Does Bryan Johnson’s $2m biohacking routine actually work? We tested it to see | Hard Reset

Nick's primary takeaway from the Blueprint trial is philosophical: individuals have control over their bodies and subjective experience to a significant extent, and should exercise that agency early while efficacy is higher.

“I think that's the biggest hack or adjustment to this is that you do have control over your body and how it feels and whatnot to some extent, to the extent that we have free will in the first place, but you can take agency over that stuff and you might as well while you're young, 'cause by the time you're old, it's too late.”

If one accepts biological aging tests as valid measures of bodily aging state, then the documented results (Nick's 3-year biological age reduction, Rob's 25-lb weight loss and 40-70% strength gains in 30 days) constitute evidence of aging reversal.

“if you accept them as a reasonable measure of our body's overall age, then yes, we reversed aging by adopting Bryan's Blueprint plan.”

There is significant debate and uncertainty about the accuracy of biological aging tests, making interpretation of results contingent on accepting their validity.

“Now, we fully admit that there's a lot of debate around the accuracy of biological aging tests, but if you accept them as a reasonable measure of our body's overall age, then yes, we reversed aging by adopting Bryan's Blueprint plan.”

Blueprint attempts to answer the question: 'Is the Fountain of Youth hidden in tens of thousands of scientific publications?'

“We wanted to pose the question, 'Is the Fountain of Youth here right now? It's just hiding in tens of thousands of scientific publications.'”

Following Blueprint creates social friction by requiring the person to watch others eat foods they cannot while at restaurants, work meals, and social events

“With a little preparation, it's not too hard to pack all the ingredients you need to do Blueprint while you travel, but you will need to get used to the idea of watching your family eat food at restaurants that you can't, just like at work when all your colleagues can eat things you can't.”

Blueprint's strategy involves a philosophical shift in how to think about wellness, from treating health as an afterthought to treating it as a daily optimization problem

“I think for me it's more of a hard reset on the idea of wellness. Should you think of your health only when it's a problem? Maybe you should start thinking about it every day, and what you can do to improve it every day as opposed to just thinking about it when it's become an issue already.”

The central question about free will in the context of life optimization is whether advance commitment (like Odysseus lashing himself to the mast) constitutes genuine free will if it removes the ability to make impulsive choices

“A lot of this comes down to how you define free will. Is it still free will if you make your choices in advance, like Odysseus lashing himself to the mast of his ship so he won't succumb to the song of the sirens? Or does the impulsive version of you need to have some say in how you live your life for it to be fully free?”

The core Blueprint protocol is 'pretty simple, sound advice: Eat whole foods, take supplements, and exercise,' but this simple advice is made complex by specificity and commitment level required, not by the underlying principles.

“when you just like look at it from a macro level, it's not crazy. It's actually just like pretty simple, sound advice. Eat whole foods, take supplements, and exercise.”

The changes that could result from aging reversal science 'could dramatically extend our lifespans' in ways we may not fully comprehend

“What's coming could dramatically extend our lifespans. I don't think that we can fully comprehend the potential that's coming our way, and I think the job all of us have is stay alive.”

Johnson's approach simplifies daily decision-making through ritualized routines so that healthy choices become automatic muscle memory rather than conscious decisions

“When I wake up in the morning, I walk through a process of going left to right. I'll start here, I'll grab this guy here, then this guy, then this guy, and then so on, so I basically never have to remember anything. I just walk through a process and muscle memory takes over.”

Johnson expects that society will eventually shift to viewing health-damaging behaviors (like unhealthy eating) as irrational, similar to how norms around smoking have changed

“I think they're bad, and hopefully soon society will shift and we'll see that it does not make any sense for us to be doing things that increase the risk of death and disease.”

Bryan Johnson frames his adherence to the Blueprint algorithm as a form of free will—choosing to accept algorithmic guidance over impulsive decision-making because the algorithm delivers 'near-perfect health, dramatically slow my speed of aging, and keep me going into the future because I wanna play new games.'

“the technology's to a point now where it does all these primary functions for me, which goes to your question of: what is my role of decision-making? And I've chosen to opt in and say, 'I say yes to an algorithm that can give me near-perfect health, dramatically slow my speed of aging, and keep me going into the future because I wanna play new games.'”

Johnson reframed his relationship with his organs by removing authority from his conscious mind, treating his mind's impulses as destructive and shifting decision-making authority to his organs' physiological needs

“Before I was committing these acts of self-destructive behavior of violence: eating too much food, not sleeping properly, skipping exercise, that was causing decay and aging. I had to say, 'All right, organs, you are now in charge. Now what do you need to be your best selves?' But importantly, what I did say is: 'My mind, it no longer has authority to make any decisions.' I had to destroy my mind before my mind could destroy me.”

What one loses and gains through Blueprint adherence are clearly identifiable trade-offs, and the real question is which choices individuals will allow themselves to make

“As always, it's a trade-off, and what you lose and what you gain are pretty clear. The only real question is what choices will you allow yourself to make?”

Blueprint's methodology involves asking 'Given the circumstance, what is the most practical thing we could contemplate in doing that would increase our chance of shared survival?'

“It's a genuine attempt at trying to say, 'Given the circumstance, what is the most practical thing we could contemplate in doing that would increase our chance of shared survival?'”

Blueprint slowed Johnson's speed of aging by the equivalent of 31 years and produced 50 perfect biomarkers through systematic measurement and protocol adjustment cycles

“this diet in me has produced 50 perfect biomarkers. It slowed my speed of aging by the equivalent of 31 years. My body now accumulates aging damage slower than the average 10-year-old.”

The narrator's missing his regular prescription medication for six days caused substantial brain fog, fatigue, vertigo, and general malaise that nearly caused him to quit the experiment

“I realized this morning that I had not been putting one of my regular prescription medications in to my nightly supplement regime for the last six days, so that probably contributed a great deal to my overall feeling of malaise, brain fog, fatigue, and just general confusion and vertigo. Definitely hoping that that improves things because I was very much on the verge of quitting last night.”

Nick was not hungry on the Blueprint diet and was often so full that he did not want to eat a third meal, suggesting satiety exceeds caloric intake.

“Also, it's a lot of food. You are not hungry on this diet. Honestly. I was often so full that I didn't even want to eat a third meal.”

Johnson takes over 100 supplements per day as part of his anti-aging protocol

“Now, how many supplements do you take every day? - Over a hundred. - Holy cats.”

Johnson's protocol is intentionally pushing anti-aging to its extreme frontier to serve as a proof-of-concept, not a recommendation for others to replicate exactly

“I took it all the way to the outer edges, the frontier, and somebody of course can piece together what they can in their life, which is great. I wanted to give an example if someone really wanted to go all in, what could they imagine they could achieve?”

The narrator found the diet boring because of repetitive meals, but the food itself was not unpleasant

“The diet was mainly boring. There's nothing unpleasant about the food with the possible exception of the spermidine in the Green Giant, which does take some getting used to. It's just boring eating the same thing every day.”

The narrator did not experience an endorphin rush from exercise despite 30 days of daily one-hour workouts

“Frankly, I was hoping that after doing this for a month every day, I'd finally have the experience of having some sort of endorphin rush associated with exercise, but I never did. I am apparently just not wired that way.”

After 30 days on Blueprint, the narrator lost approximately 20 pounds

“I definitely saw a steady decline in my weight. I lost about 20 pounds over the course of the 30 days, which was more than I expected, but maybe less than I'd hoped.”

Johnson no longer engages in pantry grazing, ordering from menus, spontaneous pizza parties, or late-night drinks with friends, and reports not missing these activities because they make him feel awful

“I no longer pantry graze. I don't order from a menu. I don't do a spontaneous pizza party. I don't do drinks with friends late night. I don't miss it. I don't want it. They make me feel awful.”

Finding an hour daily for exercise is a significant adherence challenge; Nick was only able to sustain it by listening to audiobooks to reduce the subjective duration and discomfort.

“Finding an hour of time every day for working out was a challenge, but I found that if I listened to a good audio book, it passed the time a lot more quickly.”

Nick did not experience a strong urge to abandon the Blueprint protocol after 30 days, and instead felt motivated to continue most elements while making minor modifications for sustainability.

“But at the end of 30 days, I didn't have the urge to jump into a deep dish pizza and never look back. Oddly enough, I felt like I only wanted to change a few things about the Blueprint plan to make it accommodate my lifestyle a little better.”

Rob saw 40-70% improvement in his weightlifting performance after 30 days on Blueprint

“he saw 40% to 70% improvement in his weightlifting performance.”

The narrator worried whether 30 days was long enough to produce measurable health improvements or reverse biological aging

“My only concern is, is a month long enough to have a measurable impact on my health or my biological age? Probably not, but I have to say, having done it now, it's not unpleasant. It's just boring.”

The Blueprint starter guide provides a simplified protocol that can be adopted for 30 days by non-billionaires, designed to extract principles from Bryan's extreme version.

“So to see how easy it Is for people to do this, at Hard Reset, we decided to take Bryan's example and do our own version of the Blueprint plan based on the starter guide on his site for 30 days.”

Following Blueprint's diet requires access to specialty ingredients (like fresh-squeezed pomegranate juice and ground macadamia nuts) that are not readily available in standard grocery stores

“One of the items that struck me today was fresh-squeezed pomegranate juice. - Bro, I was looking all over for that! - It's not that attainable for everybody, unless you have a staff who can squeeze pomegranates for you every morning, right?”

Nick noted that he did not feel younger in any real sense despite the biomarker improvements, suggesting subjective age perception may not correspond to measured biological markers.

“I didn't feel like I am like getting younger in any real sense, but Bryan's been doing this for two years and we've been doing it for a few weeks, right?”

Nick's blood test after 30 days on Blueprint showed dramatically lower cholesterol and triglycerides, with triglycerides dropping from over 300 to just over 70, and LDL cholesterol dropping from 126 to 92.

“My blood test results were also great. My cholesterol and triglycerides were dramatically lower than my previous blood test. My triglycerides went from over 300 to just over 70, which is incredible, and my LDL, which is the bad cholesterol, has gone way down. It went down from 126 to 92.”

A month's supply of the Blueprint supplement regimen costs over $1,000 when using the recommended Blueprint Starter Guide list

“We use the recommended list from his Blueprint Starter Guide, but omitted anything that required a prescription. Buying a month's worth of these supplements cost over $1,000 by itself.”

Bryan Johnson spends approximately $2 million per year on his aging reversal protocol, including his own medical clinic equipped in his house.

“This man is spending $2 million a year to reverse aging.”

Sleep quality and quantity are among the most important factors for overall health, but Nick did not see huge improvements in these metrics during the 30-day Blueprint trial.

“My sleep data wasn't as clear. I don't think I saw huge improvement in my sleep quality or quantity, which is a shame because it's one of the most important things for your overall health.”