Tammy Slaton Can Finally Buckle Her Seatbelt After 440-Lb. Weight Loss: ‘Minor to Some People, Giant for Me’

Tammy Slaton Can Finally Buckle Her Seatbelt After 440-Lb. Weight Loss: ‘Minor to Some People, Giant for Me’

The ‘1000-Lb. Sisters’ star said the last time she was able to sit in the front seat of a car was 20 years ago

Tammy Slaton is celebrating a huge milestone in her weight loss journey.

In PEOPLE’s exclusive clip from Tuesday’s episode of 1000-Lb. Sisters, the 37-year-old is at home with her brother Chris when he suggests Tammy try to sit in the front seat of the car now that she’s lost so much weight.

“We’re gonna try and put you in the front seat today, are you game?” Chris asks.

“Yeah,” she replies reluctantly. “I’m just not sure if I’ll be able to… fit between the door and the console.”

“The last time I sat in the front, it’s probably been 15 or 20 years. But I’m willing to try and see how it goes,” Tammy says.

Chris then jokes that they’ll “squish” her in the car and that as long as the door is able to shut, they’re good. Tammy hesitantly makes her way outside and uses her walker to get to the car. Her attitude shifts completely when she’s able to sit in the front seat and buckle her seat belt.

“I did it!” she says with a big smile.

“When Tammy actually realizes that she sat down in the chair and she’s good to go and the door can close, you can tell the little battle that she just beat made her feel wonderful, ’cause even at 16 she couldn’t sit in the front seat buckled up,” Chris says in the clip. “And now it’s on like Grey Poupon, baby!”

“Sitting in the front seat, It’s like a whole new world,” Tammy adds. “You’re experiencing everything from a different point of view. Instead of being the second person to see stuff, you’re the first person,” she said with a laugh.

Tammy recently opened up about that accomplishment – and several other milestones she’s reached after losing 440 lbs., down from her highest weight of 725 lbs. She had bariatric surgery in July 2022 and is now down to 285 lbs.

“One of the big changes that I have gone through this past year is probably small to most people,” she tells PEOPLE in this week’s issue. “But for me it was huge.”

“Just being able to walk without a walker or be pushed in a wheelchair, and no oxygen. I don’t even sleep with it at night anymore,” Tammy boasts. “Then it was being able to fit in a regular vehicle, front seat, and then the belt buckle, and not have to use an extender now. So I mean, just what seems minor to some people is giant for me.”

Dr. Eric Smith, medical director of the Kentucky Bariatric Institute, has treated Tammy throughout her weight loss journey and even recalls the moment she told him about being able to buckle her seatbelt in the car.

He admits that he wants Tammy to continue celebrating those non-scale victories rather than the number on the scale.

“I remember the first time I got a picture that she sent me of her riding the front seat in a car with a seatbelt, things that we may take for granted,” Smith tells PEOPLE. “That was a huge accomplishment for her when she used to be coming to my office in the back of a minivan with the seats removed because that was the only way that they could transport her.”

“For Tammy, I told her don’t get so caught up in a number. Enjoy the ride getting there. I want her to enjoy what we call those non-scale victories, the ability to be more mobile by herself,” he says. “I’m proud of her for those weight or number goals, but what I’m most proud about is the goals that she’s achieving of actually living a healthier and happier life.”