It looks like 2025 will be a health-focused year for Jelly Roll. The 40-year-old rapper-singer looks forward to shedding more weight in the new year, and hopefully landing a magazine cover to show off his body transformation.
On the Dec. 16 episode of his wife Bunnie XO’s Dumb Blonde podcast, Jelly Roll — given name Jason Bradley DeFord — revealed his weight loss goal for 2025, saying, “I wanna be on the cover of Men’s Health by March of 2026. That’s my new goal.”
The “Wild Ones” hitmaker has already lost 120 pounds from his former 550-pound frame, but he is determined to lose more next year because he wants to “have one of the biggest transformations.”
Addressing why he’s decided to go public with his weight struggles and fitness goals, Jelly Roll said, “I did this publicly for a reason. I wanna be honest about my struggles with it with people.” He noted that he was “so glad” to share this aspect of his life with an audience.
DeFord does not want to be like other celebs of a similar size, who go off the radar and quietly work on losing weight. He said most plus-size people do this because they are “kind of ashamed.”
“They’re so ashamed that they go hide and lose the weight, and then they come back out [and] they don’t really know how to interact with the world looking different or feeling different, and they kinda gotta find their whole new way,” he explained.
For this reason, the Grammy-nominated artist wants to be transparent about his weight loss journey, so he can openly talk about it to everybody.
“I wanna bring people along with me… I didn’t become successful because of my weight. I became successful in spite of it,” he added.
Hearing Jelly Roll’s words, Bunnie — real name Alyssa DeFord — praised her husband for opting to document his fitness journey, saying, “I think it’s awesome that people get to watch your transformation too because they get to feel like [they’re] not alone.”
In October, the “Save Me” crooner proudly shared on Instagram that he had lost 100 pounds while preparing for a 5K race. The revelation generated a lot of positive reactions from his fans, who encouraged him to keep going.
A month later, DeFord appeared on The Pat McAfee Show, where he revealed he was down by 120 pounds while on tour. According to him, he brought along his nutritionist, Ian Larios, on tour so he could focus on losing weight when not performing shows.
Earlier this December, Jelly Roll showcased his noticeable weight loss when he performed his new single, “Liar,” at the 2024 Billboard Music Awards, where he also received a trophy for his featured work on Falling in Reverse’s “All My Life” song.
In an interview with Entertainment Tonight, DeFord shared the main reason why he’s decided to get fit and healthy. “I just want to feel good, want to feel normal,” he said. “I’ve been morbidly obese my entire life. I wanna feel normal, that’s just something I want to do. I’m pretty committed to it. I’m also glad I’m being so honest about it because I want the world to see it.”
Knowing that he’s made good on his promise to lose weight thus far, it’s very likely that Jelly Roll will achieve his fitness goals for 2025 and beyond. Fans will be happy to see him gracing Men’s Health by then.