The 1000-lb sisters
We revisit the morbidly obese siblings Tammy and Amy Slaton, to see how far they’ve come in their weight-loss journey…
Health Secretary Matt Hancock recently told the House of Commons that steps needed to be taken to improve the health of the nation, including tackling obesity. It is a very real and scary problem – and perhaps one that has only been exacerbated by Coronavirus and lockdown.
It’s something that sisters Tammy and Amy Slaton must understand better than most…
When we last touched on the sisters’ story last year, after the release of their series, 1000-lb Sisters, the siblings admitted to battling the bulge all their lives.
They hadn’t grown up with much money, having to rely on cheap fast food and handouts from their local church, while their mum Darlene worked three jobs. When they lost their beloved grandma, when Tammy was 11 and Amy just 10, they’d turned to food for comfort and had been gaining weight ever since.
By their teens, they were both already hugely overweight and bullied mercilessly for their size. Since then, things had only got worse…
In series one, Tammy, now 34 and Amy, 33, had reached 605lbs (43st 2lbs) and 406lbs (29st) respectively. Both were suffering with serious health conditions and the possibility of having their lives cut short because of their obesity.
Yet they wanted to change, and Amy was keen to start a family with her husband Michael – but needed to lose weight first. With the prospect of life-altering weight loss surgery on the horizon, Tammy and Amy’s bariatric surgeon, Dr Charles Procter Jr, tasked the sisters with shedding the pounds to improve their chances – and the safety – of the procedure.
Following a strict diet and attempting to up their exercise, Tammy and Amy were determined. Yet Tammy struggled with day-to-day tasks, suffered mobility issues and had hardly left the house for years.
She relied heavily on her younger sister for support with cooking, washing and shopping. But with their newfound focus on surgery, could they achieve their goal? By the time season one drew to a close, Tammy was 50lbs off her goal in order to get her weight-loss operation and Amy had successfully had the procedure.
When we catch up with the Kentucky-based sisters, who run a YouTube channel, four months later, some things have changed… but not all.
Amy has shed an impressive 124lbs (8st 8lbs) in total and is down to 282lbs (20st). She looks healthier, happier and is as witty as ever, but still has a long way to go.
Tammy, on the other hand,
looks much the same – a reminder than food addiction is difficult to beat, especially when it is an emotional crutch. She’s back to being reliant on a walker, and says that when Coronavirus hit, it derailed her.
‘People are stuck at home and can’t go anywhere,’ Tammy says, explaining boredom and loneliness get the better of you. ‘Now they know how I feel…’
At one time, Tammy had just 10lbs left to shed before she would have been eligible for surgery. ‘I could fart and lose that,’ Amy laughs.
What’s clear throughout the severity of their health conditions, their battle to lose weight, and the uncertainty of their futures, is the sisters’ sense of humour. A year apart in age, they bounce off each other like a comedy duo, despite some difficult moments.
‘ We’re two peas in a pod,’ Tammy tells the viewers.
‘It’s a fat pod,’ Amy says, quick as a flash.
The pandemic has been difficult for many people and some of the effects on Tammy – as well as her weight – are worrying. When she tries to walk to the post-box with her older sister, Misty, to post a letter to her boyfriend, Tammy only gets a few yards from the house and struggles to catch her breath. It’s a scary moment and Misty has to get a chair from the porch for Tammy to sit on while she recovers.
It’s unclear as to whether Tammy is in denial about the weight she’s put back on, but after a family get-together, her brother Chris, who is also overweight, visits Tammy with a special set of heavy-duty scales.
He weighs himself first and clearly tells his sister: ‘Anything I can do to help, Tammy – I will do.’
His concern comes from a genuine place and he seems worried that she is not facing up to her possible weight gain and what it means for surgery…
‘I don’t want to see that number go up,’ Tammy says. ‘I don’t want to get on the scales.’ But Chris explains she needs to be accountable, even if the truth hurts…
Reluctantly, she gets on the scales and the results are a shock…
‘I don’t know what it is,’ she says, and you can see the numbers have upset her. ‘I thought Michael and Amy would be more help to me.’
She even mentions giving up the diet.
Amy, on the other hand, has progressed. She and husband Michael live next door to Tammy, and she was pleased with her surgery. However, she had been having problems
‘Tammy only gets a few yards before she has to catch her breath’
going to the toilet…
When she suffers stomach and back pain, Michael escorts her to hospital, where doctors make a surprising discovery – Amy is pregnant! She’d made no secret of her desire to become a parent and had previously said she would feel incomplete as a woman if she couldn’t have a baby.
‘I asked them to check four times,’ she happily tells Michael afterwards. It’s a lovely moment, especially knowing how much the pregnancy means to her.
But when she tells Tammy her exciting news, her sister’s reaction is that of concern.
Dr Procter had told Amy not to try for children for two years to allow her body to fully recover from surgery.
‘I want y’all to have a kid but it’s too soon,’ Tammy says. The baby will undoubtedly be a change for not only Amy, but for her sister too. She won’t have the time she used to, to dedicate to Tammy, helping with chores and day-to-day tasks.
Who knows what the future holds? We’ll be glued to see how Tammy and Amy’s journey unfolds. Hopefully Tammy will succeed in her reaching the desired weight for surgery which should, in turn, improve her health. We can’t wait to see how Amy gets on with her pregnancy too.
● The new series of 1000-lb Sisters is available to stream from Tuesday 16 March exclusively on discovery+