Who Is Tammy Slaton? Meet YouTube Star Whose Weight Loss Journey Was Chronicled On ‘1000-Lb. Sisters’
She weighed 605 pounds at one time.
TLC Who is Tammy Slaton? She's a 32-year-old woman from Dixon, Kentucky who appeared on 1000-Lb. Sisters, a six-part docuseries that premiered in January 2020 on TLC. The show followed her life, along with that of her 31-year-old sister Amy, and chronicled the siblings’ joint journeys as they tried to lose weight together in order to qualify to receive bariatric surgery.
At the beginning of the series, Tammy weighed 605 pounds while Amy weighed 406 pounds. Each sister had her own set of reasons for wanting to lose weight: Amy wanted to get pregnant and start a family with her husband, while Tammy was tired of always being ill — at one point, she even went on life support.
1. Who is Tammy Slaton?
Slaton is a 32-year-old native of Dixon, Kentucky who at the beginning of the show lived with her younger sister Amy, along with Amy’s husband of almost a year, Michael Haltermann. Tammy and Amy are both severely obese and suffer from a wide range of health problems caused by their dangerously heavy weights. After spending time in the hospital, Tammy moved in with her sister and brother-in-law, and she couldn’t even walk around without the help of a walker or buckle her seat belt in the car. Tammy also developed a fat socket in her forehead that caused it to droop, which she initially mistook for a dangerous growth. She went to see several doctors about it, only to discover that it was an overflow of extra fat caused by being overweight.
2. Together, Tammy and her sister weighed more than 1,000 pounds at one point.
When the show first aired, Tammy weighed 605 pounds while Amy weighed 406 pounds. Growing up, the sisters said that they didn’t have access to nutritious food and ate mostly cheap microwave meals, fast food and canned goods, which caused them to gain weight quickly. Amy revealed that she was average weight until the age of 10, when she turned to food as a form of coping with grief after her grandmother died.
Tammy said that she hadn’t left her house in six years except for doctor’s visits, which further intensified her depression. In addition to her severely limited mobility, Tammy has had multiple health issues including gout, high blood pressure, thyroid problems and a bad gallbladder, which she revealed to Atlanta weight loss specialist Dr. Charles Procter during the show’s second episode.
Amy wanted to lose weight because she and her husband were ready to start a family, whereas Tammy was tired of dealing with multiple illnesses and health problems that resulted in several hospitalizations over the years. “Being sick all the time, I started getting pneumonia all the time and just being so close to death at least four times is just this is now or never,” Tammy said.
3.The Slaton sisters are YouTube sensations.
Tammy and Amy are no strangers to the spotlight. Prior to the debut of 1,000-Lb. Sisters, the siblings first shot to fame on YouTube in November 2014 when they participated in the “chubby bunny” challenge where they cracked each other up as they stuffed their mouths with marshmallows while trying to say “chubby bunny.” You can check out the video above. The video went viral with nearly two million views, and since then the Slaton sisters continue to entertain their large fanbase by uploading various videos on their YouTube channels, ranging from DIY tutorials to mukbang videos of them eating. Currently, Tammy has approximately 56,000 subscribers on YouTube, while Amy has 161,000 subscribers.
In another YouTube video that was published in February 2017 on Amy’s channel, Amy revealed to fans she was arrested back in 2010 for stealing an $8 book from Walmart after her grandfather had died and she quit her job. However, the security sensor beeped as she tried to exit the store and a security person detained Amy while checking the cameras, then called the cops. In addition to being fined $400, Amy was banned from Walmart for two years.
4. Tammy once attempted suicide.
Suffering from serious depression as a result of not leaving the house in six years aside from doctor’s visits, Tammy revealed she once tried to commit suicide and had been in a dark place. “I attempted to kill myself last January,” she shared. “I had a feeling that if I didn’t make changes now, I wasn’t going to live past 35.” That ended up being a wake-up call for Tammy, who knew it was time to make some life-changing decisions if she wanted to lead a happier and healthier life.
5. Unlike Amy, Tammy didn’t quality for bariatric surgery.
Amy’s main motivation for wanting to lose weight was her desire to have a baby with her husband, as she was afraid that being obese would prevent her from starting a family. During episode two of the show, Tammy and Amy consulted Dr. Procter about undergoing bariatric surgery. He gave both of them a challenging weight loss goal and assigned a strict diet, which consisted of cutting sugar in favor of low-carb, high-protein meals. Within a month, Amy lost 31 pounds and qualified for the surgery, ultimately shedding a total 100 pounds after recovering from her procedure.
While Tammy only lost 18 pounds and didn’t qualify for the surgery yet, she did manage to get off her walker and start living a more independent lifestyle, which enabled her to move out of the home she shared with Amy and Michael and into her own place, and she even made her first trip to the store in 10 years. In the final episode, Tammy revealed she was down to 559 pounds — a 46-pound weight loss.
“It feels great to be this close,” Tammy said. “I’m within 10 pounds of my goal and I know I’m gonna have the surgery.”
6. Tammy is now dating a married man.
Recently, Tammy posted a pair of side-by-side selfies on Twitter showing off her new boyfriend, Jerry Sykes, who she met online and is 11 years older than her. In the caption, she referred to him as her “bae for life” along with three heart emojis.
Despite receiving criticism from fans and followers who pointed out that Sykes is married, Tammy defended their relationship and said that not only was she aware that he was married, but his wife was very sick.
Tammy revealed on the show she has had multiple online relationships that never worked out. Amy expressed concern over her sister’s newfound online love because Tammy had been catfished in the past. Tammy insisted, however, that Sykes has been there for her and talks to her, which no one else has done for her before.
When another Twitter user congratulated Tammy on finding her first love, Tammy was quick to correct her, saying, “Today is not my first love I’ve been with women and men before I was with Jerry but I think Jerry’s the one you know.” Not much else is known about Sykes, who keeps a relatively low profile on his social media accounts.
Writer Kamala Kirk is co-founder of The Spa Insider and her work has been featured on E! Online, Pasadena Magazine, Malibu Times Magazine, TravelAge West Magazine, American Salon, Total Beauty, and more. Find her on Instagram for more.