Thoughts on Bryan Johnson's Blueprint

What gets measured gets managed.

I recently listened to an interview with Bryan Johnson, a tech millionaire who has dedicated his life to anti-aging and longevity. He has developed a program he calls Blueprint, spending millions of dollars a year, in order to live as long as possible. This is after spending a decade of his life being stressed out, obese, and depressed due to an unhealthy lifestyle while working all the time and not prioritizing his health.

Now I personally don’t care much for longevity, but I do like health, and he has abs.

Bryan Johnson at his Bond villain-lair home doing cyber-yoga. (Note the abs.)

When he hit the headlines recently, a lot of people were quick to make fun of him. And I get it, he’s easy to make fun of:

• He’s a vegan

• He’s a tech bro

• He lives in a literal Bond villain lair

• He is extremely nerdy

• His skin is very pale, which we associate with being unhealthy and/or vampires

• He compares himself to Jesus on Twitter a lot (though it’s probably a joke)

But after listening to the interview, I thought that his approach was quite interesting, and his goals admirable. He wants to make the world a better place, one where people “don’t even think about health.” I love that idea.

One thing that struck me in the interview: he doesn’t take himself super seriously for somebody trying to live forever. For example, people call him a vampire, because he once did a blood transfusion with his son and father. He leans into it and makes fun of himself.

He talks a lot about systems thinking and engineering your life and society in a way that health “just happens.” As a fellow tech bro, I also think in systems a lot, and I think if we’re going to get out of the obesity crisis, we will have to do it via systems thinking. In fact, even a lot of my individual fat loss experiments and ideas are systems based.

That said, I disagree with a lot of his axioms and conclusions.

Dichotomy: Ancient Mammals vs. Modern Technology

In the interview, Johnson talked about several dichotomies. One that he kept bringing up was that we, humans, didn’t evolve to deal with the modern, technological environment. He gave examples like modern junk food, soda, social media, phones, and so on.

The general framing struck me as very fatalistic, as if he felt helpless in the face of modern junk food, marketing, and social media in his old life, and Blueprint was his way to overcome this.

"I cannot trust myself"

This quote he kept repeating almost like a mantra, if memory serves, and several similar statements kept coming up. He even came up with a pretty complex mental model of multiple personalities, each representing different Bryans at different times of day, stress levels, and so on.

His nemesis he named “Evening Bryan,” a weak-willed version that would eat junk food, watch TV for hours, procrastinate, stay up late, and generally ruin life for all the “other Bryans.”

I think this sort of technique is pretty common in certain self-help methodologies. I even tried a slightly different method myself once. I don’t recall where I got this idea from, but it went like this: one part of me would be the “General” and would make smart and long-term plans, and write them down in detail. Then, a lower-ranked me (a Private?) would pick up the drawn up plans the next morning, and execute them dutifully.

For example: because Evening Bryan was always eating junk food at night and could not be trusted to keep a healthy diet, Johnson says he “took all authority to eat food after 5pm” away from him.

But I wonder what that means, “take away authority.” For example, the General/Private technique completely failed for me, and I never used it successfully. “Private ExFatloss” couldn’t care less about the plans of “General ExFatloss” and would just do whatever he felt like in the moment.

So unless “taking authority away” means locking up the fridge and all the kitchen drawers, I’m not sure what effect it would have.

Overall, I got a weird sense of almost .. self-loathing from Johnson? Loathing is probably the wrong word. But if someone cannot be trusted, has to have all authority taken away from him, that just sounds strange and very negative.

Johnson also said multiple times how he empathized with Evening Bryan, so it wasn’t all bad. Still, it sounded like a somewhat unhealthy relationship with (part of) himself.

I’ve definitely had phases in my life where “Scumbag ExFatloss” did things like stay up late, or eat junk food, that I then later regretted. But my solution didn’t seem nearly as negative. It was more of a learning process of what actually worked (e.g. fixing my circadian rhythm disorder, losing 50lbs) and just maturing during my 20s and 30s. It was never that the answer was obvious the whole time, but my weak-willed “Evening Version of Myself” just wouldn’t stick to it, which is how Johnson frames it.

Still, Johnson’s solution to the idea of “Evening Bryan” was to systematize many parts of his life and create routines, and I’d be a liar if I said I don’t do the same. I personally don’t feel like I’m doing this to “take authority away” from my Weak Self. I just like routine and simplicity. But the result is similar, e.g. Johnson eats pretty much the exact same meals every day, as do I.

Dichotomy: Narrative-Driven vs. Science/Technology-Driven

The next big dichotomy he brought up in the interview was one between “narrative-driven” and “science/technology driven.”

He would bring up e.g. Adam and Eve, and how he thought the whole Garden of Eden thing might be an excuse by Adam and Eve, blaming the serpent for their own mistakes. And how, while we should take responsibility, this idea of “not my fault!” was baked into our culture.

In short, I think he wants people to take more responsibility for their health, which is fine.

But I disagree with the idea that “the problem with health” is that we just follow narrative, and that simply “following the science and using technology” will lead us out.

Which science will you follow, and which technology will you use? For example, Johnson optimizes for “optimal” values in many blood (and other) tests, including cholesterol and LDL.

Which measurements and goals does one pick? There are conflicting “narratives” in science about which numbers matter, and where they should be.

There is no science without narrative. You have to have an idea of what numbers to measure, and where to push them. That’s something you can’t just figure out neutrally and objectively.

For example, in his lab results, he lists his LDL cholesterol (74) as “optimal” because it is under the (recommended by someone, I presume) limit of 100. I personally disagree with this limit, I think it’s nonsense. I think he’s fallen for a narrative by trying to “go by the numbers.”

I do agree with some other numbers, e.g. he has excellent fasting glucose (82), HDL (73) and triglycerides (55).

You can’t have science without narrative. If you think you do, you’ve fallen for a narrative. Hate to break it to ya.

How do you pick between scientific narratives? It’s not easy.

But, personally, I think it is a curious idea to follow the mainstream nutrition science in a society in which the mainstream person is obese and diabetic.

Do we not think that these ideas have led to these outcomes?

The Blueprint Approach

Johnson’s Blueprint has a solitary goal: life extension. He knows that other people don’t necessarily share this solitary goal, and that’s fine by him. It’s just what he cares about.

And he also cares about veganism.

I found this a bit curious: I guess life extension is actually only his #2 goal? If you really wanted to maximize life extension, wouldn’t you at least consider all the other diet options and weigh them?

It seems a bit like wanting to win #1 in a race at any cost, but the car you’re driving must be blue.

Again, he’s fine with other people doing a meaty version of Blueprint, it’s just not for him, so no big deal. He actually says he would be interested what people achieve with other versions - maybe he’d change his mind on veganism if somebody outdid him by eating meat?

Let’s look at the individual parts of the Blueprint program in detail. Because it has lots of details. Check out his full Blueprint page.

Bryan Johnson Loves Sleep

The practical topic where I agreed with him the most was sleep. I kept nodding my head, especially as he was describing the cascade of bad effects that can follow just one or two bad nights of sleep.

You’re sleep deprived, so you can’t make good decisions. Bad decisions lead to more bad sleep and other health issues. Our culture encourages us to burn the candle at both ends and power through, but Johnson thinks (and I agree) that this is a terrible idea.

He now considers sleep non-negotiable and says it’s his #1 priority in life. He doesn’t wake up with an alarm, and he sleeps alone in a blacked out room. Watch this video about his evening routine.

Sleep is an interesting one because there isn’t actually that much you need to do to get pretty much optimal sleep. It’s mostly just the realization that sleep is very important, and prioritizing it.

I think most of the “sleep hygiene” things the mainstream recommends are pretty marginal in effectiveness. The by far #1 most effective thing you can do to sleep well is find your natural circadian rhythm.

How much better is a $5,000 mattress than a $500 mattress? I went back from a super expensive to a “normal” one because it didn’t make a difference.

Does the room really need to be cooled to 65F, or is 72F fine? If you’re not hot, I think it’s fine.

Does blocking blue light & avoiding screens in the evening help? Maybe a bit, but when my sleep is dialed in, I can literally fall asleep while watching an action movie. Close the laptop, and a minute later I’m gone.

Besides figuring out your own circadian rhythm, the #2 thing I’d say is to get sun exposure as soon as you wake up. This will reset your circadian rhythm. I notice that my wakeup/sleep times shift up to about an hour earlier when I take a morning walk vs. staying inside until noon.

Diet: Agree to Disagree

On the diet front, his approach is in a way very similar to mine, yet we came to completely different conclusions.

Johnson eats 3 meals and a smoothie every day, with everything but the last meal being identical every single day.

1. Smoothie incl. collagen and creatine

2. Puree of lentils, broccoli, cauliflower, and more

3. Nut pudding w/ macadamias, walnuts, brazil nuts, chia seeds, cocoa, and berries

4. Some sort of salad or other vegetable meal, e.g. based around a sweet potato

These all include way more ingredients and components, almost like medicine. To keep it short, I’m just listing the main ingredients here. Check out his meal-prep plan here, where he explains these dishes in detail.

He includes this tidbit on the site:

Fun fact: on Blueprint, you’ll eat over
70+ lbs of veggies, berries and nuts per month

That all just seems so inefficient to me. Why would you eat 70lbs of .. stuff?

Most of it doesn’t seem to do anything, at best a vehicle to include and mask the huge amounts of random ingredients he’s adding to everything. For example, his smoothie contains cocoa flavanols, spermidine, and cinnamon. The vegetable puree contains garlic, ginger, lime, cumin, apple cider vinegar, and extra virgin olive oil.

It just seems like he collected every anecdote about anything being healthy and added them all.

Most of what he eats doesn’t seem like food to me. Broccoli and cauliflower are just water and fiber. Unless you’re putting sauce on them, why bother?

Of course he chose to be vegan, so the options are somewhat limited. But, for example, I only eat 2 meals per day (plus copious cream in coffee), and one is 150-200g of total stuff (meat, vegetables, sauce) when cooked, the other 200-300g of heavy cream, 2/3 of which is water.

He eats 300g of lentils, 250g of broccoli, and 150g of cauliflower in the puree meal alone. I’d just be so bloated and stuffed lol. Much prefer “being full on an empty stomach,” as one of the recent participants in my fat loss trial put it so eloquently.

Caloric restriction for life extension

Johnson limits his overall caloric intake (formerly 2,000kcal/day, now 2,250) because he believes that it will lead to life extension. I have read that idea too, but am not convinced. In a recent paper about BCAAs I’ve read, they report that mice eating an ad-libitum, reduced-BCAA diet lived 30% longer. The mechanism seems to be reduced mTOR activity. If I were Johnson, I’d look into this. Maybe the overall caloric restriction is unnecessary?

He talks about how the caloric restrictions leads to a suppressed metabolism, including suppressed testosterone. For this reason, he uses testosterone patches to boost his testosterone back to normal levels.

Extremely low in seed oils

Say what you will, his vegan diet contains mostly monounsaturated fat. Macadamia nuts are relatively low in PUFAs compared to other nuts, and while he does get some here and there, the overall impact must be extremely low.

In fact, there isn’t a single ingredient in any of his meals that I’d consider high-PUFA, except maybe the nuts, but he’s consuming 2 tsp of walnuts and 1/4 brazil nut per day, so not exactly excessive quantities. The only oil he uses: extra virgin olive oil, high oleic. (In fact, I think he’s coming out with his own brand of olive oil, so presumably there wasn’t anything high enough in oleic acid on the market.)

100% Structured Diet

Like Johnson, I eat the same meals every day. Like him, I get asked if it doesn’t get boring. Not really. I’m nearly a year in, and I still love every meal.

Besides having optimized this meal over nearly a decade, to just about the most delicious thing I can imagine, I also just feel really good when eating like this.

It’s a bit like drinking. I don’t drink alcohol, because I don’t like being drunk. The downside of being drunk completely outweighs any potential upside to drinking.

Food is similar. I do love cooking and eating, but why would I cook and eat meals that make me feel terrible? It just doesn’t compute.

Veganism vs. near-keto AF

My diet is maybe best described as a dairy-based version of Amber O’Hearn’s Keto AF (animal fats). The only non-animal ingredients I use are about 60-80g of non-starchy vegetables like spinach, and a similar amount of tomato sauce every other day.

These are spices to me, they’re purely for flavor.

Oh, and the coffee. Coffee is a vegetable, right?

I suspect that, besides maybe any moral thoughts on the veganism side from Johnson, we arrive at diametrically opposed diets because we have diametrically opposed axioms.

Johnson seems to assume that mainstream nutrition science is correct, and that includes the lipid hypothesis. If you follow this train of thought, you’ll end up vegan.

My thoughts are pretty much the opposite: the nutrition paradigm that produced a society with a 42% obesity (OBESITY, not overweight!) and 50% prediabetic/diabetic rate must be wrong. This led me down the whole paleo/keto/carnivore path.

I think high cholesterol is great, because cholesterol is very useful. For example, in immune function or to create testosterone and other hormones.

My nutrition strategy boils down to: get adequate-ish protein, vitamins, and minerals from red meat and dairy. Get the rest of calories from (low-PUFA) animal fats, in my case heavy cream. All the rest, like fiber and vegetables and carbs, is unnecessary noise.

Supplements, Exercise & Other stuff

Supplements

Johnson takes a crazy amount of supplements, over 100 pills per day. I don’t really have an opinion on this. It seems nuts to me, but I’m sure he thought about it - and I haven’t. You do you.

Exercise

He works out for 45-60 minutes every day, including weight lifting, cardio, and lots of stretching/flexibility. He also does some more specific things like working on his posture.

I don’t have much to say about the exercise part, mainly because I don’t know that much about exercise. I’ve exercised a bunch of different ways throughout my life, but I never was very knowledgeable or good at any of them.

What I like about his exercise routine is that it’s mostly health and mobility focused. I’ve gotten a bunch of minor injuries lifting weights, and I’ve seen other people get way worse injuries. Yea, it’s super cool to grunt and lift iron with your shirt off, but it’s not cool to go to the ER at 8pm on a Tuesday.

As I’m nearing 40, I appreciate the non-bro oriented modes of exercise more and more. I don’t care to tweak my joints one more time, and I don’t care about PRs either. I just want to do the minimum dose of exercise to keep me healthy and strong enough.

So Johnson’s routine doesn’t necessarily look unattractive, especially the mobility focus.

All kinds of skin and other treatment

Johnson does a whole number of ever-changing measurements and treatments, including for his oral care, vision, skin, scalp/hair growth, and more. Again, I don’t know much about many of these, and I am (as of yet, hah) happy enough with most of these in myself, so I am not looking deep into these.

Maybe the one thing I’ll mention; he considers pretty much any sun exposure negative and avoids sunlight as much as possible, including always wearing sunscreen.

My personal thinking on this has recently changed to just about the opposite. I’ll often microdose sun; I’ve found that, 6 months or so after cutting out all seed oils, I can now sit in the summer sun for 2 hours and barely get a sunburn. This would’ve put me in the hospital at any time prior.

Maybe he’s right and I’m giving myself melanoma. Maybe he’s wrong.

By the Numbers

Johnson has a list of markers, lab and otherwise, in which he says he’s achieved “optimal” status. I don’t know what all of them mean, but let’s take a look:

Bryan Johnson’s lab values

Just right off the bat, not an important thing but weird: the very first 2 values are marked as “optimal,” yet his values are not in the optimal range given 2 columns over. Ok, it’s close, but what gives? For someone as detail-oriented, you’d expect him to put “99% optimal.”

Some of the values I agree are great, including his HDL, triglycerides, fasting glucose, and HbA1C.

Others I disagree (narrative!) on the optimal range: e.g. I don’t think LDL and cholesterol that low are better, and it might even be negative.

I underlined his TSH, a thyroid marker. His is still in the optimal range, but it’s quite high in there. This is probably because of his sustained caloric restriction, which can often have hypothyroid-like symptoms. (High TSH == hypothyroidism, low TSH == hyperthyroidism).

Similarly, his testosterone is ok, but given that he’s doing TRT, nothing special. A bunch of us ketards/carnivores on Twitter seem to easily go over 1,000 just by eating mostly saturated fat. He’s also about 10 years older than me, and testosterone can decline with age.

Overall, the list seems a bit cherry-picked. My $100 lab panel I do every couple months has hundreds of values in it. Surely he gets tested more than me? Why not show some of those values? For example, LDL particle size, oxLDL, .. he’s not even doing ApoB, everybody’s favorite. Surely his ApoB is low if his LDL is. Why include ALT, but not AST?

And why use the very lenient fasting glucose range of <95mg/dL? His value of 82 is fine, but not super special even for me, and I’m still obese. If you’re going for longevity and restrict calories chronically, why not aim for fasting glucose of <70? I’ve had it many times. Surely, the toxic effects of medium-high blood glucose over time are to be considered if you’re considering slowing your metabolism via caloric reduction?

SAD Challenge

One thing that Johnson mentioned in the interview, which I think is a great idea and also a nice way to close out this post: what he calls the SAD challenge.

SAD stands for Self Aided Destruction, and the challenge is to exhibit no self-destructive behaviors for 1 week. These are the behaviors he considers SAD:

• Eating too much food

• Eating junk food

• Missing bedtime

• Skip exercise

Being anally-retentive with my own diet, I of course never eat too much food, or junk food, on the diet. Only during planned refeeds I make myself a little sick with all the bloating protein.

I’m generally pretty good at not missing my bedtime, although it happens a few times a month, I’d say.

And I do skip exercise every day, so there’s that.

What I like about this idea is that a lot of our health problems are self-inflicted, even if we don’t know what exactly they are. We just need to cut out a handful of behaviors, and our health will improve greatly.

The trick is just to figure out which ones are doing the damage. Cutting out junk food wasn’t enough for me, I also needed to go on a hyper-ketogenic diet, strictly limiting protein. Eating too much food solved itself once I stopped eating foods that, biochemically, I wasn’t equipped to handle, and which would keep me constantly craving more. These were NOT junk foods, although junk foods typically have this effect as well. This enabled me to lose over 50lbs.

The ketogenic diet also totally fixed my circadian rhythm disorder, Non-24. Another “self aided destruction” behavior that I wasn’t even aware I was doing to myself.

Of course not everyone has Non-24, but everyone probably has some individual self-destructive behaviors that are worth reducing or cutting out.

Conclusion

While I disagree with some of the framing, the premises, and the choices Johnson makes, I admire his goal and methological thinking. I expect that if I were super rich, I’d do similar things. Just nerd around at a bigger scale, involving way more $$$ in the process. I get labs and DEXA scans every couple months. Why not buy a scanner and build a lab in your own mansion, if you’re super rich?

That said, it’s also refreshing to see that Johnson isn’t necessarily doing anything different from any of us “internet scientists,” he’s just doing it with more resources.

I wish him success on his ever-evolving journey, and will follow his progress going forward.