The doctor of 1000-lb Sisters' Tammy Slaton has opened up about her dramatic weight loss and how she has been able to keep the pounds off ever since.
Tammy rose to fame after appearing on the TLC reality TV programme alongside her sister, Amy, back in 2020.
The 38-year-old impressively lost a staggering 500 pounds after undergoing bariatric surgery in 2022 and subsequently checking herself into weight loss rehab.
Tyla has since sat down with Tammy's bariatric surgeon, Dr Eric Smith, to find out a little more about her drastic weight loss journey and how she's been able to stick to her current weight after previously being well over 700 pounds (around 50 stone) at her heaviest.
Dr Eric, who is the 'National Leader in Robotic Bariatric Surgery', explained that Tammy hit 'rock bottom' in 2021 after suffering a 'near-death experience' with respiratory failure just one day after re-entering rehab.
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She was then put on a ventilator and had to be placed in a medically-induced coma after she stopped breathing.
Upon waking, she was given a tracheotomy tube and, just three weeks later, she was back in rehab once again.
"For her at that time," the surgeon recalled, "she was willing to admit she needed help. She didn't have everything figured out, but she was willing to open up to us. She was willing to let us get her help."
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After a long struggle at rehab, Tammy was able to lose enough weight to meet the requirements for bariatric surgery, a surgical procedure that helps obese people lose weight and manage obesity-related conditions.
It works by changing the digestive system to reduce the amount of food a person can consume and absorb, and to reduce the hunger signals sent from the digestive system to the brain.
Tammy has had her transformational weight loss documented on 1000-lb Sisters with many fans over the moon that she now no longer needs a wheelchair to get around after getting down to a little over 300 pounds - something she called 'unbelievable'.
Speaking about Tammy's incredible weight loss, Dr Eric told Tyla that interestingly the most 'dramatic' change is actually how much her mental health has benefited.
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"The interesting parts about Tammy's journey is her weight loss is obvious, visually, and that's what sticks out to people, but her progress and her complete turnaround from a mental health standpoint, I think, is more dramatic than the weight that she lost," he explained.
Noting that Tammy was 'struggling with compliance' as well as 'a lot of mental health issues', the surgeon continued: "She would draw towards food when things weren't going well and we knew we needed to get that in order before we could talk about surgery."
While surgery was an extremely important factor in Tammy's weight loss journey, Dr Eric pointed to the 'basic' lifestyle changes she committed to.
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He told Tyla: "The started the lifestyle changes at that time were really just basic things like portion control.
"When we sent her to rehab, we did not prohibit her from eating certain foods. I personally do not believe that works. I think that's wrong, because it's not the real world. You know, locking somebody up and preventing them from eating normal food is not the real world.
"You're going to put them back out in the real world, and they're going to backslide. I want to replicate what real life would be like, and I want her to make those decisions for herself, and we can get her recommendations on portions, but I want her to make that conscious decision, you know, 'I should choose that chicken over that pasta' or things like that."
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He also taught Tammy the importance of navigating correct 'portion control' and encouraged her to make 'better choices' when it came to food, saying: "We were really just trying to make it simple for her at first, portion control, and trying to make better choices of the food that was in front of her - favouring protein first, favouring good whole foods from a fruit and vegetable standpoint, and trying to eliminate a lot of the processed foods and processed sugars in her diet."
At the weight loss facility, he and Tammy also 'focused on activity' and 'basic activities that she was not able to do at home'.
"Combining those two, she started to see some weight loss," Dr Eric noted. "And I think that motivated her, because she wanted more of that.
"Those physical changes that she could feel on her body, that she could see in the mirror, continued to motivate her, and we continue to support her with that."
Topics: 1000-Lb Sisters, Celebrity, Health, TV And Film, Tammy Slaton
Rhiannon Ingle