Josh Duhamel On The Power of Fasting

Can fasting be the key to unlocking a healthier and longer life? Join Josh Duhamel and I as we explore this compelling question and delve into the transformative benefits of a 72-hour fast. 

Josh is an actor known for his performances in films such as ‘Shotgun Wedding’ and the ‘Buddy Games’ franchise. But what you may not know is that he is also a longtime health and longevity enthusiast and is very knowledgeable about the latest developments in this important space.

In this episode, we catch Josh in the middle of his first 72 hour fast and share his personal experiences with extended fasting, discussing the profound impacts of ketosis and autophagy on our bodies. We also highlight the importance of community and peer support in overcoming moments of temptation, ensuring we stay motivated throughout the fasting journey. 

We don't stop at just the physical benefits; we dive into the psychological and social aspects as well. From the clarity and energy boosts during the fast to the anticipation of that first meal post-fast, you'll gain a comprehensive understanding of what to expect. We also address common concerns about muscle loss and the potential for healthier eating habits post-fast. 

To top it all off, we discuss our plans for a co-hosting a fasting event in the fall where we can all share in the experience of fasting together.  It will be aimed at raising awareness about fasting's health benefits and emphasizing the power of community in making positive lifestyle changes. Stay tuned for later updates about that as well as a new health longevity company that Josh and I will be announcing soon. 

Tune in, and you might just find yourself inspired to join us on this transformative health journey!

Continue this conversation on SubStack: https://robertlufkinmd.substack.com 

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Transcript

Benefits of Fasting for Health

Speaker 1 0:00

Got it All right. Dr Lufkin, I told you last night that I am on my first 72-hour fast and it is. You know, last night I was at about what was I about? 27, 28 hours and I was really really feeling it. I was so hungry, I was really really feeling it. I was so hungry and they always told me that. You know, after you know, at about the halfway point 36, 38 hours it gets easier you fall into like this hyper-focused zone. So I called you because they wanted to find out what exactly was going on and was I doing the right things? And what? Can I eat anything? Can I drink anything besides water or coffee?

Speaker 2 0:48

Oh yeah, well, Josh, I'm so excited you're doing this because I mean, in my, in my mind, I think fasting is one of the most powerful tools in our lifestyle toolkit to begin our journey for health and longevity. It's a great. Nutrition is a powerful tool and this is something we all get to do. We don't have to change what we eat at all. You can keep eating the same things. You just change when you eat and and space it out like you're doing. So, man, I'm I'm so excited for you, brother. You're doing this. This is, this is great, and we can all share in the experience with you.

Speaker 1 1:24

You know what we should do. You know what we should do Is, when we launch the company, we should get, we should get, we should do this and have everybody join us, anybody who's willing to try it to join us, and sort of a giant support group that you know sort of urges each other on. And because my buddies and I right now have I think there's five of us it's me, bob, chad cory and john walland um, so we're and chad schmidt, so we have this, this group like come on, guys, we can do it. Just keep pushing.

Speaker 2 1:59

I'm like I can't go anywhere, I'm gonna eat my hand yeah, it's harder to fall off the wagon when you've got peer pressure and everything Just doing it myself. It's like, okay, maybe I won't go the full 72 hours, but if I've got my buddies doing it or my tribe on social media or whatever, then it's empowering for all of us. That's so great, you're doing that. So how's it?

Speaker 1 2:25

feeling yeah, all of us.

Speaker 2 2:27

That's so great, you're doing that, yeah.

Speaker 1 2:28

So how's it feeling? Yeah, go ahead. No, I was just going to say what exactly is happening in my body right now. So I'm at about I'm a little over halfway. I'm probably at 38, maybe 39 hours at this point. Sound about right.

Speaker 2 2:39

Yeah, yeah, I mean, I love the quote about fasting. My buddy Jason Fung, who's like the fasting guru, he has a great quote about fasting. He said there's one thing that all the religions of the world agree on, whether it's, you know, Jesus, Buddha, Muhammad, you know Hindu traditions, all of them and they agree that fasting is healthy.

Speaker 1 3:14

Yeah, and it has a long, long history. Is it a reset for your organs? Is it? Is it? Does it kill? You know potential um carcinogenic cells? What is it? What is the why? Is it so good for me?

Speaker 2 3:21

well, a couple things. One every time we put food in our mouth and you know foreign matter which food is into our digestive system, it triggers a natural response of our body, which is inflammation, which protects us from foreign matter. So inflammation being turned on all the time. Chronic inflammation is one of the drivers for aging and most of the chronic diseases. So anything we can do to turn down inflammation is good. So if we snack literally all the time and have food in our digestive system all the time, then inflammation is turned on all the time. So the first thing fasting does, it gives our gut a rest. It gives our gut a break from constantly digesting food and having food in there. So the first thing it does, it turns down inflammation that way.

Speaker 2 4:10

The second thing it does, which is really fascinating, is normally our body runs on glucose and runs on glycogen that's stored in glucose, which is from sugar and carbohydrates.

Speaker 2 4:25

When we stop eating and we don't have any glucose coming in our diet or anything in our diet, we naturally burn up our stores of glucose, which is first in the form of glycogen in our muscles, and that takes about 12 hours. So after 12 hours we burn through that. Then what happens is we start burning our fat for energy, which is normal, healthy thing to do, it also and that that allows us to enter a type of metabolism called ketosis, which is very, very healthy. And this ketosis turns a metabolic switch that begins to activate repair mechanisms called autophagy and has many other benefits. And those are the two things that fasting really, really drive these repair mechanisms that turn down inflammation, give our body a little bit of a rest and a reset, but, yeah, so it's a lot of benefits from it. I mean, how are you feeling? Do you feel any different now? Your mental levels or your sharpness, or anything.

Speaker 1 5:37

Well, you mentioned to me last night that at a certain point I wasn't going to feel as hungry, and I don't feel as hungry today. I did have some coffee this morning I accidentally, by the way, we're rehearsing in the, on the stage in there and they're doing this big line dance thing, and on the bar were some pretzels and I just like with absolute mind, they reached out and threw a couple pretzels and I was like no, I can't eat that. So I did, in full transparency, I did eat a pretzel this morning, but I do feel good. I feel like I'm very sharp, I feel like I'm in a good mood, I don't feel lethargic or tired. But you mentioned to me last night something you know it goes all the way back to the hunters and gatherers.

Speaker 2 6:20

Explain that to me again there's one school of thought about fasting which I find fascinating and it makes sense to me a little bit if you think about our ancestors before 12,000 years ago, when the agricultural revolution came, but before that, for the hundreds of know, hundreds of thousands of years or more, before that, as humans we didn't have agriculture, we were hunter gatherers.

Speaker 2 6:44

So typically, hunter gatherers, they get a prey, they, you know, they hunt, they get something to eat and then they go for a while while they're hunting again and maybe they're not eating. So it's sort of naturally intervals of fasting and eating and fasting and eating. So there's this theory about fasting, that and if you think about it, it makes sense that when you're fasting, when you're hunting, you want to be sharp mentally, you want to have good vision, you want to have good hearing, you want to be at the top of your game, because if you don't, you don't survive, you don't pass on the gene. So basically, we were selected for, when we're fasting, to be very sharp, have extra energy, mental acuity and all these things so that we can survive and find the game. And when you think about it, when you're eating.

Speaker 2 7:32

I mean I noticed that I I sort of get brain fog when I eat. I'm full, I'm sitting around digesting. I'm not at my sharpest, I'm not at the top of my game, but it makes sense evolutionarily that fasting is actually going to turn up the A player in us all because we needed it to survive. All our ancestors were selected for that. I mean that actually makes perfect sense. Needed it to survive. You know, all our ancestors were selected for that.

Speaker 1 7:57

I mean that makes that actually makes perfect sense you know yeah you're not, if you're not sharp and on top of your game, you don't eat. If you don't eat, you don't live, and if you don't live, you don't pass on the genes to the next generation yeah, yeah, and it makes sense.

Fasting for Health and Longevity

Speaker 2 8:11

I mean, I, I like. I like, when I take breaks from eating because I feel like I'm I'm a little bit sharper during the day, I'll skip a couple of meals, even usually. And, and I feel like I'm sharper, yeah, all right. Well that's good.

Speaker 1 8:27

That's good.

Speaker 2 8:27

One question people always ask is so you're doing, just to be clear, you're doing like a water, only fast, right? So what? What do you? What have you been drinking and what do you what? What can people eat on this fast? So?

Speaker 1 8:40

so, bob, he's the uh, he's the tyrant who's sort of leading the crew on this thing. He says water only. He doesn't drink coffee. He doesn't drink anything um other than waters. So I've, I've just done some research. That's why I called you last night. A couple of my other friends who do this, you know, said that you should take in electrolytes. You should take in if coffee's okay. Some people say like beef broth. I haven't done that yet. So mostly what I've done is coffee, tea, water, that's it.

Speaker 2 9:12

Yeah, yeah, that's good, I'm, I'm. I'm not as orthodox as Bob on it with the water only. So I drink coffee as long as it doesn't have sugar or milk in it no calories. So the thing I want to avoid is calories. I don't want to kick my metabolism out of ketosis or out of that fasted state. So, yeah, so anything. You know carbonated water, but no sugar, and I don't even anything. You know carbonated water but no, no sugar, and I don't even.

Speaker 1 9:42

you know use sugar substitutes really just keep it.

Speaker 2 9:44

Keep it that way, but it seems, yeah, it seems to be okay yeah so how much? Longer do you have? What are the what's your target endpoint?

Speaker 1 9:51

on this tomorrow, tomorrow night uh, I'll be done around five o'clock, 5, 6 o'clock tomorrow night.

Speaker 2 9:59

Uh huh.

Speaker 1 9:59

Yeah, so I'm over halfway Feeling okay. I'll let you know tonight how I'm feeling. But if these guys are going to do it, I'm going to do it, because I'm not going to, you know, bear the weight of these guys talking smack to me For years. So I have to finish. So they're gonna, you're gonna, let me hear it yeah, the beer pressure is a strong, strong influence.

Speaker 2 10:23

How, what are you gonna do after you get done? What, what, what's your meal gonna look like?

Speaker 1 10:28

uh, I don't know. I mean, I want to just go eat pizza and and everything that I can get my hands on is there. Is there a way to ease your way back in?

Speaker 2 10:46

Well, yeah, I mean, obviously you don't want to pig out too much, you want to take advantage of the health benefits and do something. So when I do it I try and select something healthy. And select something healthy which for me is low carb, low sugar, get rid of the seed oils and get rid of the grain, so it's kind of a metabolically healthy diet. So I flow right into that. But the great thing about fasting is, once you've gone 72 hours without eating anything, anything you put in your mouth after that is going to be delicious, so you could have kale by itself and you'll love it.

Speaker 2 11:24

So, so you could pick a bunch of healthy things and, trust me, they will be the best food you've ever eaten, in 72 hours at least.

Speaker 1 11:33

Yeah, well that's that's that's that's, that's true. My worry right now is I don't want to lose too much muscle. I don't want to try to put muscle back on, and my biggest fear of this is I know it's going to burn fat, but I also don't want to lose too much muscle. Is there a chance of that with this?

Speaker 2 11:52

Yeah, for the, for these relatively short fasts like this, it's, it's not a problem Usually, you know, in most cases you know you don't really start metabolizing the muscle. So I think you know, I think you're safe on that, especially if you continue. You know you could continue to exercise even during your fast and after your fast, you know. But but take a look at it and let me know, yeah, let's. You know, we can look at your weight too during the fast and some of that's going to be, you know, water and other things. So it's hard to, it's hard to detect subtle differences in muscle mass, you know, over over a couple of days like that. But but we can, we can check it out and I love your idea about trying this again in a couple months and inviting all our audiences to join us and we can do it. I say even more peer pressure for all of us.

Speaker 1 12:49

I mean, even my little group that I have with me now is helping a lot, because we keep sort of cheering each other on, so I think it'd be a great idea. Yeah, yeah, it's not for the weak though it is. It is a is a real commitment. But it's 72 hours and I'm and everybody who tells me it's a total reset and it makes you feel. I mean, I'm feeling great right now and I haven't eaten for a day and a half. Um, so I tend to want to believe that it's going to be actually good for the mind and the body. What did.

Speaker 2 13:16

Have you learned from this? Like, what, what, what were, what were the secrets that got you through this? Or is there anything that that you're feeling now, that you didn't expect to be feeling, from this, from this process? What's it like from the inside.

Speaker 1 13:30

I thought that I was going to be a lot hungrier at this point. The hardest part, clearly, is the first 24 hours, because last night I wanted to eat my hand I really did um, but this morning I woke up and I'm feeling I don't feel crazy hungry. I wanted to get coffee right away, just get something in my system. Um, but yeah, uh, feeling clear, feeling in a really good mood, wasn't expecting that, um, but yeah, I'm also very much looking forward to that first meal yeah, and that that's that's one of the benefits too.

Speaker 2 14:06

when you, when your body switches out of glucose burning and you burn up the glycogen and you switch into the ketosis, like we were talking about yesterday, one of the effects of ketosis is the appetite drops down, so so it's actually gets a little bit easier. You know, as you're going through it, that's what most people experience and also so it's, so it's an added benefit there. Are you guys all going to get together and celebrate? Are you at remote locations?

Speaker 1 14:38

No, they're all in Minnesota, Arizona, Minnesota and Arizona. So no, I'm in New Mexico. So we'll just we'll, all you know, maybe get a Zoom session and just pig out together. I don't know, we'll figure it out.

Speaker 2 14:54

Well, I really want to applaud you, josh. I know you're really taking a deep dive about health and longevity and becoming an expert in your own right in this space, so I applaud you for sharing this experience and giving everybody else the benefit of teaching them about fasting.

Speaker 1 15:14

So this is really wonderful, to your credit yeah, I can't, I can't talk about it unless I've actually done it.

Speaker 2 15:22

So here we are yeah, yeah, absolutely yeah, and and uh, yeah, the next next time we do it we can do, we can add the continuous glucose monitors and, uh, do some kind of in-depth monitoring and involve everybody in it. And uh, I think it'll, I think it'll be a lot of fun I do too.

Charity Event to Promote Fasting

Speaker 1 15:44

I do too. Let's plan on, uh, I don't know. Let's say like october. How's that sometime okay?

Speaker 2 15:52

yeah, yeah, we can. We can set it up and we could even get you know, we could even get sponsors for charity or something to do it you know and raise awareness about fasting and you know, kind of really get it out there that the health benefits, because it's it's gonna, it's gonna it good idea. Yeah, I gotta run dr love all right thank you brother great brother. All right, talk to you soon. Man see ya all right later. Bye.