Mama June Shannon says she plans to take weight-loss injections to help her shed the weight.
Mama June Shannon is focusing on losing weight after a challenging year. Her daughter, Anna "Chickadee" Cardwell, died in December 2023 after a battle with stage 4 adrenal carcinoma.
The 44-year-old reality star shared on social media that she has gained 120 to 130 pounds in the past year.
"I have noticed over the last year and a half that I have really put on weight," Mama June shared. "A lot of y'all know that me and [husband] Justin [Stroud] and [Anna's husband] Eldridge [Toney] was Anna's main caregivers. And I guess with the stress of everything going on, eating out, not eating right, just all kinds of stuff, I had packed on about 120, 130 pounds."
Weight loss has been a big topic for Mama June in recent years. In 2015, she underwent gastric sleeve surgery at 550 pounds. After maintaining her post-surgery routine and undergoing skin removal surgery and liposuction, Mama June says she got down to "130, 140, 150 pounds," saying she thought she looked "super skinny."
Her journey was documented on the reality series Mama June: From Not to Hot.
Now she says she's back to somewhere around 267 to 276 pounds.
"I tried to cut back on my eating out. I tried to cut back on my eating. Nothing was actually helping," she explained, noting that she has decided to go on semaglutide injections.
The Mayo Clinic says that a semaglutide injection is used to treat type 2 diabetes.
Mama June shared footage of her husband, Justin, giving her the first injection, promising to check in on her weight-loss journey each week.
In June 2023, Mama June told ET that she received lots of positive feedback about being so open with her weight-loss journey.
"The most messages that I get in my inbox is, 'You made me be able to stand up to my family,' or 'I had weight-loss surgery and I didn't know how to do it,'" she shared at the time. "'You helped me through that time. You helped me open up doors.'"
During that same interview, Mama June told ET that Anna's cancer battle was "an emotional rollercoaster" for her "mentally because it's always on my mind."
ET spoke with Mama June and her daughter, Alana "Honey Boo Boo" Thompson, in 2018 following her initial weight-loss surgery.
"I think she's less confident right now because since she's been smaller, she's gotten more hate," Alana told ET at the time. "Everyone's like, 'Oh, she's going to gain the weight back.'"
At the time, Mama June said, "I've been very good. It's been over a year and a half. If you say gaining 10 pounds in a year and a half is bad, then it is what it is."
Alana herself has expressed interest in undergoing weight-loss surgery. In 2022, the former Toddlers & Tiaras star told ET, "I just wanna make sure that this is actually something I wanna do before I just go and do it. 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."
At the time, Mama June said she wanted Alana to wait until she was 18 to go through with the $13,000 suture sculpt endoscopic sleeve procedure.
"I'm supportive if this is something Alana wants to get, but I would say she needs to wait until she's 18 years old," June told TMZ at the time.
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