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Al Roker has been an open and defensive member of the keto diet club since September. He’s lost 40 pounds on keto, which is a high fat, moderate protein, very low carb diet designed as a medical intervention for people, particularly children, with epilepsy. Many people without a medical need for the diet have used it to successfully lose weight. Anyway Roker has been sharing keto recipes on Today, he did a whole recipe demonstration of a sloppy joe made with bread with almond flour and psyllium husks. As People Magazine points out he often posts his meals to Instagram. Some of them are highly questionable, like this “meatza” concoction which looks like ground beef topped with cheese and pepperoni. (Update: here’s a recipe for this.) I think this defies dietary common sense.
Here’s more on Al saying he lost 40 pounds. You can watch the video below that People is describing for us. Savannah Guthrie tried this diet for a few weeks and understandably quit.
Al Roker… 64, talked about his success on the diet while putting together a very keto-friendly meal of low-carb bread and sloppy joes for fellow hosts on Monday morning.
As Roker whipped up the keto bread — made with psyllium husk powder, which earned a grimace from Hoda Kotb — he told Savannah Guthrie that he’s “lost about 40 lbs.”
And Kotb added that the high-fat diet hasn’t hurt his cholesterol levels, a common concern with keto.
“We should point out, Al, your numbers are all good,” she said.
“Yeah, my cholesterol, just had it checked out a few weeks ago, everything’s good,” Roker added.
At least his cholesterol is good but I would not want to eat that way. I don’t have a gallbladder and could not reasonably digest the amount of fat and meat in this diet. I eat beef maybe once a week and I try to limit greasy food for that reason. The meatza concoction looks disgusting to me. To each their own of course and a lot of people swear by this.
Here’s the video. The Today people said the sloppy joes tasted ok, so there’s that.
Our very own @alroker has been on the keto diet since September, and he’s sharing some of his favorite, easy keto-friendly recipes with us! pic.twitter.com/feVchveYWs
— TODAY (@TODAYshow) March 4, 2019
Ooh I’m including this because I loved Boy Who Harnessed The Wind on Netflix directed by Chiwetel Ejiofor.
I went on the Keto diet 3-4 weeks ago, and ended up in the hospital with severe abdominal distress that’s still resolving. It worked, I dropped weight, felt good until the symptoms showed up. But I should have really concentrated on adding a fiber supplement. My gallbladder was overloaded with the fat, having lived a low fat diet for the last 25 years. And holy hell, did I get backed up.
Still sticking with the no sugar, no bread/pasta, but adding a LOT more fruits and veg.
The fastest I ever dropped weight was on the Candida diet – no sugar no carbs. I was on it for health reasons, but the weight just stripped off me after a few weeks. You can eat lots of veggies, but not much fruit, so you get plenty of fibre.
I’m iffy on keto. I’d rather stick with Whole30 when I’m trying to clean out my diet. I have tried ‘meatza’ while I was on it, and it’s actually really good. Usually my kids wouldn’t eat most of my Whole30 foods, but they loved that.
Whole 30 and Mediterranean diet are probably the best so called diets out there and sustainable in the longrun.
The gall bladder removal really does affect your ability to eat fatty foods. I can’t imagine eating like this either. I think that so much of dieting is figuring out what works for you, what you can actually handle, and what you like. It’s like figuring out a skin routine, it takes time and trial and error. For me, I try to eat real things as much as possible and I try to not have added sugar or too many carbs, and I try to make sure I get some dietary fiber, and drink as much water as I can.
They keep re-branding the same complicated, unhealthy diet plans over and over again.
All fad diets need to die. The people who benefit from keto are a minority even in epilepsy cases. It can also be used to treat uncontrolled diabetes through quick weight reduction, but again… not long term.
Having an eating disorder doesn’t always manifest as a gaunt person. People who are 50 to 100 pounds overweight likely have a very unhealthy relationship with food and need help. Diets are often about vanity when being overweight should be treated with the compassion of any other medical condition.
We need to treat psychological components, do nutritional education YOUNG and set people up from the start to treat food like fuel for their bodies. We don’t need to be encouraging bouncing around on fad diets, yoyoing up and down without ever treating or looking for the cause. Obesity is a health care crisis, its serious, but its part of our disordered relationship with food and often used to self medicate.
The actual mechanics of weightloss are simple. Calories in, calories out. No one is beating thermodynamics. Its everything else that makes weightloss difficult.
People need to realize you’re just switching energy systems, like if your car could switch from petroleum to diesel. You can switch systems, but still use bad fuel.
Keto changed my relationship to food in that when foods were off the table, they were off the table. One bite of carbs meant starting the adjustment back to ketosis all over again, so I stuck on it, and it made me understand that I WAS capable of just not eating treats because they were there. I ate a really vegetable heavy version because I’m vegetarian, and didn’t just go straight grease or pepperoni. I ate a cleaner whole version of keto on the higher end of the acceptable carb scale, and felt that was better. Now transitioned to a whole food flexible diet, and weight stayed off.
I think when people do keto with NO vegetables and don’t count macros, it can be just as unhealthy as any other diet with carbs. You can’t eat straight bacon and cheddar and call yourself a health nut. You’re just running on ketones, not feeding your body. Same way that eating chips and chocolate isn’t better because you’re feeding your body carbs.
Ding ding ding! For real. Calories in, calories out is the best and most healthy way to lose weight. Robert atkins himself had heart attacks and hypertension. If not carefully monitored, your blood pressure and cholesterol will skyrocket. Not to mention how absolutely awful meat is for the environment. I just can’t with this bs.
Dr Atkins did not have heart attacks and hypertension. You need to get your facts straight if you just can’t with BS.
Nope. Multiple articles and a medical examiner’s report suggest heart attacks, congestive heart failure, and hypertension. Plus the dude weighed 258 pounds when he died. F’ckn spare me.
I see you get your information from “doctors” who had nothing to do with Dr Atkins, his autopsy, nor his medical report. Or was this off of an anti-meat pamphlet?
Atkins did have heart problems that stemmed from before he started his Atkins Diet, that’s why he started it.
My dad had a triple by-pass 15 years ago. His new doctor put him on a low-carb diet, my dad is now off all cholesterol and blood pressure medications.
I’ve been low-carb for 25 years, my cholesterol, blood pressure, blood sugars are perfect, they were all very high while I was vegan. According to you I should be very unhealthy and on death’s door.
I’ll keep doing what I’m doing and stay healthy.
True about Atkins but Keto in no way is like Atkins. In fact it should have LOW protein not high protein like Atkins. Meet shouldn’t be your primary food source. It It is more healthy fats, veggies, some meat, and some fruits. People have a lot of misconceptions about KETO, which has been around way before Atkins. Since the 1930s and was used by medical doctors for treatment.
To add to KidV’s reply, Dr Atkins had cardiomyopathy which was most likely caused by a virus and not by lifestyle. His death was caused by a fall on ice and not by heart problems and apparently he weighed 195 lbs when he was admitted to hospital but gained weight from fluid retention while in a coma.
I think there is more to it than calorie deficits. A lot of what we don’t fully understand lives in the release of insulin and leptin.
I follow a ketogenic diet to enable autophagy through extended fasting.
There is a lot more to health than calories in calories out but deficits play a part.
I eat keto and because of calories, my meals are mostly low-starch vegetables. The fat and protein adds some richness to the meal. If I ate such meat and cheese heavy meals, I would gain weight.
Calories still matter with Keto. You can usually eat more calories eating Keto than the standard American diet, but you’re still going to have to watch them. I tend to overeat so I have to watch my calories too.
Manda, the skin routine comparison is dead on! We always want to know what “works” for someone else despite the fact we may have completely different body chemistry.
For example, I’m breaking out like crazy and want to know what everyone else is trying! Even though it might make it worse, I’m totally open to suggestions.
Caty check out our skincare posts there are a lot of good suggestions there. I wrote about effaclar here after it was recommended
https://www.celebitchy.com/604270/skincare_and_k-beauty_products_for_all_skin_types_including_your_favorites/
Glossier milk jelly cleanser and perfecting solution, and rosehip oil in the evening. Sometimes I do the ahava moisturizing sleeping mask. Fantastic products!
I am doing 3 weeks of Keto and eating low carb after. It is healthy! Tons of veggies and healthy meats from local farms, fish, nuts, healthy fats like olive oil, avacados, grass-fed ghee, etc.
Tonight I am hanging deconstructed fajitas. Steak with sour cream, guacamole, cheese, salsa, and some grilled onions. Plus a small green salad on the side. I don’t know what people are talking about, this is GREAT food!
I lose and keep off weight eating low carb and I am 50!
Good for him. Diabetes is rampant and there are so many fat people out there. No wonder we can’t afford governmental healthcare. All those fat/overweight people are overwhelming doctors! It costs a fortune to take care of them. And it is so selfish to let yourself get fat. It not only hurts you but your loved ones… I have lost too many loved ones thanks to unhealthy diets/no exercise/being fat. I am so sick and tired of seeing fat people waddle around here in my town.
Rosy take it easy on the moral judgements of fat people, my friend!
Please consider that many people are fat way before they have autonomy over their diets. My mother was cold and abusive but she wanted to show love to me and my siblings (she has mental health issues). So when she knew she had mistreated us she would then shower us with sugary treats. In my childhood sugar = love. I was a somewhat chubby kid and became a fat adult because of this groundwork. Now I have a lifelong battle against urges to sooth myself with excess sugar. During bad times I’ve ballooned up. It’s largely because of the abuse I suffered as a kid and the effed up relationship with “sugar as love” in my family.
This is just one example. But people don’t just decide to overeat one day. It’s a much larger issue, usually has to do with mental or physical health.
Wow. Just…wowwwww. Rosy, this is cruel af.
“Diabetes is rampant and there are so many fat people out there. No wonder we can’t afford governmental healthcare. All those fat/overweight people are overwhelming doctors! It costs a fortune to take care of them. And it is so selfish to let yourself get fat… I am so sick and tired of seeing fat people waddle around here in my town.”
Rosy sounds like a troll trolling. Would put too much keyboard emotion into this poster.
That’s exactly the right way to do keto. Fish, avocado, Olive oil, cauliflower, all that good stuff. Eating bacon topped with queso each meal is gross, personally, and not the proper way to lose weight, even though it feels like cheating and that’s why people like it.
Yikes Rosy! Do yourself a favor and get educated with these podcasts: https://christyharrison.com/foodpsych
When I’m on keto I feel wonderful. I don’t track macros, I just eat as much vegetables as I want, moderate meat, and then add in cheese, nuts, healthy oils and avocado to keep me full. Like it can be that simple lol. I lost 25 pounds in about 8 months and have kept it off even as I fell off the diet during a horrible personal time.
I am looking for the willpower to start again because it keeps the inflammation in my body way down and my energy up, I’m less irritable and I still do have some weight to lose. But my overall feeling of wellbeing, quality of sleep, energy etc are certainly way higher when I cut out flour and sugar and get more healthy fats in my body. So I’m a fan of keto! I never got into the meat-on-meat-on-meat type of meals like this, anyway! It’s soo much meat for me!
Meatza isn’t franken-food (like a Twinkie or other processed food). It’s just a silly/fun name for a pizza-like concoction without a bread crust. You make it yourself with whole fresh ingredients…definitely better than anything frozen filled with preservatives, HFCS and other garbage ingredients.
Keto works well for me. I make fathead pizza when I want pizza (the dough is almond flour, mozzarella, and cream cheese which sounds so weird but really ends up yummy).
But for me the key is to really chow down on a ton of leafy greens and veggies so I’m getting plenty of fiber and vitamins and antioxidants. Dinner tonight will be grilled brats, and a big pan of braised cabbage cooked German style. Plus probably a small tossed kale and spinach salad on the side.
Dinner last night was a homemade marinaded beef stir fry with a ton of veggies: mushrooms, broccoli, shredded green cabbage, mushrooms, bell peppers… I made cauliflower rice for my husband but I don’t really like it so I just doubled up on the broccoli for me.
I can’t fault anyone for sticking with what works and there’s legitimate dietary science that suggests keto could be very helpful and healthy for many people.
That said, people gotta do what their bodies need and that can be different things for different people.
Yes, keto isn’t steak with a slab of butter! It’s actually a lot of vegetables with meat/eggs and fat. Mark Hyman, MD–functional nutrition guru–suggests your plate be 75% vegetables, meat as a “condi-meat,” and healthy fats.
There is a lot of great info out there showing that the extreme reliance on grains, carbs and sweeteners in the North American/western diet is killing us: diabetes, heart disease, cancer, inflammation, etc., not to mention the ingrained (ha ha) carb-industrial complex that wants us to keep eating carbs and sugar, and which makes a lot of $$ for the producers (especially with all the ag subsidies for corn, wheat and soy), and makes them more $$ when we get sick and “need” their meds for the rest of our lives.
Check out these deep thinkers on the subject:
Gary Taubes is a science writer who writes comprehensive, very well-researched books, such as Why We Get Fat (note: it’s not calories/calories out). This was fascinating and inspired me to change my eating permanently–and I lost 25 lbs. He has also written about the evils of sugar. http://garytaubes.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Science-The-soft-science-of-dietary-fat.pdf
Mark Hyman, functional medicine specialist, is author of Eat Fat Get Thin and other books.
David Perlmutter, neurologist, is author of Grain Brain and other books. https://www.drperlmutter.com/
William Davis, cardiologist, is author of Wheat Belly and related books. Very readable and thorough.
https://www.wheatbellyblog.com/?s=heart+disease
https://www.wheatbellyblog.com/2018/11/top-10-reasons-to-never-eat-wheat-again/
Mark Sisson has a website called Mark’s Daily Apple.
Terry Wahls is a clinical professor of medicine and a researcher. She has an amazing story. She had gotten super debilitated with MS and the conventional therapies were doing nada for her. She discovered paleo/keto eating and her health did a 180.
https://terrywahls.com/about/about-terry-wahls/
Nina Teicholz is a thinker on sat-fat and related topics. She wrote a book called The Big Fat Surprise which is well-researched and comprehensive. Please read her About page to get a sense of her knowledge and background. https://ninateicholz.com/about/
Frankenfood isn’t the word you want in the title. Whole foods aren’t frankenfoods. Processed foods are frankenfoods, made by man like Dr Frankenstein’s monster.
The term frankenfood, probably coined by Michael Pollan, is used way incorrectly. It means processed food made of ingredients that arent actual food. (Like some of the non-hamburger things in a Mcd’s burger or when yoga mat material was in Subway buns.) So meatsa is made of actual food ingredients (meat, cheese, etc) and not a frankenfood. Nerd fact, but Im sure you want your headline correct.
Thank you!
I did keto for about 9 months and lost 40lbs. For the last couple of months on it my weight loss stalled out and I began to feel awful. I don’t blame keto, I think it was the way I was doing it that caused me to feel sick in the end. I could have changed up my keto but I was ready for something else. I would definitely do keto again and I would never scold anyone for it!
I went keto at the recommendation of my doctor at the pain management clinic. I lasted about three months before my general physician took me off and hooked me up with a nutritionist bc my joints were swelling from the sodium in all the meats and cheeses. I also do not have a gallbladder l, and I have fibromyalgia.
I felt good the first month and lost 10 lbs almost immediately, but then it started affecting my joints, my mental clarity, and generally made me want to barf. I couldn’t rest my elbow on the table without wanting to cry. I’m back to being a pescatarian, and while the weight is
Coming off slowly, I feel much better.
I do lazy, dirty Keto. Actually more Atkins and Sugar Busters and I love it. We eat tons of green veggies and berries. Works for us.
OMG … the fact that his recipes contain psyllium husks so he can have a bowel movement … yea, that’s healthy, Al! I’d rather be fat, thanks.
I’m just here to say thanks for your love for The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind.
I’m on a ketogenic diet that is also low fat. So no nuts, cheese etc. It works for sure. Just low carb vegetables and one serving of lean protein. Very basic, boring and effective
My in-laws are on the keto diet and the amount of supplements they have to take… that alone should be a HUGE red flag! No “healthy” diet requires you to take supplements. A healthy diet provides you with all the macro (carbs, protein, fat, and amino acids — YES, your body NEEDS carbohydrates) and micronutrients (vitamins and minerals) you need.
Most people hating on keto don’t even know what’s it really about these days. Some people eat and live that woe for years and do just amazingly. It doesn’t mean eating deepfried butter day in and out.
First of all, the brain needs good fats like those in nuts, avocado, and coconut oil to keep healthy.
Personally, I wouldn’t listen to what Al Roker has to say about weight loss because he has proven that none of it is long term.
He had gastric bypass surgery and lost 150 pounds, then gained 40 pounds.
Then he did an interview in 2013 where he said that he was on a low carb, high protein diet with exercise and had lost 28 pounds four years prior. He also said that he had it all figured out and that he wouldn’t be gaining weight again.
So now he’s saying that he’s doing keto and has lost 40 pounds. I wonder what he’ll be doing next time?
To be clear, it’s his body and he can do what he wants with it. I just hate that he has segments on the show and some people are touting his knowledge as great, when it’s clear that he hasn’t gotten to the root of his problems which are causing him to be fat, nor is he continuing whatever he did in order to keep off the pounds.
I keep gaining weight because I’m an emotional eater and a sugar addict, and have low thyroid which is not being treated, nor am I on pain management so that I can’t exercise. Once I can get my medical stuff taken care of, I’ll be losing weight again and maintaining it because I’ve done it before. I’d be able to say what works, but also caution others to do the mental and medical work first because if you don’t, it can override any diet that you do. I don’t think that he’s handling his mental health and he keeps doing these fad things to take off the weight quickly, which stresses his body. It’s his life to live, but do your research if you want to try what he’s doing.
THat MEatza is a heart attack on a plate. Humans are not meant to eat like that, keto or otherwise. Plenty of healthier ways to get there and still eat veggies. FFS. Red meat, cheese, and pepperoni all smooshed together. Gross.