Jelly Roll’s weight loss journey hasn’t been easy.

In an interview with Men’s Health, published Jan. 2, the country crooner, 41, detailed how he went from 540 pounds, his highest weight, to 265 pounds.

While Jelly Roll explained that he started training in the gym, along with receiving help from the medical clinic Ways2Well, he also said he tweaked his diet.

In 2021, he hired chef and sports nutritionist Ian Larios, who made swaps to Jelly Roll’s favorite meals, including one from Waffle House.

Jelly Roll is a fan of the restaurant’s hash brown meal which he orders with “double hash browns,” American cheese, scrambled eggs, sausage patties, and onions, peppers and tomatoes.

Larios’ version, however, is made with potatoes cooked in bone broth and then air-fried, so it’s “rich in protein and collagen.” Not only that, but Larios said he would make chicken sausages from scratch and would roast his vegetables into a vitamin-rich, sugarless ketchup.

“There is no bad food in our plan, but if you eat too much of any food, it could be bad,” Larios explained. “You can overconsume good calories, too. So it was just creating thought patterns for him where it’s like, ‘Let’s create good habits with good food and go from there and move our bodies.’ That was step one.”

In October 2024, Larios, who moved into Jelly Roll’s house and cooks for the singer in a mobile kitchen during tour, walked Jelly Roll’s fans through another swap. This time, it was Nashville hot chicken, but without the batter and oil, and instead, air-fried with potato rice and flower.

With changes like these to his diet, Jelly Roll began seeing the results he so deeply craved.

His advice to fans who are trying to lose weight? Take it day by day.

“A lot of dudes get to their bottom dollar, and we’re like, ‘I’m changing! Tomorrow in the morning when I wake up, I’m a different person!’ We attack it all at once. ‘I’m gonna run! I’m gonna lift! I’m gonna eat right. I’m gonna do this and this and this,’” Jelly Roll told Men’s Health.

“Listen, man, because I’ve done this before: Just pick one of those. And you know which one you need to pick? Food. Start there,” he said. “F–k everything else. Just commit yourself to ‘I’m gonna count every calorie and macro that goes in my mouth.’ ”