Dad Bod, Bone Density, and Protein: Bryan Johnson's Team on Measurement Over Ideology
Bryan Johnson
In this episode of the Don't Die Podcast, Bryan Johnson, Blueprint co-founder Kate Tolo, and Bryan's lead physician Dr. Mike Mallin cover three topics: a new mouse study that may explain "dad bod," what Bryan's bone mineral density scan does and does not show, and why Blueprint's plant-based protein products are built the way they are. A single argument, mostly Bryan's, connects all three. He says health debates driven by stories, gurus, and dietary tribes rarely resolve, and that objective biomarkers should be the tiebreaker. The conversation also keeps coming back to the gap between his own data and what can be generalized from it.
A Mouse Study Suggests Dad Bod Isn't Just Bigger Fat Cells
Bryan admitted at the start that he had prepared for bone density and amino acids but not dad bod. Mike had read the new study, published the week of recording, and pointed out that it was a mouse study: "technically, it was mouse dad bods."
As Mike described it, the common assumption has been that middle-aged weight gain comes from existing fat cells getting larger. The study found that many of the relevant cells in male mice were new. A stem-cell-like cell type proliferates in visceral fat, the fat around the organs. This happens at an age Mike said corresponds roughly to 30 to 40 in men, which is about when dad bod typically appears. His takeaway was that "there's something other than just you're eating crap and not exercising anymore," possibly a physiological or evolutionary reason for the change.
Bryan asked whether this had been measured in humans. Mike said it could potentially be measured but has not been, since this is the first study and it used only mice. The mechanism might explain why the pattern seems more common in men, because the same effect did not appear in female mice.
An Evolutionary Story, Offered as Interpretation
Mike said he is always interested in evolutionary explanations, and he offered one as a way the findings "sort of" make sense. In a hunter-gatherer setting, after children are born the mother cares for them and the father has to hunt and gather more, so a "bigger battery" of stored energy would help. Mike also pointed to testosterone. He said men consistently show a 20–30% drop in testosterone after having children, probably because evolutionarily that is when a man should shift to caring for children rather than seeking another mate. That hormonal change may be related to why the new fat cells proliferate. In his view, industrial society has changed these cycles only in the last few hundred years, and the body hasn't caught up.
Kate asked whether this was "liberation" for men who say their diet and exercise haven't changed but their bodies have, and whether dad bod is the same as a beer gut. Mike joked that a beer gut technically requires beer, while being a dad doesn't, "although I think they are closely correlated." More seriously, he said he wasn't sure the finding is validating. Most people gain weight with age, and it is more prominent in middle-aged men, but social pressures, lack of time to exercise, and focus on work also contribute.
Growing Up Where Dad Bod Was the Default
Bryan described the culture of his small rural town in Utah as one where dad bod was "just an expected evolutionary path." You are fit in your early twenties, you marry and have kids, and then you "slow walk your way into the dad bod" and baldness. Nobody treated it as shameful or as something to correct, because everyone was doing it.
He first lived in a metropolitan area at 25, when he moved to Chicago. There he saw people resisting these age-related changes in appearance and physical health. When Kate asked if that was a culture shock, he said it was the first time he saw a contrast. In a community where everyone accepts the trajectory, it seems fine. Once you see alternatives, you start asking whether you have made the right life decisions.
Asked whether he has had to fight dad bod himself, Bryan said his diet, caloric restriction, and exercise have been so meticulous that probably not. At 47 he is "right in the middle of dad bod formation," and he said it would be interesting to measure whether the process is happening in his body and whether his protocol offsets it. Mike pointed out that this would mean biopsying visceral fat, which would require a small surgery and probably wouldn't be worth it. Bryan said he was still open to it.
Can It Be Prevented?
Mike said the science doesn't offer much yet. The study identified a signaling molecule that appears to activate these cells, and drugs could in principle be developed against it, but none exist. The only known influence on that molecule so far is polyphenols, compounds found in plants. Bryan said the Blueprint diet is very rich in polyphenols, mainly from olive oil and cocoa powder, and that five years ago his intake was very low.
On women, Mike said the study found no equivalent "mom bod." Women typically carry more body fat than men from a younger age, which he attributed evolutionarily to reserves for childbearing, and their fat levels seem to change less with age. Men in the 30-to-40 range are the ones who start developing higher body fat.
For listeners, Mike's advice was the same as for everything else: sleep well, exercise, eat healthy. Bryan added that dad bod "is going to try and make its way to your waistline," so people need to act proactively, and that it is not inevitable. He noted this depends on the mouse findings applying to humans, but said his own observations are fairly convincing. He sees many dad bods appear around 30 to 40, and people who do nothing about it keep them for the rest of their lives.
Why Bryan Publishes His Biomarkers
Kate teased Bryan for "flexing" on Twitter, this time about bone density in the 99.8th percentile for his age. Bryan responded by explaining why he shares these numbers. When he entered health and wellness, he said, the field was dominated by storytelling: diet programs like keto and Atkins that capture mainstream interest, or charismatic gurus with their own approaches. He said he could find no company or individual taking rigorous biological measurement seriously and connecting specific behaviors to data. He set out to fill that gap, on the premise that "the more reliable data point is what your body's biomarkers say" rather than a scientist theorizing in a paper or a compelling storyteller.
He acknowledged the limitation that it is only his body. He argued that human bodies are "remarkably similar," though, and that after several years the numbers reflect the protocol. He shares data because people otherwise have no way to judge claims. The common reaction, in his words, is "first cholesterol is bad then it's good, eggs are bad then they're good, I don't believe anything." Measurement is his answer: without it, "you're just going to hang out in debate land," and consensus will never come.
Kate agreed. Online health is overwhelming because influencers each push their own hook, and in medicine some doctors follow "do what I say and not what I do," relying on authority. Mike framed it as objective measurement versus subjective sensation. He said subjective health is promoted as something to track both among influencers and in medicine, and he called that ridiculous. Science needs objective measures, and the only way to know whether Bryan's interventions work is to measure them. Asking how someone feels is fine, but decisions shouldn't be made on that alone.
What Bone Mineral Density Is
Bryan said his DEXA scan a year earlier put him in the 99.8th percentile, and his most recent scan did too. That held both for his age and against men around 30, when bone density typically peaks.
At Kate's request, Mike explained the metric. Bones are not solid. They are a scaffolding of calcium, phosphorus, and other components, and bone mineral density measures how dense that internal structure is. It tracks bone strength and therefore fracture risk and the associated risk of death and disability. Mike also called it a good proxy for overall biological health, because sleep, exercise, and nutrient intake all affect bone. For Bryan, he said, exercise probably has the biggest impact, as it does for everyone, followed by adequate minerals, sleep, and lower inflammation.
Bryan agreed that bones are "a readout of comprehensive health." He cited the idea that "you get a new skeleton every 10 years." If that holds in a roughly linear way, he said, he has rebuilt about half his skeleton in five years on Blueprint. He said much of the remodeling happens during high-quality sleep and that studies have linked chronic sleep deprivation to bone loss.
Bones as Living Systems
The hosts shared several figures. Bone is about five times stronger than steel by weight. Astronauts in microgravity lose 1–1.5% of bone mineral density per month, which they described as ten times faster than on Earth, because their bones aren't loaded. Women can lose up to 20% of bone mass in the five to seven years after menopause. Bryan's conclusion was "if you don't use it, you're gonna lose it." Bones are "living and breathing systems" that need the right inputs, load-bearing exercise, and plyometrics. Kate said the framing changed how she thinks about her bones, which she had imagined as static and dead.
Mike warned against focusing only on calcium. You can eat all the calcium you want, but without the mechanical stimulus of exercise it won't go into bone. It "is going somewhere else." He compared it to protein and muscle: eating 200 grams of protein a day won't make you muscular unless you lift. Weight-bearing activity such as walking, running, squats, or deadlifts is what builds bone.
Rebuilding Bone at Any Age
Kate asked whether lost bone is hard to recover. Mike said it can be recovered. Someone who has done no weight-bearing activity for decades will build bone once they start. But like muscle, bone is easier to keep than to regain, especially later in life. He said women's bone density plateaus and then begins declining in their early thirties, with a steep drop after menopause, so extending the plateau reached in one's twenties is much easier than recovering later.
Bryan cited a statistic to show the stakes: one year after a hip fracture, only 63% of elderly men and 75% of elderly women are still alive, compared with 90% of people without a fracture. He also said friends in their forties have contacted him after DEXA results below what they hoped, believing nothing could be done. His message was that bone is constantly rebuilt and density can be increased.
What Counts as Weight-Bearing
Mike asked for clarity on "weight-bearing." Cycling does not count, he said, because it lacks impact. Walking does, and for beginners he likes adding weight with a loaded backpack, which makes walking considerably more effective for bone. Jumping, plyometrics, running, jogging, and the stair stepper all qualify. Even the elliptical, though low-impact, provides enough to help. Bryan added progressive overload for people lifting weights.
Kate said she avoids running because of her joints and uses an elliptical with a weighted vest. Mike said that is a good option if you only do one thing, though ideally he would add squats, deadlifts, and squat jumps. On vibration plates, Mike's understanding is that they do help bone density. He would not make them a first choice, since other activities also improve metabolic health and VO2, but they work for people who can't do other weight-bearing exercise.
Getting a DEXA Scan
The hosts described DEXA as cheap and accessible. One speaker first guessed a few hundred dollars, then corrected to much less, around $30 per session. They said the radiation is less than one day of background exposure, so unlike a CT scan it doesn't require strict medical necessity. Bryan gets one a year. The scan takes about ten minutes, and mobile units exist. One host described getting scanned in a van in a parking lot and admitted it looked "a little sus" at first. Mike noted that an expanded DEXA also reports muscle mass and visceral fat, which are useful to track over time and priced a little differently from a bone-only scan.
Nutrients and the Blueprint Stack
Bryan listed the bone-related nutrients in the Blueprint products. He said the Longevity Mix includes a third of daily calcium, magnesium, and 2.5 g of creatine. The Essential Capsules include vitamin D, B12, B6, folate, calcium, zinc, magnesium, boron, and selenium. The soft gels include vitamins K1 and K2. Collagen and a complete-amino-acid protein round out the stack. He said the team chose specific nutrients at clinical-grade doses, that the product is complicated and underappreciated in the market, and that his own results are the evidence.
Kate said she takes extra vitamin D and calcium for bone health. Mike said a little extra calcium is probably fine and makes sense for women. Vitamin D needs depend on sun exposure and latitude, so the best approach is to test levels. He has found that some people on the Blueprint stack need more vitamin D. Later he added that three to five grams of creatine a day has been shown in some studies to increase bone density and strength in older adults, which is another reason to include it.
Kate asked how people who avoid supplements can check whether their diet is sufficient. Mike said micronutrient panels exist and should cover more than calcium: vitamin D, vitamin K, magnesium, and amino acids, which matter for both muscle and bone.
Advice by Life Stage for Women
Kate, who is 29, asked Mike what women should do at different ages. For her, he said, the priorities are adequate nutrients, sleep, and exercise that includes high-impact weight-bearing activity: "If you're doing those three or four things... you're crushing it." He asked where her baseline was. She said her last scan was good but she should get a follow-up. Mike said the baseline sets how aggressive to be. Someone within a standard deviation of the mean for their age needn't do much more. Someone already low should tighten up calcium, magnesium, vitamin D, and possibly K2, and focus on high-impact work.
On monitoring, he suggested a DEXA every couple of years at Kate's age, moving to about yearly around perimenopause. For women struggling to maintain density during and after menopause, estrogen replacement can be very beneficial, often combined with more calcium and continued weight-bearing exercise. Kate added that many women focus on cardio and don't realize they need to lift weights to protect bone and muscle early in life.
Starting an Older Parent on Strength Training
Bryan asked how his mother, in her early seventies, who walks a lot, could practically add weight training. Mike suggested starting with a 5–10 pound weighted vest for walks, which barely changes her routine, and later using it for squats or a small kettlebell. For people in their sixties and seventies starting strength training for the first time, though, he gets nervous without a trainer watching, because "your body forgets how to move at that point." Bryan said he had the same worry imagining her lifting weights alone in the living room.
Wearing the vest during chores is possible, Mike said, but extra weight up top combined with bending and awkward positions raises injury risk. You don't want to lean over for a mop with ten extra pounds on your back. Kate noted that many vests distribute weight poorly, that modular vests allow gradual increases, that some weighted shirts spread small weights across the body, and that many vests are uncomfortable for women.
Bryan's summary of the section: get a low-cost, low-radiation DEXA scan to know your baseline; understand that bone can be rebuilt wherever you start; sleep well because that is when remodeling happens; get the right nutrients; do load-bearing and progressive exercise; and if you're new to exercise, learn proper form from a trainer or course.
Amino Acids and the Two Blueprint Proteins
Bryan framed the protein discussion within Blueprint's larger goal. There are categories for the fastest and richest people in the world, but none for the person with the best comprehensive biomarkers. Blueprint set out to create one, aiming toward being "the first generation who won't die." A complete daily amino acid profile was part of that. Once you enter that territory, he said, people start fighting over meat versus plant sources.
He showed a chart comparing the 20 amino acids in the two proteins he takes daily, Blueprint Longevity Protein and Metabolic Protein, both made from pea and hemp, against beef, pork, chicken, and eggs. He said coverage is complete except that methionine is intentionally lower, based on longevity research. Nine of the 20 amino acids must come from food.
Bryan said he used to share the cultural habit of "pounding protein" with tubs of whey at 25 grams a scoop and near-zero carbs, because carbs were considered bad. He now thinks protein works better alongside fats, fiber, and carbohydrates for metabolism, satiety, and digestion.
Mike explained that amino acids are the building blocks the body uses to make proteins, including muscle, enzymes, neurotransmitters, and hormones. Some can be made from others. The essential ones must come from diet. He called the insistence on "complete proteins" from single foods "kind of old school." Many societies live on plants, and while no single plant is complete, combinations like rice and beans are. The pea-and-hemp blend, he said, provides ample branched-chain amino acids (isoleucine, valine, and leucine, the last important for muscle protein synthesis) without too much methionine.
On methionine, Mike said it is high in animal proteins and that restricting it has extended lifespan, "not really in humans yet," but "in mice and flies if I'm not mistaken." The reasoning is that methionine activates mTOR and reduces autophagy. The body still needs it for glutathione production and methylation, so the goal is balance. He said the blend provides about 60% of the daily value rather than 100%.
Plant, Meat, and How Much Protein
Kate asked whether plant-based eaters can meet their needs without powders, and whether meat is complete. Mike said meats are generally complete proteins but high in methionine, which makes restriction difficult on a meat-only diet. Plant-only diets can be complete if they include variety. Soy is complete on its own, and chickpeas or lentils combined with vegetables work. The real challenge with plants is quantity. At 1.6 to 2 g/kg, reaching the target without a supplement is hard.
Bryan read out a breakdown he had recently sent a friend for his 130 grams a day: 26 g from Longevity Protein, 30 g from collagen peptides, 25 g from a vegetable dish with lentils, broccoli, cauliflower, and hemp seeds, 27 g from Metabolic Protein, and 20–25 g from a third meal of legumes, berries, nuts, and seeds.
On targets, Bryan said the official 0.8 g/kg is too low. He cited 1.2–1.6 g/kg for endurance training and 1.6–2.2 g/kg for strength, power, and hypertrophy. Going higher is possible, but he advised measuring to make sure it causes no harm. Kate described adjusting for the menstrual cycle: about 1.5 g/kg in the first half, and about 2 g/kg in the two weeks after ovulation because estrogen drops and muscle is at risk. She said postmenopausal women are in that state constantly and need enough protein to keep muscle.
Bryan asked Mike whether a balanced macro profile alongside protein is evidence-based. Mike said yes, especially after workouts. He said there is good data that protein eaten without carbohydrates post-workout is largely used for energy rather than muscle protein synthesis, and that mixed macronutrients generally beat isolating one. Kate said she eats far fewer calories than Bryan and finds it hard to add luteal-phase protein within her budget, so Blueprint is developing a pure protein option for people who want to adjust intake that way.
The Meat Disclaimer and Bryan's Reasons
Bryan stressed repeatedly that he isn't telling anyone to avoid meat: "if you like meat and you want to include meat, great. Eat meat." Kate said it was "insane" that they have to add the disclaimer every time and noted that Bryan's son Talmage eats meat. Bryan said he has explained why he doesn't eat meat but has never said others shouldn't.
He gave two reasons. The primary one is ethical and tied to AI. He believes humanity is about to bring super intelligence into existence, and if AI becomes sentient in some form and asks how humans treat other forms of intelligence, "we want to be seen as a thoughtful and compassionate species and not brutal. And right now we are brutal." The second is evidence: he thinks one can argue that a plant-based diet with collagen peptides is a leading approach, "not the" leading approach, for top biomarkers. He said someone could beat his biomarkers eating meat and that it would be great if they did. He noted that in recent DNA-methylation speed-of-aging studies, he believes the best performer was the green Mediterranean diet, which he believes includes some fish and meat.
Relaying a message from someone named Ali, the hosts raised the likely counterargument that Bryan's health comes from his 33 grams of daily collagen peptides. Mike said collagen is predominantly one amino acid and probably contributes little to his overall amino acid profile compared with the pea and hemp.
The Testosterone Accusation
Bryan said critics online accused him of using testosterone replacement therapy because his levels have averaged above 700, which he attributes to a plant-based diet with collagen and exercise. He called a prominent health figure who said, "I don't believe it... I think you're lying." Bryan showed his labs on the call, including LH and FSH, and said the person replied they had never seen it in their life.
He used this to restate the episode's thesis. He said he has published his biomarkers and arguably has the best known in the world. One marker can be dismissed, but across 60-plus biomarkers, including testosterone, bone density, and what he called the lowest recorded speed of aging, he believes it is hard to argue the protocol isn't elite. He said social media snippets can't carry these ideas, which is why he wants long-form discussion, with his own data as a second line of evidence for people who don't accept the studies.
Against Dietary Camps
Kate argued that critics attack from a "camp" perspective (carnivore, plant-based, gluten-free, organic) and assume membership predicts health. She said Bryan doesn't fit any camp. He isn't strictly plant-based because of the collagen, and he isn't a meat eater: "you're just blueprint." Framing health by camps is "flawed period."
Bryan agreed and said they are in the "don't die camp," meaning evidence, data, and measurement. He refuses to identify with any ideology, group, or framework: "Evidence, data, measurement is the only loyalty we have." The episode closed with a request for listeners to say what is useful and what isn't, since Bryan said he himself listens to podcasts to learn something that improves his life rather than for chit-chat.
I'm not prepared on dad bod. I'm only prepared on bone mineral density and amino acids. Mike, did you read up on dad bod? I read up on dad bod. Okay, you ready for that?
Sure. Let's talk about dad bod. Have you experienced the effects of dad bod? Oh my god, that's such a personal question. I mean, I love it. It's a really important question. I think most dads have experienced the effects of dad bod. I think it's a thing. I mean, a new study came out this week, right, about dad bods and this mysterious phenomena that plagues so many middle-aged men. Yeah. Technically, it was mouse dad bods, so it was only dad mice. That's funny.
Okay. So, there's a question of whether or not it's going to apply to humans, but in our friends, our mice friends, what did the data say?
The data basically said that dad bod may be a thing and that not only is it a thing, but it's sort of different than we expected. So I think we always thought that dad bod just came from increasing the fat cells that you already had, like increasing the fat in your cells that were already there. But this study in mice showed that a lot of those cells are actually new. So there's this new like stem cell type of cell that is proliferating in your visceral fat, which is the fat like around your organs. And that happens at around the age of what would be equivalent to like 30 or 40 in men, which is, you know, the time that the dad bod comes on. So sort of interesting. I mean that there's something other than just you're eating crap and not exercising anymore. Maybe there's actually some physiological or evolutionary reason for this change.
So 30 to 40 in age comes a new production of a fat cell commences. It forms around the organs and specifically around maybe the belly region and you get that protrusion and this is seen in mice and so the idea is, has this been measured in humans? Could you measure it in humans?
Yeah, you could potentially measure in humans and they haven't done that yet. This is the first study that was only in mice. But it comes up with a mechanism that would also explain why this might happen more commonly in men in humans because the same thing didn't happen in female mice.
It's kind of interesting that up until this point, I mean the human race has got some history and we're now just figuring out these mechanisms of like why the body becomes the way it does through various age categories.
Yeah, I'm always sort of like interested in the evolutionary explanation for this stuff too. And if you think about it, it kind of makes sense. You know, if you take a hunter-gatherer culture, after childbearing, then the male in that system has to go out and hunt and gather more because the mother is taking care of the children in that system. And because of that, they need a bigger battery, like a larger reservoir for energy so that they can hunt more, gather more. And then also there's the change in testosterone levels, which may have something to do with why these cells proliferate. And that's actually been shown in men like very consistently, 20 to 30% reduction in testosterone after having kids, probably because evolutionarily that's a time when you're supposed to start taking care of kids and stop looking for another mate. So this sort of all makes sense and comes together when you think about it, like where did humans come from? And it's just in the last few hundred years of industrial society that we've changed these cycles, yet our body hasn't caught up.
Is this like... I'm not super caught up on the dad bod experience, what the experience is as a male. Is this like liberation? Like I've been telling you guys, no matter how much I exercise and my diet's the same. Is this like a common phenomenon among men? And is this the same as beer gut, or are those the same thing?
I think technically beer gut requires beer and I'm not sure that being a dad requires beer, although I think they are closely correlated. Right. I don't know. I think that like I've certainly seen a lot of my friends' fat increase. I'm not sure about their visceral fat, but I've seen their fat increase over the years as we've aged. But yeah, I think we know it's common as we age. Most people put on weight and it does seem to be more prominent in men in their middle age. So I'm not sure that it's like validating in any way necessarily, because I think there's other things that contribute to this too. There's also like, you know, societal pressures and lack of time to exercise and focus on work and professional life and things like that. But I think it's interesting nonetheless.
In the culture I grew up in, dad bod was just an expected evolutionary path of being a man, that you are fit and metabolically, you know, healthy, and then in your early 20s, you get married, you have kids, and then you just slow walk your way into the dad bod and then increasingly going bald, and like you just walk this path. It's expected. Everyone knows it's normal. It's not necessarily something to be ashamed of or like something to correct for because that's what everyone else is doing. And so that was in my small rural town, but I wasn't ever exposed to more metropolitan areas where people resisted more fully these aging changes on, you know, aesthetics, body appearance. So I mean I moved to the first metropolitan area in my life when I was 25. I moved to Chicago and it's the first time I was outside of more of a small rural place like Utah, seeing that people had different approaches to like the evolutionary phenomena of appearance and overall physical health.
Was that like a culture shock and dramatic? Did you feel pressure to fit in with that?
I mean, it's the first time you actually see some contrast, where when you're in a community where everyone has basically agreed to the norm that we all have this trajectory, dad bod, going bald, losing your physical abilities, it's fine. But yeah, when you move to areas where there's contrast, then for the first time you see yourself and you think, have I made the right life decisions, or should I contemplate how I approach life again?
Mm, so interesting. Do you feel like you've had to resist dad bod? Like have you noticed a change in how hard you have to work to avoid gaining fat around the abdomen?
I mean, we've been so meticulous about, you know, the diet we have and caloric restriction and exercise that I would say probably not so much so. But I bet you like it would be cool to actually measure, do I have this phenomena? I'm 47 years old, so I'm right in the middle of dad bod formation. It would be cool to actually measure, is it happening inside my body, and have I done something that somehow negates or offsets this evolutionary process?
So interesting. It might be kind of hard. We'd have to biopsy your visceral fat, Bryan, which sounds a little sketchy. Yeah. How hard is that to get to? I really want to know the answer. Then you'd have to like... Yeah, I think you'd have to do like a small surgery in order to get there. Yeah. I don't think it'd be surprising. Probably not worth it. I'm open to it. You know, you're game. Anything for the science.
Mike, does the science tell us anything about how we could potentially stop this from happening in adult male humans?
Not particularly yet. There was like this one signaling molecule that they looked at which seems to activate these particular cells, and there's certainly something that we could do in terms of developing drugs against that signaling molecule, but we don't have anything for it yet. And at this point really the only thing we know of that affects that signaling molecule is polyphenols, which is basically these compounds that you get from plants. So eating plants is good for you.
Yeah. Our Blueprint diet is very rich in polyphenols. In fact, I don't think I really consumed very many polyphenols before Blueprint. So five years ago, I probably had zero. Well, not zero, but like very low levels of polyphenols. Yeah. Olive oil, cocoa powder predominantly now. Yeah, it's cool.
And then is there anything, Mike, in the literature about women and mom bods?
But yes, mom bods, according to this study, not necessarily a thing. And generally when we look at women, women typically hold more body fat in general than men at a younger age and don't seem to change as much with age in terms of the amount of fat that they hold on to their body. So, you know, we would expect a higher body fat composition in women, and that's mostly, we think evolutionarily, for that reserve for childbearing, right? Whereas men at this age, 30 to 40, around there, start developing a higher body fat composition. So this doesn't appear to affect women nearly as much as men.
So protocol takeaway: if someone listening at home doesn't want to get a dad bod, what would you guys say?
I would say the same thing that we say for everything else. Make sure you sleep a lot, exercise, eat healthy. Those are the best things to... also think the key takeaway here is that dad bod is going to try and make its way to your waistline. So you need to proactively do things to prevent that from happening. Also, it's not inevitable; you can do things to blunt that.
Now, this is of course caveating if this science does in fact map from mice to humans. But the evidence in my life experience is pretty convincing. I see a lot of dad bods and most of the dad bods are around like 30, 40, and then people who don't do anything about it just exist permanently with that dad bod for the remaining part of their life.
Foreshadowing for everyone watching at home. Watch out for dad bod.
So Bryan, you love to flex on Twitter. Everyone knows it. You're always top 1%. This time you're top 99.8% of people your age, claiming that your bones are stronger than most of those people. So what is bone mineral density?
Yeah. So to be clear on the flexing, I'm flexing for a specific reason. And Mike, you tell me about this. So when I got into the field of health and wellness, it's an area primarily dominated by storytelling. It could be like a specific diet program, like the ones I grew up with were like keto or Atkins, or like, you know, certain things that capture the mainstream's interest, or it's gurus, individuals that come up with their given approaches. But there was no approach I could survey in the world that actually was offering robust measurement that said, you know, if you do these things, here's the data that you can associate. You could read about those things in papers, but there was nothing in the world, like no company, no individual that was actually taking rigorous biological measurements seriously. And that's the hole I was trying to fill, is that actually the more reliable data point is what your body's biomarkers say, instead of a scientist pontificating on a paper or somebody telling a compelling story or some guru being very charismatic. And that's the hole that I've tried to fill.
And so when I share a biomarker, what I'm trying to say is there is a baseline level of credibility when you measure the body. Now, of course, the limitations are this is just my body. Your body is different, but our bodies are remarkably similar. And having done this for several years now, when we share these data points, it's a product of the protocol of the past few years. That's why I share this data, because otherwise people don't know how to discern. Most people will hear something about health and wellness; a very common response is like, first cholesterol is bad, then it's good; eggs are bad, then they're good; I don't believe anything. And so what I'm trying to do is punch through and say you can in fact have a stable basis of approach in health by looking at biomarkers. So let me stop there. And Mike, what's your take on that as an approach to evaluating health?
Can I also clarify? I was poking fun at you. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. No, no, but I absolutely agree that it's like you go down one route and it's like influencers out there are all peddling different types of hooks to try and get people into their version of content. And if you misalign what someone's saying with actually what's happening for them personally, it's like, how do you know actually that what they're touting is real? It's different obviously in the medical field. There are a lot of doctors, and Mike, obviously you don't fall into this camp, but you would know a lot of doctors, it's like do what I say and not what I do. Do what I say and not what I do. Yeah. Which is, you're then relying on their authority and their years of training. You're saying okay, even if you're not the example of health, at least you have some sort of training. And so in this influencer world where there's hundreds of people touting what to do for health, and it's quite seriously the most overwhelming experience going online and just being bombarded with all the things you should do, I completely agree the only way to get around that is to actually say you should listen to me because I am living proof of this concept. But anyway, sorry, go ahead Mike.
Yeah. I mean, I think what you're speaking to, Bryan, is this concept of objective measurement in place of a subjective sensation of health. And, you know, we see this all throughout the influencer community, but also in medicine as well, where sort of subjective health is touted as a marker that we should for some reason track, which is ridiculous. You know, science isn't built off of subjectivity. It requires an objective measurement, and what we measure is what we can change and what we can track, and the only way we can tell if an intervention like the protocols that Bryan's doing actually work or not is to have an objective measure. I mean, sure, we can say, Bryan, how do you feel, right? But we shouldn't make any decisions really on how we feel in isolation of objective measures. So the objectivity I think is 100% required for the level of precision that we're trying to establish in longevity health.
Yeah. So Kate, I know you're poking fun. I mean, it's great and it's good fun. Yeah, but I guess giving people context on why we share these things, because we're trying to baseline the conversation that you can more effectively try to address a discrepancy in health by measuring your body. And that's what we've really tried to bring home: if you want a tiebreaker, do that. Otherwise, you're just going to hang out in debate land and you will never get anywhere, because everybody's going to disagree with everyone all the time. You will never ever achieve consensus. So just accept that. Yes.
On bone mineral density, I did a DEXA scan last year, a year ago, and I was in the 99.8 percentile. And this time I did it, I was in the 99.8th percentile. And that's true for my age and also people at age 30, where bone mineral density typically peaks around there for men. And so yeah, my bones are exceptionally strong. And I guess, Mike, what is your assessment? How could that be the case that my bones are at this level of strength?
What actually is bone mineral density, too? Just to clarify before we get into it.
Yeah, let's do that one real quick. So bone mineral density is literally the density of your bones. So your bones aren't completely solid. They're actually like the scaffolding of calcium and phosphorus and different chemicals that are kind of put together. And the density of the scaffolding, or like the attachments inside the bones, is the bone mineral density. And it literally tracks with the strength of your bones, but also it's a really good proxy for overall biological health, more so than just like how healthy your bones are, how
well are you sleeping, how well are you exercising, are you getting appropriate nutrients. All of those things go into the health of your bones themselves. And then of course the strength of your bones helps prevent fracture risk, which helps reduce your mortality risk or your morbidity risk associated with fracture. For you, Bryan, specifically, I mean it's directly related. I think probably the biggest impact for you is exercise, which is because it's the biggest impact for everyone. But then also the appropriate mineral consumption and sleep, lower inflammation, all those things are going to lead to stronger, more dense bones.
Yeah, that's the thing, is that the bones really are a readout of comprehensive health. So I mean that a substantial portion of your bone, so you get a new skeleton every 10 years. So it's wild. What does that even mean? So you have the ability to rebuild your skeletal structure. You're basically rebuilding every 10 years. I've been doing Blueprint for 5 years. So I've basically, you know, if that law is accurate year-over-year in some kind of linear fashion, I've rebuilt 50% of my skeleton on Blueprint over the past five years.
And in doing so, when you optimize for the various parameters like optimal nutrition intake. So we'll go down the list of what are the nutrients responsible for robust bone mineral density. Then you say yes, and high quality sleep. That's where a majority of the bone reconstruction, remodeling, is happening. Even though it happens all day every day, a lot of it happens in high quality sleep. And there's been studies showing that when you're chronically sleep-deprived you have a loss in bone mineral density.
A few things about bone health that I thought were interesting. Bones are five times stronger than steel by weight. Yours or everyone's? Generally speaking. Wow. So, good job biology. That's a really cool thing. That's incredible. Yeah.
Astronauts in microgravity, they lose 1 to 1.5% of their bone mineral density per month, 10 times faster than people on Earth, because they're not doing the load-bearing exercises. They're not putting their bones to work in microgravity. So, this is a really good point. If you don't use it, you're gonna lose it. And so if you piece together that you rebuild your skeleton every 10 years, when you don't exercise, if you don't do the activity, even in one month, 1 to 1.5% bone loss in one month's time. So it moves away very quickly.
When you realize that chronic sleep deprivation reduces bone mineral density, when you start piecing these things together, you realize your bones are living and breathing systems of biological health. And you've got to feed them the correct things. You have to do load-bearing exercises, plyometrics; you need to stack up the things that give your bones life. It's not something that is passive. And even with women that are post-menopause, they can lose up to 20% of their bone mass in five to seven years after menopause. So there are significant events in life, whether you're in microgravity or whether you're in menopause or whether you're not exercising well, but bones do require constant care and it is a representation of overall biological health.
I love that frame, that it's living, breathing, because I don't think about my bones like that. I think of them as these stagnant dead things that are inside of me, but instead thinking of it almost like a plant structure, where it's this skeletal frame, obviously, for the plant. That's really cool.
I think the important thing with bones too to remember is that all of these things are important. I think we jump to calcium, you know, making sure that you get appropriate calcium levels to keep your bones nice and strong, but you can eat all the calcium you want, and if you're not exercising, if you're not giving it that stimulus, that calcium is not going in your bones. It's going somewhere else. So, the stimulus is by far the most important piece. It's just like, you know, if you ate 200 grams of protein a day, that doesn't mean you're going to get jacked. You actually have to go to the gym and lift weights. Same principle with your bones. If you're not giving it the stimulus of weight-bearing activity, whether that's walking, running, jogging, doing a squat, doing a deadlift, whatever it is, then you're not going to build bones.
Do we know, is it this kind of thing where you don't want to lose it because it's really hard to build back, or is it relatively easy to get back?
I mean, you can get it back, certainly. So, if you lived the last 23 years of your life not doing weight-bearing activities and all of a sudden you start doing them, you will build bones back. But it is certainly, just like muscle, easier to keep than it is to put back on, especially as we get into our older years. So women start losing bone mineral density in their early 30s, basically plateauing and then decreasing in their early 30s, and then a dramatic drop after menopause. So making sure that we lengthen that plateau of maximum bone mineral density that happens in your 20s by doing weight-bearing activity and appropriate nutrition and sleep, as Bryan was talking about, that's going to be way easier than trying to get it back later once you've lost it.
Yeah. And specifically in an elderly person, this is a pretty stunning statistic: only 63% of men and 75% of women are still alive one year after a hip fracture. Yeah. Versus 90% of people without a fracture. So you do want to aggressively build bone mineral density, take care of your bones in your early 20s, and then keep it up.
But this is also, I've had friends reach out who are in their 40s and they've had a DEXA scan and the bone mineral density came back a little below what they wanted, and they were under the illusion they couldn't do anything about it, and that's just not the case. You do rebuild bone all the time. You can in fact increase your bone mineral density. So it's weight-bearing exercise, plyometrics, specifically fast movements. You want to make sure you have the proper nutrition.
When you say weight-bearing exercise, Bryan, I feel like we should quantify that for people to some extent. So what does weight-bearing mean? Is cycling on a bike considered weight-bearing activity? The answer is no, it's not. So you have to be doing things where there's an impact. And walking can be that. One thing that I really like for people that are just trying to get started, that don't exercise a lot, is actually just put a little bit of weight on, like a backpack with some weight in it. That takes walking from a minimally impactful activity to all of a sudden fairly impactful, and it's going to have a much higher impact on bone mineral density. But the other things: jumping, plyometrics, running, jogging, StairStepper, even elliptical, although it's fairly minimal impact, does have enough impact to increase bone mineral density. Yeah. And progressive overload if you're lifting weights. Yep.
Yeah, it's actually, so I have, and I'm sure a lot of other people have this too, I don't want to do high impact things like running. I find it's not great for my joints. So what I do is elliptical with a weighted vest. So that combo would essentially get what you need, in addition to lifting and everything else?
Yeah. I mean, if I had my way, I would say let's also do some squats and some deadlifts and squat jumps. Yeah. I'd want all the things, but if I'm only going to get one thing, yes, elliptical with a weighted vest is a great option.
And then do you guys know anything about, I feel like I've seen the vibrating plates become a very trendy thing, and I've heard people talk about the bone mineral density. Do you guys know, does that actually work?
Yeah, my understanding is it does. It's a good option for people who can't do other types of weight-bearing activity. I wouldn't choose it as a first option though, just because there's other advantages to other weight-bearing activity, right? There's metabolic health, there's VO2 improvements, things like that. But if for whatever reason you can't do those other things, then the vibrating plates do work for activating your bone mineral density, for sure.
Measuring your bone mineral density is easy. You can get a DEXA scan. They're widely available. I think they're a few hundred dollars. It's very less, like $30 per session. Very, very, very cheap. And it's less than one day's background radiation. So you can safely do it. It's not like a CT scan, where you only want to do it if it's absolutely medically necessary. You can do a DEXA scan. I do one per year.
They've even got mobile ones. Because I feel like people hear DEXA scan and they think it's like an MRI or something like that. It's actually really accessible, really easy. Takes like 10 minutes. Very straightforward. Yeah, that's what I did when I went and did mine. There was this van that was pulled up in the parking lot. You're like, looking a little sus. You walk up, someone jumps out. It's like, step on in here. Like, what are we doing? I love that you're still intrigued. Check this out. Yeah, I'm open-minded. What's going on in here?
And if you're going to do a DEXA too, you can also get the expanded DEXA that looks at your muscle mass, visceral fat, things like that. So that also comes from a DEXA scan, or you can just get just the bone mineral density, and those are priced a little bit differently, but it is nice to know, you know, what's my muscle mass, what's my visceral fat percentage. Those things you can track over time, too, and it can be really helpful.
Yeah. Let me run down this as well for those of you interested in the nutrients for bone health. We built this into the Blueprint stack. One of the things that people don't understand about Blueprint is, you know, most people enter health and they think a green juice is good, or protein is good, but anything more complicated gets difficult to understand. And so with Blueprint, we have played on the frontier of health and wellness, doing things that just are not common wisdom and cultural norms. But let me just explain to you, we have been very methodical and tried to apply all the scientific evidence. So when you do the Blueprint stack, in the Longevity Mix it's a third of the day's calcium, plus magnesium, plus 2.5 grams of creatine. In the Essential Capsules, it has vitamin D, B12, B6, folate, calcium, zinc, magnesium, boron, and selenium. In the softgels, vitamin K1, K2, and then we've got collagen, and then the protein, which is a complete amino acid profile. So yeah, if you don't understand this, we have identified the specific things for whole body health, including bone mineral health, and we have identified the proper clinical-grade dose. So I don't think we get credit in the market for this. I mean, it is a complicated product, but so much effort has gone into trying to make this thing meticulous. And again, my evidence, I'm on the Blueprint stack, I take this daily, and I think my results speak for themselves. So, for those of you who are on the stack, just know that we've thought through this and we've got you on anticipating the nutritional needs.
Should we be taking things, especially women, Mike, should we be taking things in addition to this? So, for example, I take a little bit more vitamin D and calcium to try and add, specifically for bone health. Is that accurate?
Yeah, I think a little extra calcium is probably okay. It's not a bad thing. Vitamin D depends on how much sunlight you're getting. So depending on your latitude may determine how much vitamin D you need. Best thing to do is just check your vitamin D level and figure out if you need more. But I've found that there are some people who need higher levels of vitamin D on the Blueprint stack. And I think it makes sense for women to take a little additional calcium as well.
Just to really hit home, because I think if there are women watching this, bone mineral density is particularly important for them because of the hormonal changes that we go through throughout our life cycle. So Mike, can you talk a little bit about that? Like, I'm 29, someone at my age, and then also someone postmenopausal, what should they be doing for bone mineral density, what should they be looking out for?
So, at this point in your life, Kate, the most important thing is you're getting those appropriate nutrients, you're focusing on sleep and exercise, and including those things in exercise that we were talking about, the high impact weight-bearing activities. That's really the most important thing. If you're doing those three or four things, I think that you're crushing it. You're doing great. Okay.
Have you had a DEXA scan? Oh, sorry, Mike. No. Yeah, I have. I actually should get a follow-up done and see where I'm at. My bone mineral density was not bad, it was good. It wasn't anything concerning. So, I'll have to check.
Great question. I was actually going to ask, do you know where you're at currently? Because I think that changes a little bit how aggro you need to be with those recommendations, right? If you're at a good place, within a standard deviation of the mean for your age, then that's probably a good place to start; you don't need to really do too much. But if you were already lower, then you would want to be way more aggressive, potentially making sure you're optimizing your calcium intake, your magnesium, your vitamin D, maybe even your K2, making sure those are all perfect, and then focusing on the high impact stuff. Perimenopause, you know, I would say keeping that level of activity, those nutrients during your premenopausal years, tracking with a DEXA. Probably at your age you don't need to be tracking yearly, but every couple of years makes sense, I think. And then once you get to that perimenopausal age, I would think tracking needs to go to closer to every year, and it's going to be just way closer monitoring and making sure that you're keeping on top of things.
One thing that we start thinking about postmenopausal is hormone replacement therapy. So replacing estrogen can be really beneficial for women that are having difficulty with maintaining their bone mineral density in that perimenopausal and postmenopausal stage. So that's something we often add on, increasing calcium sometimes, and then just continuing the weight-bearing activity.
Yeah, that's great. Yeah, I think a lot of women don't realize they need to lift weights. There's so much of a focus on cardio, and I don't think people realize how important maintaining bone mineral density, bone health and muscle health is in these early stages of your life. So yeah, if anyone's listening at home, make sure you get that checked out. And for me, getting a baseline DEXA scan is super helpful, because I know that as I get older, I'm going to want to check back to the number and see, have I actually lost bone mineral density.
Oh, one other thing, creatine, I think, is something we haven't mentioned yet. So, there are some studies that show that three to five grams of creatine a day, of which I think 2.5 is in the Blueprint stack, right, can increase bone mineral density, bone strength, in older adults. So, nice
thing to add to the nice additional reason to add creatine to your stack.
Mike, my mom is in her early 70s and I've been encouraging her, she does a lot of walking and I've been encouraging her to incorporate weight training as part of her protocol. And so what things could I tell her to do specifically? I mean, I'm trying to imagine what she would specifically do. I mean, maybe walking with a weighted vest or, you know, I'm trying to think of... Yeah. How could she incorporate this into her life in some kind of practical, easy way? What do you think?
The easiest thing might just be to get a weighted vest and walk with a weighted vest. You know, you can get fairly comfortable, like 5 to 10 pound vests that you can start with, and it's very minimal change in terms of routine, and then you could also use that vest for some squats or some other, like, strength training type of movements. That would be like a super easy place to start. A small kettlebell might be a good place to start. When I start thinking about people in their 60s, 70s who are taking on strength training for the first time, my mind immediately goes to a trainer. Like, you know, I get very nervous about adding new movements to people that age without, like, someone's eyes on, like next to them, making sure that they're doing everything right. Just your body forgets how to move at that point.
As I was asking my question, that's exactly what I was thinking. I was imagining her in the living room in the house, right? Weights, and she's doing something. I'm like, "Okay, this doesn't check." Like, I was trying to figure out what specifically to say to avoid her injuring herself. Could she wear a weighted vest maybe around the house as she does chores?
Yeah, she could certainly do that. I mean, just be careful about, like, once you put additional weight up top and you start bending over or, like, moving in positions and putting your back in compromising positions, you are increasing your likelihood of injury. So, like, you just want to be mindful of, like, you don't want to be leaning over to grab a mop in a weird position with an extra 10 pounds on your back, right? So, I would say maybe with some chores, but be careful with movements.
All right. So, begin with a weighted vest in walking where you have postural control, you know, movement patterns, and then engage a trainer on...
Yeah. Also, some weighted vests aren't very well designed for weight distribution and making sure that you're not going to mess up your posture. And then some also allow you to have modular weighted vests so you can, like, increase slowly as opposed to just, like, jumping right in with, like, yeah, 10 pounds. There's this company that came out with weighted shirts where they have these little tiny micro weights all over the shirt. They look kind of funny. Almost looks like you're wearing armor. But it's nice in the sense that, like, it wears very well and it feels all over your body as opposed to, like, some of those weighted vests, like, they put it all on the chest. It's not great for women. A lot of weighted vests are actually uncomfortable for women. So, make sure you're getting something that fits your body type.
So, the takeaways from this section for everybody is get a DEXA scan. It's low cost and it's easy and it's very low radiation. Learn your baseline and then know that you can in fact, no matter where your measurement comes back, you can in fact rebuild your bone mineral density. Your skeleton is rebuilt every 10 years. So, no matter where you're at in your life, you can still do something.
Get high-quality sleep. Make sure you're getting the proper nutrition, the ones we mentioned; the Blueprint Stack is a good option for you where it just has it all packaged in. Load-bearing exercises like a weighted vest. You can do progressive load bearing with weights. Although, if you are not routinely doing exercise, make sure you are doing proper form. So, if you need to get a trainer or learn through an online course, consider that. And then proper sleep is where you're rebuilding, remodeling. Is that about right on summary of this section?
One quick question, Mike, on if someone's like, I actually don't want to take supplements, like I'm anti-supplement for whatever reason, and they want to check, is my diet sufficient? Are there blood tests for things like calcium? That might be a silly question, but are there ways to know?
Yeah, there's some micronutrient panels that you can do to check for those levels. You'd probably want to check for more than just calcium, too. You'd want to check your vitamin D, your vitamin K, your magnesium levels. All of those play big roles. Even amino acids; amino acids play a big role in muscle and bone development. So, knowing what your amino acid levels are, but yeah, there's some tests out there that work for that.
Cool. It's actually a perfect segue because the next topic is about amino acids from protein. Bryan, you want to talk us through? You released a tweet about this recently.
One of the opportunities for this podcast is just to explain what we're doing in the world and why we do it, because a lot of it, again, is not common sense in modern health. And so yeah, getting a complete amino acid profile every day is really important. And so we built a two-protein product. So I guess, like, when I talk about Blueprint, what I'm trying to share with you is we went through this process and we said, how could we potentially achieve the best known biomarkers in the world? Because there's a category for the fastest human in the world and the richest person in the world, but before we started there was not a category of the person who had the best comprehensive biomarkers in the world. And we wanted to set off and say, can we create a new category of quantified health, and, you know, try to go towards this objective of we are the first generation who won't die.
And so in doing that we were mapping out that a critical part of health is having a complete amino acid profile. And so once you step into that world, then people start bickering about amino acid source. So it's meat versus plant proteins or whatever you want to throw in there. And so yeah, actually, if we want to put this image on the screen, this is a summary of the two proteins that I consume on a daily basis, which is Blueprint Longevity Protein and Metabolic Protein. You can see the 20 amino acids there and you can see the corresponding amount for each amino acid from each of the proteins, and you see that it's a complete coverage of all amino acids, excluding methionine, which, actually, looking at longevity studies, you want to be lower on that. So it's comparable to, you see here on the columns, comparable to beef and pork, chicken, eggs, etc. So we try to do this in a plant-based protein, pea and hemp.
And yeah, so amino acids are really important for every fundamental element of the body. You need them on a daily basis. Nine of the 20 amino acids you can only get through foods. Your body does not produce them. So we wanted to make sure we had that in complete coverage. Yes, I didn't do this, I don't think, before Blueprint. I had the idea that protein was good for you, but I also had this very skewed perspective, much like common culture today, where you want to pound protein. So before, I would get those big tubs of whey protein with 25 grams of protein, scoop it up, you know, like one net carb or whatever, because you're trying to, like, reduce carbohydrates because the idea was carbohydrates are bad.
And it's actually the appropriate way to consume is you want to have a combination of proteins with the appropriate amino acids and fats and fiber and carbohydrates. You want to have the whole collection of things; that's, like, what helps the body metabolize well, satiation, digestion. So maybe, Mike, you can comment on this, that we've deviated from the cultural norm here, where the norm is pound protein, eliminate fat and carbs, that's a good idea, and we took a different approach and we said a more balanced approach of taking fats, carbohydrates, proteins, you know, fibers, having that in a protein meal, is the better way to go for health.
Let me take us back a step and just talk about a couple of things that you said. So you mentioned a complete amino acid profile, and just amino acid, like, what is an amino acid? An amino acid is basically this compound that the body uses to build proteins. So your body takes lots of amino acids and puts them together to make these big proteins that do all kinds of things in your body, everything from building muscle to making enzymes to neurotransmitters to hormones. All of those things are built by amino acids. And when we say a complete amino acid profile, we mean it has all of the amino acids that your body needs. So some amino acids your body can actually make from other amino acids, but there is a list of essential amino acids that you can only get from the diet, right? And these are things that we have to make sure that we get in ample amounts in the diet.
And there's a lot of talk about, like, it has to be a complete protein, which is, like, kind of old school, to be honest. I mean, there's plenty of human societies that do not live on meat, that live on plants only, and none of the plants in isolation are complete proteins, but when you eat them together, for example rice and beans, you have all of the complete proteins necessary to do all the things that need to happen in the body. So, like, what you did with Blueprint, Bryan, was you took two different types of proteins, for most of these I think it was pea and hemp, right? And together, when you combine those proteins, you get an amino acid profile that looks like what you're showing on the screen there, and that is good because it does a few things. It gives you ample amounts of the branched-chain amino acids, which are particular types of amino acids there, which are isoleucine, valine, and there's also the leucine, which is very important for muscle protein synthesis, which it has ample amounts of leucine in it, and it doesn't have too high levels of methionine.
So methionine is interesting because it's really high in animal proteins, and there's been multiple studies that have shown that methionine restriction leads to increased longevity. Not really in humans yet, but we've seen this, I think, in mice and flies, if I'm not mistaken. So, if we're trying to make mice and flies live longer, reduce their methionine intake. But there's reason to believe, because methionine activates mTOR and reduces autophagy, that methionine restriction is actually good for longevity. And that's one of the benefits of the protein that you've put together there, is that it's got relatively limited amounts of methionine in it. So, about 60% as opposed to 100% of the daily value. And methionine is important because we need it for things like making glutathione, for example, and for methylation. But in excess it has the problem of overactivating mTOR and reducing autophagy. So there's a very nice balance that we want to try to hit. And it seems like these two proteins mixed together do a very good job of that.
Can I ask you guys, and this might be too hot of a question for you to answer, but so this is essentially, like, debunking this idea that you can't be plant-based and get what you need as far as amino acids. If you want to be plant-based and not have protein powders, can you still get it from a regular diet? Sounds like you can. What should someone do? And if someone's a carnivore and they don't want to do plant protein, but they're open to other proteins, like, what are the different variations of a diet that still get you the full amino acid profile you need? Like, can you get it from meat? You know, like, is that also a complete protein source?
Meats are complete protein sources in general. The only challenge with meat being that they are high in methionine. So if you're trying to restrict methionine, it's going to be challenging to do on a meat-only diet. Plant-only diets can certainly be complete protein sources. The trick is, if you're not taking a protein supplement like pea protein, hemp protein, things like that, you need to get a variety of plant proteins. So, you need to get your proteins from multiple different places. Soy is a good, complete source of protein that would meet that requirement. But, you know, chickpeas, lentils combined with other vegetables, you're going to get a complete source of protein for sure. The challenge, I think, becomes with the plant-based diets is the amount of protein. So, if we're really pushing for, you know, 1.6 to two grams per kilogram, that's when it's hard to get there with plants without some sort of, like, protein supplement, which Bryan has found. And the reason you take two scoops of protein a day, Bryan, is that right?
Yeah. Yeah. Actually, a friend of mine just asked me about this the other day. Let me read off what I wrote to him. So, I get 130 grams a day of protein. And so, I get 26 grams from Longevity Protein, 30 from collagen peptides, 25 grams from, like, a super veggie dish that has lentils, broccoli, cauliflower, hemp seeds, and then another 27 grams from Metabolic Protein. And then a third meal of the day, you know, some kind of legumes, berries, nuts, seeds that has 20 to 25 grams, which equals 130 grams. So I actually easily get my full protein requirements on a daily basis. So yeah, I mean, optimal levels, easily, from these plant-based sources.
Now again, if you want to eat meat, cool. Like, we are saying nothing about meat. We're simply sharing what we've done and why. But if you like meat and you want to include meat, great. Eat meat. This is really trying to be an explainer. It's really interesting that every time we talk about this stuff, I have to give that meat disclaimer because people lose their... And, like, it's so insane. It's so insane. It's so irrational, the energy around it. It's so, like, yeah, if you eat meat, cool, man. Like, do it. It's fine. But I, like...
And to be clear, like, your son Talmage eats meat. Like, you are not, like, going out there and being like, "Oh, you guys, like, don't eat meat."
I have not said anything about meat. I've said this is what I do and why. And I've explained this is why I don't eat meat, but I've never said you shouldn't eat meat. So yeah, we try to be as friendly as possible and as open-minded as possible, and we are not trying to threaten anyone. We're simply sharing what I do and why.
And to further clarify, your primary reason for not eating meat is ethical, right?
Yeah. I mean, I think there's two ways to approach this. One is... yeah. So primarily I am plant-based, excluding collagen peptides, because I think the most important thing happening on the earth right now is that we are giving birth to superintelligence on a very short time scale, and if AI becomes sentient to some extent, in whatever form you want to define that, and we don't want to meet... yeah, when it says, like, "Oh, hey, intelligent beings, hey, hey, hey, humans, how do you guys treat other forms of intelligence?" I think we want to be seen as a thoughtful and compassionate species and not brutal. And right now we are brutal. And so I think we really want to contemplate just, like, who we are as a species.
And then number two, I think you could probably make an evidence-based argument that a plant-based diet with collagen peptides is a, not the, a leading approach for top-tier biomarkers. This is not to say somebody couldn't beat my comprehensive biomarkers with meat. Entirely a possibility, and it would be great if someone did. It's only to say we chose a track. We based it upon scientific evidence, and we think it's compelling in terms of the supporting evidence, but it's not the only way. So again, if someone else wants to take a different approach
And if you look at the studies, for example the recent speed of aging studies, the DNA methylation, the green Mediterranean diet is the best performing, and I believe that has some fish and some other meats. So there's definitely a presence of meat in some of the best performing diets. And so this is not to say that all meats are bad. It's just to be that we've chosen a particular path. So meat eaters, we love you. Please don't come at us.
Yeah. Also, we should talk quickly about amount of protein. So a lot of you know the quote-unquote official recommendation of protein intake is 0.8 gram per kilogram of body weight, which is too low. The more appropriate recommendations: for endurance training, 1.2 to 1.6 grams per kilogram a day. If you're doing strength, power, hypertrophy, you're in the 1.6 to 2.2 kg a day. You could go higher than 2.2 grams per kilogram, but you just want to be mindful that you're not overdoing it because you can have negative consequences. So you want to make sure you're measuring your body to make sure that it's not causing some kind of harm.
And then, of course, females, depending upon where you're at in your cycle, you want to modulate. In the first part of your cycle, your lower protein, it's at what is that, 1.5? Yeah, 1.5. And then post, it's around 2 g per kilogram of weight on the second. When you ovulate, those two weeks following before you get your period, increase to 2 g per kilogram of body weight, specifically because your estrogen drops. You're at risk of muscle mass decrease. And so you want to maintain that. And then the same for later in life: once you hit menopause, you're kind of in that state constantly. So you want to make sure you get enough protein to maintain muscle mass.
Yeah. Again, I'll say one more thing on the Blueprint proteins and how we built these things, because when people look at the protein panels, they see protein, but they also see carbohydrates and fats, and they say like, "Oh, no. I don't want to do this. I want pure protein, zero everything else." And Mike, is that fair to say that it is an evidence-based approach, that it is reasonable, is it an evidence-based approach to have a more balanced macro profile when consuming proteins, fats, carbohydrates, fibers?
Yes, I would say so. I would say that you're going to get an overall greater benefit than if you took protein in isolation, especially post-workout. There's really good data showing that you need to consume protein with carbohydrates post-workout, otherwise a lot of that protein is just going to get used for energy production as opposed to muscle protein synthesis. So yeah, I would agree with that statement. Like in general, when we're consuming foods, it's better to have a broad range of macronutrients as opposed to just isolating one macronutrient and trying to stuff it into the body. You're not just going to only turn on muscle protein synthesis. You need more things happening in the background.
I was just going to say we are actually trying to solve for people's issues. So, for example, I'm much lower calorie per day than Bryan. And so when I get into my luteal phase where I'm trying to increase my protein intake, it's kind of hard to balance that because I've already got my meals all optimized for my daily protocol, and then I'm trying to, like, how do I fit in extra protein without going over my calorie budget. And so we are actually coming out with a pure protein source for those who do want to modulate their diets accordingly. But yeah, agreed, better to get it in a complete source.
Yeah, Ally just messaged me here and he said, "I bet those who do embrace meat in their diet will say that Bryan is healthy because he's consuming the 33 grams of collagen peptides a day." So Mike, assessment on that?
Collagen peptides are predominantly just one amino acid. So I'm not sure that they're doing much for your overall amino acid profile as opposed to the broad range of amino acids you're getting from hemp and pea. That would be my assessment.
Yeah, this is like one of the things, several people were very critical of me online where they were accusing me of being on testosterone replacement therapy because my testosterone levels have been averaging, you know, above 700, and I'm not on testosterone replacement therapy, and I have done this on a plant-based diet with collagen peptides and exercise. And this one prominent person in the health world, I gave him a call and I talked to him, and he said, "I don't believe it. I think you're lying." And so I showed him my labs on the call. I'm like, "Here's my lab report. Here's my levels. Here's my LH. Here's my FSH. I'm not on testosterone replacement therapy. Here's all the data for you." And he just said, "I've never seen it in my entire life."
So, I guess those of you listening, what I'm trying to establish here is we have really defied cultural norms on how we approach health and wellness. I've published my biomarkers. I arguably have the best biomarkers of anyone known in the world. If there's someone out there better than me, we don't know who they are, but we're doing a really good job. And what I'm trying to convey to you is that many of the ideas that you hear on a daily basis are outdated. And so these new emerging ideas of how we approach amino acids and proteins and bone mineral density, etc., it is supported by the evidence and is supported by the data.
And so I do feel like I need to give this airtime because it's very hard to articulate these ideas in social media snapshots. You need more long-form discussion, and people, even when we provide the evidence, they don't believe it, and that's why we provide the secondary data point, like here are my biomarkers. Yeah. So you can't just, like, if I have high testosterone, whatever, but it's like that plus bone mineral density plus the lowest recorded speed of aging plus plus plus; once you look down the list of 60-plus biomarkers, it's very hard to argue that we haven't actually nailed a protocol that is elite level.
You know what it also is? It's like people are coming at this from this viewpoint of camps. So carnivore camp, plant-based camp, gluten-free, organic, and then they're trying to associate that category of behaviors with you're either healthy or you're not. So meat eaters are healthy or they're not. Carnivores or vegans are healthy or they're not. And it misses the actual... So I was thinking about this. I was like, you're not any of those camps. You're not plant-based. Like, you actually aren't, because you consume collagen peptides. Like Ally's point about Bryan being a healthy person because he, well, kind of partly, yeah, collagen peptides is an important part of your protocol. You're not a meat eater, you're not plant-based, you're just Blueprint. And that's the problem right now: everyone's coming at you from a camp perspective, and it's like, but wait, that's not even the conversation we're trying to have here. Coming at it from a camp-based perspective is just flawed, period. No one's going to be categorizable like that and be healthy.
That's really well said, Kate. It is like we are in the Don't Die camp, which means we love evidence, we love data, and we love measurement, and we love to follow those things and just make the right decision on the objective of don't die. So yeah, I would refuse to associate with any camp. There is no ideology, no group, no framework that I agree with. Evidence, data, measurement is the only loyalty we have on doing this.
Cool. I like that. Listeners, let us know. Is this hitting for you? Do you want us to do something else that would be more useful? We really are trying to... I know in my personal podcast listening experience, I want to get in and learn something useful. I want to remind myself of good things to do in life. I do enjoy hearing people chitchat about life, but really I want to focus on bettering my life circumstances in some way, whether it be through knowledge or behavior or something of the sort. So let us know what hits for you, what misses, so we can be more relevant in your lives.
All right, you guys, that was fun. That was great. That was good.
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