Al Roker understands the struggles of managing weight, and says he will not judge those who turn to weight loss drugs to do so.

The TODAY mainstay, who recently published a cookbook titled Al Roker’s Recipes to Live By: Easy, Memory-Making Family Dishes for Every Occasion, shared his thoughts on the use of weight loss drugs while speaking with The Daily Mail.

“I’m not gonna judge anybody,” he explained. “Listen, it’s unlike any other addiction or dependence. You can live without alcohol, you can live without cigarettes, whatever that drug of choice is… but you’ve got to eat, and so for some people, it’s just difficult.”

He continued, “If this is what works for them, I mean, who are we to say, ‘Oh, don’t do that.’ As long as it’s safe and effective, good for you. I think everybody’s journey is their journey.”

Roker underwent gastric bypass surgery in 2002, when he weighed 340 pounds, per the New York Post. He marked 20 years since the operation in a March 2022 social media post, in which he shared a picture with the “size 54 Levi jeans” he had worn to his surgery.

As for how he would advise those looking to lose weight, Roker, who celebrated his 45-year anniversary at NBC in December 2023, told The Daily Mail that he is “very loath to give people advice about that because it’s like anything – you have good days and not so good days, you still have emotions, things like that.”

“So I tend not to go down that road because it’s tough and everybody’s got to face that and they’ve got to figure out their path,” he continued. “And if that path is one of these drugs and that works for them, great. And if it helps you, if that’s the thing that gets you over that point where you’re able to be healthier and lead a more active lifestyle, that’s great.”

As for Roker’s own “relationship with food,” he noted that he has “learned about portions.”

Roker previously showed his support for Kelly Clarkson after she opened up about taking weight loss medication on The Kelly Clarkson Show.

“There’s too much judgment going on,” Roker argued on the May 14 episode of TODAY, per E! News. “People, as long as they’re working with their doctors and being healthy about it, people ought to just back off and let them live their lives.”

He added that he “took a raft of stuff when [he] had bypass surgery,” and ultimately urged critics to “get off people’s backs.”