Mama June launched herself into the spotlight as the proud plus-size mum of child beauty queen Honey Boo Boo – but it was her car-crash love life and outrageous antics that kept her family in the headlines.
But, after years of struggling with her weight, June Shannon decided it was time for a body overhaul.
Having ballooned to 460lb – nearly 33 stone, or 208kg – from years of binge-eating junk food and doing no exercise, June's wake-up call came when her ex Sugar Bear – real name Mike Thompson – invited her to his wedding.
The reality mum took extreme measures to slim down in 2017, opting for a gastric sleeve to physically restrict herself from overeating.
She also spent $75,000 on having a boob job and skin removal surgery to nip and tuck 9lb worth of excess skin on her stomach, arms and neck to look slimmer all over.
But her struggle didn't stop there.
In the months after her gastric sleeve was fitted, June was still prone to bingeing on rich, calorific foods – which made her vomit in agony.
"I'm not going to lie to you: I have thrown up, because you can't over-eat with the gastric sleeve," she said on her reality TV show Mama June: From Not To Hot.
"That's not a thing that I recommend to somebody. You realise what you can and can't do, and when you do it that one time, you don't do it again."
She gradually learned how to keep her favourite foods, including Mexican and barbecue dishes, in her diet but in smaller portions.
June lost an incredible 300lb – 21 stone, or 136kg – in a year, slimming down to a US size 4 (UK size 8), and credited a shift in her sleeping pattern with her new figure as she was regularly napping until 1pm every day to avoid eating breakfast.
"It's not easy to eat like you're 'supposed to' and hit the gym all the time, but I'm just trying to maintain it the best I can," she told People magazine a year after the operation.
"This sounds bad, but I'm more of a snacker."
However, in May 2018, a trailer for the second series of From Not To Hot showed June was back struggling with her weight after piling on 25lb from her previous lowest weight.
She was trying to break in to the glamorous world of adult beauty pageants, and turned to a keto diet to help her shift the extra pounds.
Keto, which champions a diet low in carbohydrates and high in good fats and protein, is good for weight-loss as it forces the body to burn its own stores of fat rather than quick and easy glucose in the form of carbs and sugar.
"I've tried the keto diet, and it's not that bad. It's like, cheese, eggs, protein, meat. And you honestly lose weight with that," June said in a BUILD Series interview in the summer of 2018.
"That's what I've been going back to, and I've started losing a couple pounds. But it actually, really works."
Adding that she had never been a big fan of bread or pasta, Mama June went on: "I'm not here to tell people how to diet, because everyone's different, but I know what has worked for me. I think people just don't need to give up, and I think that's what happens with a lot of diets nowadays. I've done that."
She added that her focus now had to be on regaining the vision she'd lost in both eyes, explaining: "I can lose the weight, I know that. And I know I don't want to go back over 200lb. I'm paying attention to it more."
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