Jelly Roll looked almost unrecognisable as he collected three Grammy awards on Sunday – following an astonishing 300lb weight loss.
The 41-year-old rapper-turned-country star, who once weighed 550lbs, has shed more than half his body weight in under four years – and insists he hasn’t used weight-loss jabs.
He revealed last month he is now down to 265lbs, crediting exercise and other simple lifestyle tweaks as the catalyst.
In April 2024, he said he’d lost ’70-something pounds’ after taking up walking and running, eventually training for a 5K.
Alternating between the two, he logged two to three miles a day – roughly 7,500 steps, depending on height and pace.
He has also said he prioritises protein-heavy meals, including Nashville-style hot chicken boiled in bone broth and high-protein poutine, which can help promote fullness.
Jelly Roll has also praised daily sauna sessions and cold plunges.
Evidence is mixed, but saunas may lead to short-term water weight loss through sweating, while cold exposure may trigger non-shivering thermogenesis, where the body burns extra energy to stay warm.
Jelly Roll showed off his drastically reduced size at the red carpet of the Grammy Awards on Sunday, February 1, after losing a little under 300lbs
He also noted he wanted to lose weight ‘naturally’ without the use of Ozempic or other weight-loss drugs due to the risk of acid reflux, a common side effect of the medications.
‘Every doctor I’ve talked to is for it,’ he said on the Dumb Blonde podcast. ‘They said it helps. I just was afraid of it … As a singer, few things scare me more than acid reflux.
‘Like, you’ll watch me get up out of a bed, I’ll burp and wake up panicked and go take something for it. You know? Because that stuff will just rip the vocal cords.’
In a recent interview with Extra, Jelly Roll said the weight loss has improved his overall quality of life, sex drive and mental health. ‘I’ve gotten closer to God. I’ve gotten closer to myself. I’m a better father,’ he said.
‘I’m more present with my children. You should see it, dude. I mean, I’m coaching my son’s basketball team this year … I just feel physically better, and I feel like I can physically do [things].
‘I’m like a teenager, dog. I have the sex drive of a 17-year-old again. I’m f*****g pouncing on my wife. We’re having daytime sex again. It’s f*****g awesome.’
Jelly Roll told PEOPLE in 2024 that he had long struggled with food addiction and had to change the way he ‘looked at food for the last 39 years.’
Suffered by between 13 and 20 percent of American adults, or 70 million, food addiction is a loss of control or inability to stop eating certain foods, particularly those high in carbohydrates, fat, salt, sugar or artificial sweeteners.
He said: ‘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.
‘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.’
Jelly Roll’s weight loss journey started by training for a 5K that took place in May 2024. He told PEOPLE ahead of the race that he lost ’70-something pounds’ during the process, which involved walking and running two to three miles per day for four to six days a week.
After the race, he told Entertainment Tonight that when he first started training that January, he ‘couldn’t walk a mile.’
He also has credited playing basketball every day with his crew while on tour for helping with the weight loss.
Additionally, Jelly Roll opened up in November 2024 about bringing a nutritionist on tour with him to cook high-protein meals.
It’s unclear exactly how much protein the singer was consuming, but US Food and Nutrition Board recommends 0.8 grams per kilogram of body weight, or 0.36 grams per pound.
Protein should also account for 10 to 35 percent of your daily calories, so if a person is following a standard 2,000-calorie diet, that adds up to 200 to 700 calories from protein or 50 to 170 grams.
Jelly Roll, whose real name is Jason DeFord, is pictured in October 2021, the year before he embarked on his weight loss process from a starting point of 550lbs
Jelly Roll is pictured with wife Bunnie Xo at the Grammy Awards on Sunday, February 1
For weight loss, the board recommends aiming for one to 1.2 grams per kilogram.
Protein digests more slowly than refined carbohydrates, which are common in breads and pastas and ultra-processed foods. This keeps food in the stomach longer, increasing fullness.
Additionally, protein intake leads to a decrease in the hunger hormone ghrelin, which keeps you full for longer periods of time.
Jelly Roll has cited on social media that his high-protein favorites include Nashville-style hot chicken and French fries boiled in bone broth and dairy-free high protein poutine.
As part of his 5K training, the singer has been vocal about hitting the sauna and partaking in cold plunges. ‘I’m doing 20 to 30 minutes in the sauna, six minutes in a cold plunge every day,’ he previously told PEOPLE.
The intense sweating while in a sauna can lead to reductions in water weight. One recent study found participants who did daily saunas lost about one percent of their body weight, though exact results depend on temperature, length of time and hydration.
Some studies also suggest the habit boosts metabolism because the body has to exert more energy to cool down. In one small 2019 study, overweight men who sat for four 10-minute sauna sessions with five-minute breaks in between burned more calories in later sessions.
As for cold plunges, the process is thought to cause the body to burn more calories to maintain its core temperature, which breaks down fat.
A 2025 study also found that people who sat in a bath with 61-degree Fahrenheit water for 30 minutes burned more calories than those in warmer water. However, research overall is limited.
