Country music star Jelly Roll has revealed that his dramatic weight loss—more than 250 pounds over five years—was driven by lifestyle changes and mental health work rather than long-term use of weight loss drugs such as Ozempic.
The 44-year-old artist, known for hits including Need a Favor, said he does not judge celebrities who use GLP-1 medications but emphasized that such drugs were not central to his own transformation. In a January cover story for Men’s Health, Jelly Roll said he tried weight loss medication for just two weeks at the very beginning of his journey before choosing a different path.
Instead, he focused on addressing what he described as a long-standing food addiction, alongside adopting healthier eating habits and regular physical activity.
“Even before I got into getting my blood work done, I went and got mental health therapy about my overeating,” Jelly Roll told Men’s Health. “I started treating my food addiction like what it was: an addiction. Once I started really looking at the source of why I was eating, everything began to change.”
In 2021, Jelly Roll hired chef and sports nutritionist Ian Larios, who admitted there were moments he considered stepping away from the partnership due to repeated setbacks. Jelly Roll would often lose weight, only to gain it back during what Larios described as “lots of stumbles.” Despite the challenges, the pair worked together to track calories and macronutrients and set incremental health goals.
Every few months, they aimed for measurable improvements, including lower insulin levels, improved cholesterol, and better sleep. By 2022, Jelly Roll set a personal milestone: appearing on the cover of Men’s Health, a goal he has since achieved.
At the start of his journey, the Grammy-nominated artist weighed more than 520 pounds—so much that the scale he used could not register an exact number.
“The needle went past 520, but it didn’t blow it down,” he recalled. “It could have been 560, it could have been 528. I really don’t know.”
After a brief period of fasting, he managed to get his weight below 500 pounds, a moment he described as a major psychological turning point. By the end of 2025, Jelly Roll said his weight had dropped to 265 pounds.
In addition to diet and exercise, Jelly Roll also pursued hormone therapy at Texas-based wellness clinic Ways2Well to address extremely low testosterone levels, which he said were comparable to those of a preteen boy. Brigham Buhler, the clinic’s founder, said Jelly Roll deliberately avoided GLP-1 drugs so his progress would not be dismissed.
“He said, ‘I don’t want an asterisk next to my name,’” Buhler told Men’s Health. “He wanted to prove this was possible.”
The physical changes have been significant. Jelly Roll said that at the beginning of his journey, he was unable to walk a full mile in 30 minutes. Now, he can complete a mile in just over 12 minutes.
“I can put on a pair of tennis shoes, walk out the door, do a mile loop around Hollywood Boulevard, and be back in 12 minutes and 25 seconds,” he said.
For Jelly Roll, the transformation has been as much mental as physical—rooted in consistency, accountability, and a commitment to long-term health rather than quick fixes.
