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ON A ROLL

Jelly Roll Posts Jaw-Dropping Video of His 200-lb. Weight Loss

The Grammy-winning musician used the video to reflect on his shocking physical transformation.

Roosa RahkonenReporter, The Looker

PublishedJun 24, 2026, 3:36 PM EDT

UpdatedJun 24, 2026, 3:36 PM EDT

Updated Jun 24, 2026, 3:36 PM EDTPublished Jun 24, 2026, 3:36 PM EDT

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Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Jelly Roll shared new videos documenting his shocking weight-loss journey.

The 41-year-old “Need a Favor” singer, who once weighed 540 pounds, reflected on his incredible physical transformation on Instagram on Tuesday.

Jelly, whose real name is Jason DeFord, started the video with an old clip of himself from before his weight loss, walking with his head down in the pouring rain, looking exhausted.

The video then cut to clips of his December 10 appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast.

“Every time I said I was going to lose the weight, Joe, I lied to myself,” he tells Rogan in the clip. “I would tell myself I’m going to do this. I’m going to go do that. And then I’d go tell my family that.”

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Jelly continued, sharing that he had a message for a specific demographic: “There’s a big person listening to this right now, or a drug addict, or somebody who wants to change some part of their life that right now is going, ‘I’m gonna start next Monday.’”

He then reflected on the obstacles he encountered that day, when he had promised to start his fitness journey with a walk.

“That first Monday comes, Joe, it is pissing rain,” he said. “Cats and dogs, dude. And I wake up, and I’m like, ‘s--t.’”

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Jelly said that the eldest of his two children, Bailee Ann, 18, suggested that he could do his walk on a treadmill.

But Jelly was determined to go outside.

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“I was like, ‘I’m done lying to y’all, and I’m done lying to me. I told y’all I was going to go do this walk, and I’m going to do this walk,’” he said.

The video then showed more clips of Jelly’s first days walking in the rain before cutting to a present-day video of him running in the rain.

Over the latter clip, he wrote, “Today, I’m sprinting in the rain.”

He added, “Because one day, not that long ago, I stopped lying to myself. I barely made it up my driveway that day. I’m alive today because I didn’t lose faith. F--- Monday. Start today.”

In the running video, Jelly was lip-syncing to his song “Hands Up,“ which he released on Wednesday.

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The lyrics on the chorus go, “Everybody put your hands up / If you ain’t perfect, but you try / Put them way up to the sky / Touchin’ heaven kinda high.”

He captioned the post, “Make the choice. You can do it.”

Jelly also interacted with fans in the comments.

“I’m down two hundred pounds in the last two years,” one fan wrote. “It’s been amazing watching your transformation.”

To this, Jelly replied, “That’s incredible.”

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In January, Jelly showed his weight-loss results on the cover of Men’s Health.

He had stated that the cover was his goal in a December 2024 episode of his then-wife Bunnie Xo’s podcast, Dumb Blonde.

In the magazine interview, Jelly thanked his chef, sports nutritionist, and medical team for the weight loss.

One of his key changes, he said, was treating his food addiction. In April, Jelly weighed 276 pounds, a whopping 264 pounds less than his heaviest.

On May 18, Jelly filed for divorce from Bunnie, whose real name is Alisa DeFord, after almost 10 years of marriage.

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On her podcast, the 46-year-old New York Times best-selling author shared that Jelly was “feeling himself” amid the weight loss and that he had “started dating” after the breakup.

The two remain on good terms, and Bunnie said that they are “still having a baby together.”

Roosa RahkonenReporter, The Looker

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