Jelly roll weight loss

Jelly roll weight loss discography—Sobriety Sucks, Addiction Kills, A Beautiful Disaster, Self Medicated, Beautifully Broken—reads like an artist’s guide to self-deprecation.

And that is how the “I Am Not OK” singer has gone about most of his life, turning his low points—childhood trauma, substance abuse, several stints in jail starting when he was 15—into poignant lyrics that have made the 40-year-old one of the most in demand artists in the world.

“We’re all a little broken inside,” he said on an October episode of The Sunday Sitdown With Willie Geist, “and I think if we were more honest and vulnerable about where we’re broken and how we feel about things, it could create more conversations to grow and move forward.”

One topic that can be difficult to discuss, but which Jelly Roll (born Jason Bradley DeFord) has been frank about, is his struggle with his weight, which in 2015 topped 500 pounds. 

He didn’t let his heftier physique stand in the way of his career—”They say we were too fat to be in the music business, my voice wasn’t cool enough, ” he recalled in the documentary Jelly Roll: Save Me. “These were all mountains that we had to conquer”—or his dating life, but the 6-foot-1 singer admittedly didn’t feel good about it.

“I was so insecure in my body for so many years that I found validation through women,” Jelly Roll said on an October episode of the On Purpose With Jay Shetty podcast. “I thought if I could pull pretty women, then I wasn’t fat.”

And he was admittedly no gentleman, living “double, triple, quadruple lives,” recalled the father of daughter Bailee, 16, and son Noah, 8, (with respective exes). Until, that is, met his eventual wife, Bunnie XO, in 2015.

“When I got with Bunnie, I immediately didn’t want to talk to nobody [else],” he said, “I just wanted to be with her.” They married in August 2016, hours after he proposed to her onstage at a Yelawolf and Deftones concert in Las Vegas.

At the same time, he was finally trying to get a handle on his weight.

Kelly Clarkson

Yep, the talk show host is standing a little taller these days. Informed by doctors she was pre-diabetic, “I dropped weight because I’ve been listening to my doctor—a couple years I didn’t,” the singer explained to People. “And 90 percent of the time I’m really good at it because a protein diet is good for me anyway.”

She is a Texas girlie after all, “so I like meat—sorry, vegetarians in the world!”

The mom to River and Remington is also enjoying exploring her new life in NYC. “Walking in the city is quite the workout,” she added. “And I’m really into infrared saunas right now. And I just got a cold plunge because everybody wore me down.”

Not in her tool kit: The weight loss drug du jour. “My doctor chased me for like two years and I was like, ‘No, I’m afraid of it. I already have thyroid problems,'” she explained on a May 2024 episode of The Kelly Clarkson Show. “Everybody thinks it Ozempic. It’s not.” Rather, it’s another unnamed medicine, she continued, “Something that aids in helping break down the sugar—obviously my body doesn’t do it right.”

Oprah Winfrey

You get some health advice! And you get some health advice! Because now that the media legend is feeling better than ever, she’s dishing out her best tips. “It’s not one thing,” she stressed to Entertainment Tonight of her treadmill workouts, hikes, water consumption and nutritious eats, “it’s everything.”

While Winfrey hasn’t named the weight loss medication she’s using, she told People in December, “The fact that there’s a medically approved prescription for managing weight and staying healthier, in my lifetime, feels like relief, like redemption, like a gift, and not something to hide behind and once again be ridiculed for,” she explained of adding that particular tool to her arsenal. “I’m absolutely done with the shaming from other people and particularly myself.”

Jelly started his weight loss journey in 2022

Jelly roll weight loss . whose birth name is Jason DeFord, began his weight loss journey in 2022. That year, he told Music Mayhem that his goals for 2023 were to focus on his health and “conquer the demon” that was his weight.

The “Winning Streak” singer has been vocal about his lifelong struggle with weight. In 2022, he shared on The Bobby Bones Show that his mother gave him the nickname Jelly Roll because he was a “chubby kid.” 

“I’ve been fat my whole life,” he said. “She started calling me Jelly Roll when I was young, and I spent the next 20 years trying to grow into the name.

He’s lost over 100 lbs 

Jelly Roll. Scott Legato/Penske Media via Getty 

In 2024, Jelly told PEOPLE that he had lost 110 lbs. by changing his lifestyle to prioritize exercise and making healthier food choices. Jelly estimated that he lost between 60 to 70 lbs. of that weight during his Beautifully Broken tour, which was four months long. 

“It’s cool because there was once a time in life that the culture I built on tour was the opposite,” the Grammy nominee said. “It revolved around alcohol and drugs. And now our tour culture is around good eating and around exercising and doing emotional check-ins with our crew every day.”

He initially lost 70 lbs while training for a 5K

A major part of Jelly’s health journey has been walking and running. The dad of two told PEOPLE in April 2024 that he lost “70-something pounds” training for the 2 Bears 5K with Bert Kreischer and Tom Segura. He was logging between “two and three miles a day, four to six days a week” to prep for the race, which was held in May 2024 at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif.

“I feel really good,” he said. “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.”

Jelly Roll’s 2 Kids: All About Daughter Bailee Ann and Son Noah Bunnie joined her husband for his first-ever 5K, and they crossed the finish line together. After the race, Jelly told Entertainment Tonight that when he first started training in January, he “couldn’t walk a mile.” 

During his 5K training, Jelly used a sauna and did a cold plunge every day 

As a part of his 5K training, Jelly tacked on a few other self-care practices like hitting the sauna and cold plunging.  

“I’m doing 20 to 30 minutes in the sauna, six minutes in a cold plunge every day,” he said. After completing the 5K, Jelly even shared a celebratory kiss in a cold plunge bath with Bunnie. 

He eats a high-protein diet 

Changing the way he eats has also had a huge impact on Jelly’s weight loss journey. During a November 2024 appearance on The Pat McAfee Show, the singer said he brought a nutritionist, Chef Ian Larios, along on his Beautifully Broken tour to cook him high-protein meals. 

In an October 2024 Instagram video, Larios shared what he had been whipping up for the musician. Some of Jelly’s favorite tour meals include a healthier version of Nashville-style hot chicken and French fries boiled in bone broth.

Jelly Roll sought help for food addiction

“Food addiction is when someone may become addicted to certain foods, usually those that are high in fat, sugar, and salt, because of the feel-good brain chemicals that are released when consumed,” explains registered nutritionist and functional medicine practitioner Nicola Shubrook.

While Shubrook points out that some researchers consider food addiction to be more about behavior than the food itself, she says there is an important link between food addiction and obesity, metabolic syndrome, and binge-eating disorder.

She believes seeking help for food addiction can be very beneficial.

“By addressing the root cause behind your food addiction, be it behavioral, genetic, or both, you can begin to create a healthier relationship with food which ultimately leads to not only eating less but also making better food choices,” she explains

“Physiologically, this can create more stable blood sugars and brain chemistry, improving satiety and therefore leading to gradual weight loss.”