Maci Bookout: I Never ‘Convinced Bentley To Cut Weight’

Teen Mom OG star Maci Bookout said she never convinced her 11-year-old son, Bentley, to lose weight for wrestling. On Tuesday night’s episode of the MTV reality show, the mother-of-three encouraged Bentley to eat a salad and admonished him for wanting to eat unhealthy foods. This caused a backlash from some MTV viewers, who thought she was being too strict with her son’s diet.

Bookout denied forcing Bentley to “cut” weight, insisting he wanted to lose a few pounds to wrestle in a lower weight class. “In reference to tonight’s episode-I have never and will never convince Bentley to ‘cut’ weight. After wrestling his first 2 tournaments in the 75lb class weighing in at 72-he came to me & said he wanted to wrestle at 70,” she tweeted on May 26. “I told him that’s fine, but you WILL NOT ‘cut’ weight.”

When Bentley didn’t want to stick with the new diet, Bookout said he was allowed to go back to his regular eating regiment. “I will lay out a healthy scheduled diet for u, u can eat salads, grilled chicken, veggies, good carbs-instead of pizza, doritos & candybars,” she wrote. “Through the season, he decided he didn’t like it-I told him that’s okay! U can go back to usual and wrestle at 75 which is what he did.”

Bookout Shares Support From Netizens

Bookout retweeted messages from followers who are familiar with the sport of wrestling. They said that following a healthy diet and watching weight is a part of the sport. “If you’ve never been around wrestling you won’t get it. I grew up with my brother wrestling and my dad coaching it my entire life,” one of the messages she shared said. “You’re doing things right!!”

Even though it wasn’t on the show, Bookout said she would make Bentley healthy breakfasts like egg white omelets with turkey bacon. “That’s exactly what I did,” she tweeted. “That was at least one of the many breakfast options for him.”

Bookout also shared a message from someone who slammed Ryan Edwards’ reaction to Bentley’s diet. Edwards said he didn’t understand why Bentley would need to lose weight if he needed to be stronger, and added that restricting calories might make him a “late bloomer” and that it would “suck.”

“I appreciate your input,” she tweeted. “My brother was a collegiate wrestler so I grew up around the sport and have a bit of knowledge in the sport and healthy weight maintenance.”

Edwards Told Bentley His Diet Would ‘Stunt His Growth’

During the episode, Bookout said Bentley “lost his mind” when he asked to have chicken. “He is just on a very strict, good healthy calorie diet,” she said. “Lots of water and workouts to actually cut weight. And as long as he uses the bathroom every day you cut like a pound when you do that. You’ll be fine.”

Edwards, however, had a drastically different reaction to Bentley’s diet. “I thought wrestling is about technique. I know you got to have a little bit of strength. So why aren’t you trying to gain weight?” Edwards told Bentley. “You know what’s going to happen, you’re going to stunt your growth and when it’s time to get bigger you’re gonna be a late bloomer and it’s going to suck for you.”

To find out what happens next, don’t miss Teen Mom OG when it airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET on MTV.

Maci & Ryan Slammed For Bentley’s Wrestling Weight Loss Reactions