Jelly Roll says treatment after 300lbs weight loss completely changed sex life
Losing nearly 300lbs gave Jelly Roll a new lease of life - but it was a medical treatment that helped him get his sex life back on track.
The country music star and part-time professional wrestler hasn't been shy about sharing the harsh realities of being overweight since he shed the pounds.
As well as opening up about the toll his size had taken on his mental health, he shared some candid comments about how he 'struggled' to maintain an erection, despite being married to a 'smoke show'.
Jelly Roll, whose real name is Jason DeFord, got hitched to the host of the Dumb Blonde podcast Bunnie Xo back in 2016, 12 months after the pair met at one of his gigs in Las Vegas.
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The Grammy-winning singer, 41, previously spoke about what encouraged him to finally decided to tackle the 'food addiction' he has battled throughout his life.
He explained that in 2021, he stepped onto his scales which measured up to 520lbs, only to find that the needle 'went past' that mark - and this prompted him to overhaul his lifestyle.
Jelly Roll decided to work from the inside out, so his first port of call was finding a therapist who could help him get to the root cause of 'why he was eating' excessively.
"Once I started treating food like an addiction, it started changing everything for me," he told Men's Health earlier this year, while noting that his next step was transforming his diet and creating an exercise regime to follow.
Jelly Roll didn't want to jump on the bandwagon of weight loss jabs, as he was keen to 'show people that it's possible' to lose weight the old fashioned way too.
But as part of his health kick, the 'Wild Ones' singer visited a wellness clinic in Texas to undergo some tests that would offer him some further insight into the current condition of his body.
And when they took a look at the results of these, according to Jelly Roll, the team had one burning question: "How are you alive?"
The father-of-two recalled how an A1C test revealed his blood sugar levels drastically exceeded the normal range, while his insulin levels were 'super high', as was his cholesterol.
Jelly Roll laughed: "The first couple of blood panels were like, how are you alive?"
But it was his testosterone levels that came as the biggest shock to the hitmaker, as he explained that his were comparable to those 'of a preteen boy'.
For someone his age, a normal level of testosterone would be somewhere between 300 and 900ng/dL. People with obesity who have their T-levels affected tend to be below 300.
Noting that he isn't embarrassed to discuss this publicly, Jelly Roll said: "When I went in there for the test, it was bad. Bad. The world opened up when I seen it on paper.
"I was like, That’s my testosterone level? I mean, dude, we’re talking a 57," he said, before revealing how this impacted his libido.
"You can’t get it up without T," Jelly Roll added. "I was married to a smoke show, and I was still struggling."
He subsequently began Testosterone Replacement Therapy (TRT) to help combat this problem, which he reckons he will 'probably [have to continue] for the rest of his life'.
According to the Cleveland Clinic, blokes can take a 'manufactured form of testosterone' to regulate their levels of the hormone.
"This can help improve the symptoms of low testosterone, like low libido and lack of energy," it explains, while it can also boost your bone mineral density, mood and energy levels, among other things.
It can bring a host of unwelcome side effects along with it though, including acne, skin irritation, swelling caused by fluid retention and other issues.
Thankfully, Jelly Roll's testosterone levels started to even out after he began TRT - and this completely transformed his sex life with Bunnie.
"Now it’s a totally different thing," he added. “I’m chasing her around the house, you know what I’m saying?” I’m like a teenage kid again! I’m like the Pink Panther: I bust out of every corner. And she opens the cabinet and I go, 'Hi!'"
Bunnie recently discussed how weight loss can impact the rate of activity in the bedroom for couples and suggested that your sex life might 'slow down' after shedding the pounds.
But she has since clarified that she was speaking on a general basis rather referring to her and Jelly Roll's libidos, as she said her remarks have been 'misquoted'.
In a post shared to Facebook on Wednesday (15 April), Bunnie wrote: "The news is misquoting me everywhere. I had the honour of sitting down with Playboy and answering people’s love & sex questions. I had a blast!
"But sadly the articles are picking up a question I answered that was written in and saying it’s about my husband. This is not true. I was simply answering a question I was asked for someone.
"If anyone read the article, they would see that here. Not everything is about my husband."
Topics: Celebrity, Celebrity News, Health, Lifestyle, Sex and Relationships
Olivia Burke