The 16-year-old tells ET she's still weighing her options and reveals why she's still hesitant.
Alana “Honey Boo Boo” Thompson is still not 100 percent sure she's going to actually go through with her weight-loss surgery, citing concerns over going under during the procedure and the ensuing pain.
During a conversation with ET's Rachel Smith at Lauryn "Pumpkin" Shannon's house in Atlanta, Alana addressed recent reports that she'll be going under the knife following her 17th birthday next month and undergo a $13,000 procedure called suture sculpt endoscopic sleeve from a Queens, New York, doctor. These reports say the goal's to slim down from around 275 pounds to 150 pounds.
Alana tells ET that while the weight-loss surgery is "still in the works," it's certainly not something she's 100 percent ready to do, at least not yet.
"I just wanna make sure that this is actually something I wanna do before I just go and do it," Alana tells ET. "I wanna make sure that it's, like, not something that's, like, gonna kill me. And I just wanna make sure it's something I actually wanna do before I go and do it."
And while Alana is cognizant of the fact that a consistently healthy diet and gym regimen could lead to the results she's eyeing, she's not shy about wanting to take the faster way there.
"I know for a fact I could get in the gym and I know for a fact I could diet and I know for a fact I can do this to lose my weight," Alana explains. "I've tried. I will say I've tried, but the one thing with me is I have no motivation. I have no motivation to just keep going to the gym every day. I have no motivation to keep eating healthy because, like, I'm gonna eat what I think is good. I'm not [gonna] sit there and force myself to eat no Caesar salad because I think it's healthy. No. I'm gonna eat what I think's good. So, I just think I don't have motivation, and I feel like the surgery would be, like, probably the easiest way to just, like, lose it fast."
Pumpkin says she's told her little sister that a lifestyle change is utterly necessary in order for Alana to maintain the weight she's eyeing, which Alana says is in the 145-range. And it's not like Alana hasn't seen examples firsthand of what can happen when a lifestyle change is absent during this transformation. Pumpkin mentions sister Jessica has previously undergone weight-loss surgery, as has their mother, Mama June Shannon, who lost 300 pounds in 2017, and neither one maintained the transformation.
"I'm really happy for Alana if that's something that she really wants to do," Pumpkin says. "I definitely think before she takes that big step, which I haven't told her this yet, but I think she does need to start making the lifestyle changes."
But Alana insists her case will be different.
"If I do go through with the surgery, I think I would be willing to change my lifestyle because my manager told me, like, you basically lose 100 pounds basically instant[ly]," she says.
Then, there's the genetics side of things as to why Alana thinks losing weight has been difficult.
"There is a part that does feel like genetics does play because when I was very young, I was on steroids, like, I was very sick all the time," she explains. "I just always had to take medication, so I was always a bigger kid anyways because of that. And then my mom, she claims she has this thing called lymphedema [swelling in arms or legs caused by a lymphatic system blockage] which supposedly makes her have some fat on her body. So, I mean, that could be possible. I mean, I definitely do eat, so that's definitely a reason, but I don't know."
Alana says if she goes through with the weight-loss surgery, Pumpkin will be supportive of her decision, as well as her boyfriend of nearly two years, Dralin Carswell. But it's ultimately up to Alana, whose fears include being put under anesthesia for the surgery.
"I just think, like, it's them putting me to sleep for me," she says. "I'm just so nervous. Like, what if I don't wake up? What if something goes wrong? I'm so nervous about the pain too. Me and pain are not good. Like, pain is not my friend."
The season finale of Mama June: Road to Redemption airs Friday at 9 p.m. on WE tv.
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