 2025, he weighed in at 265.”
Jelly Roll Shares His Weight Loss Story
The singer initially focused on getting healthy, beginning with his mental health. “Even before I got into getting my blood work done, I went and got mental health therapy about my overeating,” he explained in Men’s Health.
He continued, “I started treating my food addiction like what it was: an addiction. Why did I treat cocaine a certain way? I went to meetings for cocaine and found a sponsor and detoxed off of it and [expletive] myself and went through real hard life-changing emotional choices to get off cocaine and codeine.”
“I didn’t look at the food addiction different. Once I started treating food like an addiction, it started changing everything for me,” Jelly Roll shared. “When I started really looking at the source of why I was eating. What was I eating for?”
The singer worked with a team, began hormone therapy, and hired chef and sports nutritionist Ian Larios.
In the Men’s Health documentary, “A Year For a Life,” Jelly Roll shared that rather than aiming for a goal weight, he has “a feeling weight.” He noted, “And I don’t feel it yet. I’ll know when I feel it, because I’ll finally be there.”
“But, man, I’ve worked really hard and lost the weight the right way,” the singer said.
“I feel the weight loss in every facet,” Jelly Roll said. “Whether it’s basketball and how I dribble or move, or how I can breathe running up and down a court. I feel it when I sleep and my hip hurts less and I can roll over easier without making a big of a rumble. Or the fact that me and my wife can fit on the same bed again.”
Fans are impressed with Jelly Roll’s commitment to weight loss and achieving his goal. “This makes me cry! His 2025 goal came true! I’m so proud of this man!!” one fan commented.
Another fan wrote, “Congrats on all your hard work. What an achievement!”
I’m so proud of Jelly Roll and the progress he made losing all that weight. I’m sure it wasn’t easy to do, but he did it! Congratulations, Jelly Roll! You look amazing!😃🎉 🎊
Bet he used the weight loss shots