Mama June Shannon has her eyes on the prize when it comes to her weight loss goals.
“I’ve been doing tirzepatide, which is like Mounjaro, for eight weeks,” the reality personality, 44, exclusively told Us Weekly ahead of the Friday, June 14, premiere of From Not to Hot, which airs on WE tv.
“I’m going [into] my ninth week this week and I’ve lost 30 pounds, and I really have kept myself strict,” Mama June continued, adding that daughters Alana “Honey Boo Boo” Thompson, Lauryn “Pumpkin” Efrid and Jessica Shannon have “been in all kinds of bakeries this week.”
(The girls unanimously confirmed that despite the temptations of baked goods, Mama June “has been very strict” with her diet.)
Noting that she’s losing “only four to five pounds a week” and she’s “in the gym three or four times a [week],” the Here Comes Honey Boo Boo alum went on to reveal that she hasn’t had any typical side effects – nausea, heartburn, stomach issues, to name a few – from the weight-loss medication.
“I have 72.6 pounds left,” she continued, telling Us that she wants to weigh “probably about 170 [or] 180 [pounds]. I don’t ever want to go down to 130 pounds, [which] I was when in season 1 [of From Not to Hot]. I went from a 24 to a size zero.”
She added of her more realistic approach to weight loss, “It gives you enough to do lifestyle training. I’ve tried new food like cottage cheese and stuff like that, and [have] been trying new foods to incorporate [into my diet] to get protein.”
Like previous seasons, the newest episodes of From Not to Hot will document Mama June’s family as they navigate relationships, drama and changing family dynamics. They will also show the final days of Mama June’s late daughter Anna “Chickadee” Cardwell, who died in December last year due to complications from stage four adrenal carcinoma. She was 29 years old.
“We wouldn’t have shared this journey unless she was okay with [it]. This is something Anna wanted,” Mama June said. “Anna loved being in front of the cameras. She really did share a lot of her journey. She loved it. Even in the last days, the cameras were there and she was joking with them up until the last maybe hour of her life.”
With reporting by Christina Garibaldi