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The Skinny on Roker's weight loss: Gastric Bypass

As any NBC Today viewer knows,
weatherman Al Roker has lost a lot of weight.


How he did it is an open secret around NBC, but Roker has refused to discuss the gastric bypass operation March 15 that allowed him to shed nearly 100 pounds. Now, he's ready. "In this country, if you have an alcohol problem or a drug problem, you can get treatment," says Roker, 48. "If you have a weight problem, it's lack of willpower: 'Just push away from the table, tubby, and you'd lose that weight.' But you can stop drinking, you can stop sticking a needle in your arm. You cannot not eat."

How the operation works

By Bob Davis, USA TODAYSurgeons divide the stomach into two compartments, each closed by a row of staples. Food is rerouted so that it bypasses the lower compartment and the duodenum (the roughly 9-inch length of small intestine below the stomach that helps break down food). What's left: an egg-size stomach attached directly to the small intestine.The procedure limits how much food a person can eat at one sitting. It also lets the body expel most food before it is fully digested. Possible risks: anemia, infection, pain and diarrhea from undigested food.Research shows that patients who have the surgery typically lose and keep off 60% of their excess weight five years later.

Owning up to the operation, in which the stomach is reduced from the size of a football to an egg, "is embarrassing — the ultimate admission of failure. You don't want to talk." Which is why Roker told colleagues that he'd had his gall bladder removed: He was terrified that the bypass operation might not work and he'd gain the weight back, just as he did after every diet. "Scarsdale, Atkins, Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, you name it, I've done it."

Even when those diets caused him to drop a lot of pounds — say 50 — "when you weigh 320, that still puts you at 270." With every failure, he'd gain back the weight and "an extra 5 or 10 pounds, just for fun."

Early this year, Roker says, he went into a funk. His dad had died a few months earlier. His wife, ABC 20/20 correspondent Deborah Roberts, was pregnant with their second child, and Roker couldn't give his daughter, Leila, piggyback rides because the knee he'd had replaced earlier was beginning to hurt again. "I felt horrible. I didn't look good. I didn't feel good."

So he began to research the operation on the Internet and ultimately told Deborah, who had been after him to lose weight, that he had scheduled surgery. "She said, 'Are you doing this because of me?' I said, "No, I'm doing this because of me.' " The laparoscopic operation at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York involved a small incision in his belly. He was back home after a weekend and at work a week later. (He had the operation filmed, and the Nov. 12 edition of DatelineNBC is devoted to his procedure.) Roker predicts the operation will become much more common as America's obesity problems grow. But he stresses that no one should consider it unless he needs to lose a minimum of 100 pounds. Otherwise, Roker recommends dieting.

He says there have been no downsides. He still enjoys his favorite foods — barbecue, for instance — but in much-reduced portions, because his stomach quickly tells him when he's full. "I have a much better relationship with food. I'm not sneaking. I'm eating out in the open. I enjoy my meals."

Roberts, who has reported on Carnie Wilson's gastric bypass, says she worried that Roker was really doing it for her and that if he was disappointed with the results, "he might blame me." But she has been "magnificently, pleasantly surprised. He's discovering a part of himself that hasn't been around for years."

Roker can now buy new clothes off the rack. He recently got something for himself — not just his kids — at the Gap. His jacket size has dropped from a 54 to a 46, and his waist has dropped from 54 to a 40.

Roker and Today anchor Matt Lauer — they did a Sigfried and Roy dress-up Halloween routine last week on Today— now go clothes shopping together. "I say, 'Do these make me look fat? How does my butt look?' " And Roker says he might go shopping for swimsuits with Lauer this spring: "He wants me in a thong."

Roker now weighs 221 pounds — a 99-pound loss. "I'm 1 pound shy of 100. It's driving me nuts." He hopes to get below 200. "I don't think I'll ever be 175. As my mother says, I am 'big-boned.' "

Here's The Story!

November 4, 2002

Well, friends, here's the story in Al's Words!

Last March I had a gastric bypass operation. You may know it as "stomach stapling", although it's much more than that. This is something that I had been cont

emplating for a long, long time. After my Dad died, I decided it was right for me to do. I had ballooned up to 320lbs. I was unhappy about the way I looked and felt. I knew that I was a heart attack or a stroke waiting to happen. It wasn't "if", it was "when". So after doing much research, I chose Dr. Marina Kurian of Lenox Hill Hospital to perform the surgery.

It was done laproscopically and it went off without a hitch. In the last nine months, many people have speculated and guessed at what I had done to lose the weight.

The National Enquirer had a hospital employee violate my privacy and break several laws in providing them with my surgical and hospital information. Good for them. I'm sure they're proud.

US Weekly magazine stated I had a "Lap-Band" procedure performed. Ebony magazine (Equal Opportunity Sleaze) stated I had the operation and quoted the price. Many radio talk show hosts speculated about it as well. And some of you e-mailed me as well. Some were really upset that I wasn't talking about how I was losing the weight.

What I was telling people, "In the end, it comes down to working out more and eating way less." Which was true. Of course, the eating less came courtesy of the surgery.

There's an article in USA Today about it, as well as a People Magazine cover story this Friday. And for those of you who are really interested in this, Jane Pauley hosts an hour long Dateline on NBC on Tuesday, November 12th at 10pm.

I appreciate the interest people have in an overweight weatherman. I really thought nobody would care and I would lose the weight and call it a day. I was wrong. I hope by going public, it helps people. This is not for everyone. You need to be at least 100lbs. overweight, the more the better candidate you are.

I was 320lbs. I've lost almost 100lbs. with another 20 to go, which would put me at 200lbs. Actually, I'd like to lose another 21 lbs.. That would put me at 199, so I could say I'm under 200. Wow!

Until next time,
Al