Jelly Roll is opening up about shedding 275 pounds and the motivation behind his major weight loss.
The “Beautifully Broken” singer-songwriter is the latest cover star of Men’s Health, fulfilling the dream he shared back in December 2024. He also stars in a new documentary short from Men’s Health, titled A Year for a Life.
“I was killing myself. Literally,” Jelly Roll says. “I mean, I was eating myself to absolute death.”
Men’s Health editorial director Richard Dorment told ABC News the team wanted to find out why Jelly Roll was so determined to make a significant change.
“We really wanted to get to the root of what was driving this desire for transformation,” Dorment said. “So once we started to have that conversation, we really began to understand his why, which was his relationship with food and what he came to think of as a food addiction.”
Jelly Roll doesn’t hold back about his struggles, fears and vulnerabilities in the short film, which follows him for a year as he works toward his transformation.
“Here I was going into my 40s at 500 and some pounds,” Jelly Roll said. “I think I was just trying to find my way into whatever I could, and I think what I was doing was, I felt so misunderstood that I was closet-eating the whole time.”
The film also shows Jelly Roll, now 41, working out, from boxing and doing push-ups to running stairs at arenas.
“I wish I could bottle what I’m feeling right now up and give it to everybody who’s struggling out there,” Jelly Roll says in the trailer. “It is special, it’s different, and it really came through food and exercise. It came through just being willing to pound the pavement and get my heart rate up.”
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