Al Roker completes Brooklyn half-marathon at 67, after losing 100lbs after "lifestyle change" in 2002.

[VirtualLarry]

Al Roker Runs Brooklyn Half Marathon, Gets Medal from Wife Deborah Roberts

Al Roker participated in Saturday's 13-mile event, which returned for the first time since 2019

people.com

This seemed inspiring. I always remembered him as a chubby black guy and weatherman.

Seeing him finish a half-marathon at 67, after loosing 100lbs, makes me believe that it's possible.

I weigh 460lbs, currently, and am semi-bed-ridden in a manner of speaking.

 

[Torn Mind]

I did read the article...seems like marathons have a risk of injuring people. Not too surprising actually.

16 participants were injured and one 30-year dude died in that marathon.
Then that magazine links to another story where a 22. year old also died.

Well, then again, it comes with the territory since the first legendary "marathon" did have the runner die after he delivered the news.


Doing some kind of "low-carb" is usually helpful because starches and sweets "expand" the appetite upon contact, also causes an acceleration in the "cycle" of getting hungry, and makes you feel good, probably with a dopamine rush.

Some people can't handle the restriction however. In that case, a highly fibrous sweet food superior to anything based on common flours. Substituting sweet potatoes instead of candy is a start.

Most drinks should be avoided since they commonly have added sugars.

Any time one wants to lose weight, care should be taken to not get deficient in any important micronutrients. Superoxide dismutase can be contain copper and zinc or manganese, for example.

 

[deadlyapp]

I did read the article...seems like marathons have a risk of injuring people. Not too surprising actually.

16 participants were injured and one 30-year dude died in that marathon.
Then that magazine links to another story where a 22. year old also died.

Well, then again, it comes with the territory since the first legendary "marathon" did have the runner die after he delivered the news.


Doing some kind of "low-carb" is usually helpful because starches and sweets "expand" the appetite upon contact, also causes an acceleration in the "cycle" of getting hungry, and makes you feel good, probably with a dopamine rush.

Some people can't handle the restriction however. In that case, a highly fibrous sweet food superior to anything based on common flours. Substituting sweet potatoes instead of candy is a start.

Most drinks should be avoided since they commonly have added sugars.

Any time one wants to lose weight, care should be taken to not get deficient in any important micronutrients. Superoxide dismutase can be contain copper and zinc or manganese, for example.

People injure themselves in these races because they push too hard generally because they don't listen to their body. It's easy to ignore heat stroke and pass it off as just being tired and can certainly lead to organ failure.

Micronutrients are vastly unimportant if you eat a balanced diet. If your dieting consists of only eating chicken and rice, then yes you probably need to supplement. If you regularly have vegetables, a variety of meats, sparing amounts of fruit, there is no need to supplement micronutrients for weight loss.

And yes @VirtualLarry there is nothing special about losing weight and thousands if not millions of people have done the exact same thing Al Roker has done, all it takes is the correct mindset and some actual commitment. If you constantly have excuses, you'll never progress.

For most people they need a real health scare in order to change their life. It may be a heart attack, it may be something else, but at that point much of the damage is done, however any changes they make will hopefully prolong their life. For others it may be seeing things happen around them that they can't participate in, eg the birth of a child, watching families do things together, etc.

You have to first decide to do something on your own, and then execute on it. Plenty of people can help you, but only you can make it stick.

 

[ch33zw1z]

Good for al, if he can inspire more to change their lifestyle and get healthier, that's a win in my book

 

[Torn Mind]

People injure themselves in these races because they push too hard generally because they don't listen to their body. It's easy to ignore heat stroke and pass it off as just being tired and can certainly lead to organ failure.

Micronutrients are vastly unimportant if you eat a balanced diet. If your dieting consists of only eating chicken and rice, then yes you probably need to supplement. If you regularly have vegetables, a variety of meats, sparing amounts of fruit, there is no need to supplement micronutrients for weight loss.

And yes @VirtualLarry there is nothing special about losing weight and thousands if not millions of people have done the exact same thing Al Roker has done, all it takes is the correct mindset and some actual commitment. If you constantly have excuses, you'll never progress.

For most people they need a real health scare in order to change their life. It may be a heart attack, it may be something else, but at that point much of the damage is done, however any changes they make will hopefully prolong their life. For others it may be seeing things happen around them that they can't participate in, eg the birth of a child, watching families do things together, etc.

You have to first decide to do something on your own, and then execute on it. Plenty of people can help you, but only you can make it stick.

Given the prevalence of deficiencies both on the road to excessive weight gain and the road away from it, it's rather evident most people do not notice it as an issue since the focus is on feeling good or losing weight. "Customary advice" can spread like wildfire and most people, once introduced to one message, will not be persuaded with new information.

They call it a preference for calorically dense but not nutrient-deficient foods

At least a few micros are not thought about and can result in deficiency in the pursuit of weight loss. The likes of zinc, manganese, copper, and selenium. Amongst vitamins, D3, K2, and folate can be neglected, just to name a few.

Generally speaking, people get their B vitamins from enriched wheat but miss out on a bunch of other things.

Enrichment of foods with folic acid helps avoid bad health outcomes but it also leaves the populace ignorant of what should be eaten to obtain it from food, which is mostly green vegetables and animal liver.

 

[mike8675309]

I believe Al was running before that event fairly regularly. You have to work yourself up to that type of stress on your body if you want it not to fail.

 

[nakedfrog]

Larry, I've lost 130+ pounds and I didn't have to starve myself or eat food I didn't like, I just had to eat less food and be more active (overwhelmingly my activity during this time was plain old walking). I didn't go on a special diet, I started out small by only ordering 2 beefy five layer burritos from Taco Bell instead of 3 for lunch, for example. It wasn't until I'd lost my first 50 pounds that I started actually looking at calories and stuff. I believe you can do it
Don't forget Roker also had a gastric bypass 20 years ago (it is mentioned at the bottom of the article)

 

[pauldun170]

In case anyone is curious about his pace. He didn't run. He power walked it.

New York Road Runners Official Race Results

I just completed a NYRR race. See my official results here.

results.nyrr.org

Al Roker successfully walks entire half-marathon: 'I did that!'

The TODAY weatherman decided to power-walk the Brooklyn Half Marathon on Saturday.

www.today.com

 

[VirtualLarry]

"No shade to people who run ... I've got two knee replacements, I've got a hip replacement. Walking is a lot easier," Al said.

 

[Muse]

...seems like marathons have a risk of injuring people. Not too surprising actually.

I used to be a street runner, track when available. 5-7 miles/day. I had at times thoughts of "competing" in races but it never happened. Something always came up. Eventually I developed a bad case of plantar fasciitis and had to stop, never to be able to take it up again. Went one time to a sports clinic to get a diagnosis and a helper there suggested I take up swimming instead. I promptly did just that and in no time was swimming laps 1mile/day and after a few months thought to myself "why not 2?" From that day on it was 2mi/day, 7 days a week. Ten years later I had to stop in the middle of my swim because of the pain in my left shoulder and just like my running, even a year off and I could not swim. Nearly 10 years later I had surgery on that foot and shoulder, a year or two apart.

Now to get to why I decided to make this post. I heard someone say that "running a marathon is like pulling up the carrots to see how they're growing." 26.2 miles when you normally run maybe 6-10 mi/day is going to have consequences, particularly if you push it.

Edit: Guess I'm lucky. My knees are usually fine, hips too. I'm quad skating 10mi/day.