Kevin James Says He Lost 60 Pounds in 6 Weeks, but Medical Experts Don't Recommend His Approach

The King of Queens star Kevin James recently stopped by The Joe Rogan Experience for a wide-ranging interview covering everything from his career to his own body. At one point in the conversation, he explained that while filming a new movie, he underwent a dramatic weight loss, then weight gain, then an even bigger rapid loss. But the extreme method he described is far from a healthy approach to achieve his desired result.

The actor explained to Rogan that he lost weight to play a priest in an unnamed upcoming horror movie, getting down to 230 pounds. After shooting had wrapped, he packed on 50 pounds and got back up to 280. When he learned he had to do reshoots later, he had to lose all the weight again.

"I can lose it really quick, I can fast and lose it," he said of his yo-yo dieting tactics. "Seriously, I can lose it quick... I can do it in a month. Less than a month."

He went on to explain how he fasted for multiple weeks—"41 and a half" days to be exact—to drop the weight for the reshoots quickly. But it wasn't intermittent fasting, an approach where you restrict the number of hours per day you can eat food which has gained popularity in some health circles in recent years and has been proven in studies to be safe and effective. Instead, he claims he survived only on "water and a little salt" for approximately six weeks.

"When I lock on, I can do something," he stated plainly. "I started fasting, I didn't say 'I'm going to do 40 days,' I just said 'I'm going to do whatever I can.'"

That doesn't mean it was a smooth ride the whole time. "I felt pretty good for a while, and then I'd have these dips, like wow, I feel pretty miserable," he confessed.

In the end, he dropped all the weight he initially lost for the movie and then some. "I lost, I think, like 60 pounds," he said. "I didn't even take vitamins... It cleansed everything out of me." In the interview, however, James acknowledged that this wasn't the best advice for others. "I'm not saying it's the way to go for everybody, I don't know," he said.

Studies have supported the potential benefits of practices like intermittent fasting when fighting obesity. But as far as establishing healthy, long-term habits, the science is clear; people who lose weight at a slow but steady pace are more likely to keep it off in both the near- and long-term. Rapid weight loss without a long-term plan can also lead to a bevy of health problems like the development of gallstones.

While he referred to it as fasting, James' techniques were more akin to starvation. With proper hydration, the human body can survive anywhere from a few weeks to three months without food depending on its fat and muscle stores. However, these actions can have a serious adverse impact on the body's vital organs, including the heart, pancreas, intestines, and endocrine system, and are not advised by medical experts. As Johns Hopkins notes, any fast of more than 24 hours can come with potential dangers to your health.

James himself acknowledged that he didn't go about losing weight in the healthiest way, and that he gained much of the weight back afterwards Looking ahead, he wants to focus on his diet and establish a sustainable routine to stay in good shape for years to come.