Jelly Roll reveals heartbreaking weight loss setback following painful injury

Jelly Roll got candid about the highs and lows of his years-long weight loss journey in a YouTube video shared with fans, where the country star revealed he had gained 12 lbs following a major injury.

The 41-year-old, who was over 500 lbs at his heaviest weight in 2023, told his fans that he was “scared” to step on the scales after experiencing a tough spot on his weight loss journey.

“We hit the goal, and it was right before the holidays, so I was like, ‘You know what, man, I’ve been working hard for the last three years losing this weight, I’m going to enjoy the holidays,'” he said in the video posted on Saturday. 

“I had a big Thanksgiving meal, I had a big birthday meal, I ate a big Christmas meal. Kinda got off the rails and I broke my collarbone…a few days before Christmas.”

Jelly Roll, whose real name is Jason DeFord, was then forced to give up running, walking and exercising while his collarbone healed. 

“I have, to some degree, lost my way,” he candidly shared. “I am scared to [weigh in]. I feel really fat, I feel really bloated, I feel like the scales are going to let me down. Avoiding weighing in has been the problem.”

© YouTube

The star then weighed himself on camera, revealing he had gained a total of 12 lbs, before sharing his desire to pose shirtless on a magazine cover and to run in the New York Marathon. 

Learn more about Jelly Roll’s transformation below…

“I want to get these last 40 or 50 pounds off, and then I eventually want to cut my skin, and I eventually want to be on the cover of something crazy…with my shirt off. I know it’s getting real silly now, but I just believe there’s a story that a guy can go from 560 lbs to a shirt off picture, it’s absurd,” he concluded. 

Jelly Roll did grace the cover of Men’s Health in January 2026, when he had dropped an incredible 275 lbs. 

© Billboard via Getty Images

The father of two was involved in a horrific ATV accident in January when the vehicle rolled while he was riding it. “I broke my collarbone. I was so scared to get back on this thing,” he revealed in a March video. 

© Instagram

“I just knew if I didn’t get back on it sooner than later, I was just going to be more and more afraid of it.” Jelly Roll kept the injury a secret until it had healed, and attended the Grammy Awards in intense pain. 

“I was just thinking, I was out there running all over the Grammys with a broken collarbone. Every time I hugged somebody that week, I wanted to scream. I just didn’t say it, but every time somebody squeezed me, dude, I thought I was gonna cry.”