Jelly Roll has famously been on a weight loss journey over the last three years. Despite losing more than 200 pounds, the country music singer reveals he has hit a setback.
Jelly Roll’s Weight Loss Setback
The “Son of a Sinner” artist shared an updated weight loss vlog to YouTube on April 17, in which he explains what caused his setback.
“I started getting crazy in my head at 480 pounds and 500 pounds, talking about I want to be on the cover of Men’s Health. And a lot of y’all followed that journey,” he explained. “And I got on the cover of Men’s Health. It actually happened. I never thought I would buy into my own delusional dream in that moment, but we did it. And we made the cover of Men’s Health. This is where the game gets a little ugly.”
Jelly — real name Jason DeFord — continued, “We hit the goal and it was right before the holidays. So, I was like, you know what, man? I’ve been working hard for the last three years losing this weight. Said, I’m going to enjoy the holidays. And I had a big Thanksgiving meal, and I ate a big birthday meal, and I ate a big Christmas meal, and kind of got off the rails.”
“I broke my collar bone about a week before Christmas, a few days before Christmas, and that set me down where I had to quit running, quit walking, quit exercising for, you know, some extended period of time,” he said. “I said all that to say that I have to some degree lost my way.”
The “Need a Favor” singer admitted that he has “been avoiding the scale.”
“I’m afraid to see what the scale is going to say from what my actual goal is,” he added.
Jelly Roll Is Training for a Marathon
Jelly Roll’s weight loss journey began in 2023 with a challenge to complete a 5k race. After successfully completing the race in May 2024, he decided to push his goal.
He lost more than 200 pounds, dropping to below 300 pounds for the first time in his adult life, before landing on the cover of Men’s Health in January.
His next goal: to complete the New York City marathon in November.
“I want to get these last 40 or 50 pounds off and then I eventually want to cut my skin, and I eventually want to be on the cover of something crazy like GQ or Rolling Stone or Vanity Fair or Forbes or Time with my shirt off,” he gushed. “I know this is getting real silly now, but I don’t know. I just believe there’s this story that a guy can go from 560 pounds to a shirt off picture. It’s absurd.”
Before stepping on the scale for the first time in months, the “Save Me” artist admitted to feeling “really fat,” and “really bloated.”
“I feel like this scale is going to let me down,” he said in a clip filming on Friday, April 10. “I feel like I’m going to find out I’ve gained like 15 lbs over the [ expletive ] last 6 months. I’m scared. But at least we’re here together. So, let’s try it. You gotta start somewhere.”
After panning the camera down to reveal 276.2, he said, “We’re up 12 pounds.”
