Alana “Honey Boo Boo” Thompson is reportedly preparing to go under the knife for weight loss surgery next month, but the WEtv reality star made it clear that she’s still not 100 percent sure she wants to go through with it.
Alana’s manager, Gina Rodriguez, told TMZ that the Mama June: Road to Redemption star was planning to have a suture sculpt endoscopic sleeve from weight loss doctor Steven Batash. The surgery is reportedly scheduled for after Alana turns 17 on August 28.
In a follow-up interview with Entertainment Tonight, though, Alana clarified that the surgery is “still in the works.” It appears that her manager jumped the gun a bit by telling TMZ that Alana had made her decision on whether or not to have the weight loss surgery.
“It’s not 100 percent yet,” Alana told the site. (She added that her aunt, Doe Doe Shannon, recently had the procedure done.) “I just want to make sure that this is actually something that I want to do, before I just go and do it. I want to make sure that it’s, like, not something that’s gonna kill me or nothing!”
“She’s still very skeptical about it,” Alana’s older sister and legal guardian, Lauryn “Pumpkin” Shannon added later.
“It’s them putting me to sleep for me,” Alana said. “Like, what if I don’t get waked up? What if something goes wrong?”
When asked by ET‘s reporter why she is considering having a weight loss surgery, Alana explained that surgery is a much-easier weight loss solution than changing her diet and exercising.
“I just think I don’t have no motivation, and I just think the surgery would probably be the easiest way to lose it fast,” Alana said, adding later, “I know for a fact that I could get in the gym, and I know for a fact I could diet…”
“Have you been doing those things?” the reporter asks.
“I have tried. I will say I have tried,” Alana responded.
“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 ain’t gonna sit here and force myself to eat no Caesar salad because I think it’s healthy. I’m gonna eat what I think is good.
Pumpkin— who has to sign off on Alana having the surgery because she is still a minor— thinks that Alana needs to change her ways before going under the knife or the surgery won’t be successful.
“Before she takes that big step she needs to go ahead and start making the lifestyle changes,” Pumpkin said, adding that the women in their family who have had weight loss surgeries have not been able to keep the weight off long-term. “Because I know it’s a lot easier to be like, ‘OK, let me go out to California and let me get my stomach chopped off.
“We’ve seen it now with two people— my mom [Mama June Shannon] and [our sister] Jessica—they both quickly gained their weight back…You may not gain it back in your stomach but everywhere else starts to blow up– your hips, your legs, your chest, your face.”
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“If I do go through with the surgery, I think then I would be willing to change my lifestyle,” Alana said. “My manager told me that you basically lose 100 lbs., basically instant.”
Alana stated that she wants to be around 145 lbs. when it’s all finished, but not “super skinny.”
Pumpkin then looks at the reporter (who appears to weigh no more than 105 lbs. soaking wet) and says, “I mean, that is super skinny! 145?!”
“I don’t want to be like, 110,” Alana said. “No no, I definitely don’t want to be that.”
In addition to her dislike of “healthy” food like Caesar salad, Alana also points to being sick as a child as a reason she has battled her weight.
“When I was very young I was on steroids. I was very sick all the time and I just always had to take medication,” she said. “I was always a bigger kid anyway because of that. Then my mom claims she has this thing called Lymphedema. It supposedly makes her have some fat on her body. That could be possible.”
Alana also acknowledged that her love of food has gotten her to her current weight of 275 lbs.
“I mean, I definitely do eat so that’s definitely a reason,” she said.
Alana’s boyfriend, Dralin Carswell is planning to weight loss surgery alongside of Alana. Although Alana is still unsure, she said that Dralin is “all in” to go under the knife.
“I’m so nervous about the pain,” Alana said. “Me and pain are not good.”
You can watch Alana and Pumpkin’s full interview with ET below!
(Photos: ET)
22 Responses
My sister was 29, when she got the surgery. She is lazy and eats crap. She gained that weight back within two years.
Well your going to be forced to
Learn to eat smaller and healthy. I think this is crazy easy way out for such as young girl with no excuses not to exercise.
That statement: “its the easy way” is exactly why she should’nt get the surgery ..
Good Lord. She has other issues besides her refusal to see that her overeating won’t stop with surgery.
She sounds like she has never been to school.
Her grammar is atrocious. For someone who they keep claiming does well in school this girl seems to be getting and sounding less intelligent every year.
Nobody over here finds it odd Dralin got arrested in 2019 for having sx with a 15 year old?
Well it was always inappropriate for a 21 year old to be dating a 16 year old.
But we can now figure they are sexually active. How long before she gets pregnant?
“I just think I don’t have no motivation, and I just think the surgery would probably be the easiest way to lose it fast,” Alana said, adding later, “I know for a fact that I could get in the gym, and I know for a fact I could diet…” -THIS. This right here. Tells everyone what they need to know. She sees it as a quick fix (because it is- although it’s temporary) and she is straight up telling everyone she won’t do the maintenance work after the surgery because she simply doesn’t care enough. NOT only that, she admits that she COULD diet and she COULD exercise but she simply doesn’t want to. The weight will just pile back on. At least Pumpkin has some sense. SMH
She should be denied any surgery until she can prove to the doctors that she knows how to lose weight on her own and keep it off. She’ll just get fatter post surgery because she’s too dumb and lazy.
The reason that baractric surgeons require their patients to lose a specific amount a weight before the reason is because if you can’t follow a diet plan before, there is not point to the surgery.
Yes, you will lose weight at first because your stomach is the size of a golf ball. But you never learned portion control, or that eating specific foods like fruits and veggies fill you up with less calories than potato chips.
You are going to gain the weight back some, and be right back where you started, and no one doing a second procedure 2 years after the first. and had a risky surgery that wasted everyone’s time and money.
She’s only 17, they should put her in patient treatment for an eating disorder, and have her work with a therapist, nutritionist, and a personal trainer. She’s so young, I don’t know why they think this is the easy way out, and its the riskier and more dangerous.
She’s so young and it’s sad she sees surgery as a “get thin quick” scheme. If she doesn’t change before going under the knife, the surgery won’t be worth it. If she has no motivation now, this won’t fix it. This feels like a self esteem issue to me.
Alana, if you want to lose weight, THAT’S your motivation to exercise and eat healthy.
I hope Pumpkin doesn’t sign for that. It’s a surgery and many things could go wrong
Her sister is right, she should start by changing her lifestyle choices before getting surgery. Not saying she shouldn’t get it if she really wants it, but it will not stick if she doesn’t make those changes. She’s young though so she’s thinking very naively but she will be very disappointed in a few years when she starts to gain the weight again
I love Pumpkin’s comments:
“OK, let me go out to California and let me get my stomach chopped off.” ?
Surgery is not the easy way out. People who have this surgery still must work out and eat correctly otherwise they will not loose much weight. You don’t loose 100 lbs instantly. If she won’t make these life style changes then she would have put her body through all of that for nothing.
Yes. That is exactly what we are all saying. Sure they doctors advise to work out and eat smaller portions… Doesn’t mean they will. I know people in my life and people in the public eye that have showed us that the surgery IS a quick fix because to keep the weight off, you need to change your lifestyle as well. And you DO lose quite a bit of weight immediately… And what do you mean Surgery isn’t the easy way out? It absolutely is. One quick surgery and pretty much you lose a substantial amount of weight because it’s a process to stretch your stomach back out enough to be able to put a lot of weight on. Exercising and eating correctly ad changing your lifestyle is NOT the easy way out because it takes discipline hard work and determination- AND time.
It’s not the easy way out, if it was then none of these people would gain the weight back. I know several people who had something similar to this done. My friend was over weight her whole life she would run half marathons and eat healthy but wouldn’t loose enough weight. This procedure was a tool for her to get closer to their goal weight. Two years later she is now 110 lbs lighter and runs whole marathons. Her first month she lost about 30 lbs, not “100 lbs immediately”. If you don’t believe that all people who have this surgery don’t work their butts off or it was “easy” for them, try talking to more than one person that had this surgery, go on Facebook groups and read their stories. It’s better then passing judgement
You do know the stats right? The amount of people that gain it back is much higher than those who don’t so I’m not passing judgment, I’m going off statistics and those show us that the majority (above half of those that have surgery- 59% average within bypass or sleeve), gain a substantial amount of weight back within five years. 25% alone gain ALL of it and more back…
She has zero motivation and commitment to even lose weight so why have a surgery that is ultimately going to fail? She can’t even commit to a diet now.
She’s a fat little bitch like the rest of her feral family. She’ll be back to been a fucking whale in less than a years time after surgery if she goes ahead with it.
After reading this, I think she should focus on her education.
Yes, she change her mind set. Look at her biological mother. She lost the weight looked great and little by little she’s gaining it all back. You have to find that happiness and yourself to want to do it
No offense. I adore her. However, if she doesn’t change her eating habits she will just gain it all back plus some. Sigh.