“How did a fat computer hacker get abs like this?“ Dave Asprey is looking at his body. “Like, I have veins.” The tech-exec-turned-biohacker tilts his phone screen toward his six-pack. “And I’m 52,” he adds, “allegedly.”
Ribeye sears in his Zoom background. It’s afternoon in Austin when I connect with Asprey—best-known as the man who put butter in coffee (a ketogenic diet trend he started with his former brand, Bulletproof) but he’s also helped popularize a bunch of other “biohacks” like blue-light blockers, collagen, cold plunging, and PEMFs (pulsed electromagnetic field devices).
Our call caught the chiseled influencer prepping a pound of local steak between podcasts (he said he had six different shows to record after this).
The wagyu was breakfast for Asprey, who, famously, intermittently fasts. Earlier, he just took about 100 vitamins, cognitive enhancers, and nootropics. The stack, he said, gave him the clarity to bank a couple episodes of The Human Upgrade with Dave Asprey—his long-running podcast, which answers questions like “Should You Eat Dirt?” (episode #1,289) and “Who Should Take Herbal Ecstasy?” (episode #1,306).
Stepping away from sautéing herbs in beef tallow, Asprey pans the camera to his sauna, where he often starts his days at dawn, drinking Danger Coffee—his line of beans, mineral-fortified and mold-free (Asprey is outspoken about toxic mold, as evidenced in his 2015 documentary MOLDY).
Author of The Bulletproof Diet—and four other bestsellers—Asprey is known to make controversial health-related claims that are not always backed by science and for his strong takes on specific foods, like oatmeal, which he calls overpriced “peasant food.” Also bad: peas, falafel, raisins, and hummus, which he says “make you weak.”
Most recently, Asprey released Heavily Meditated (HarperCollins, 2024) a book about how to have “big peaceful brainwaves,” as he put it on a recent episode of The Dr. Phil Podcast.
We caught up with Dave to see what’s new in his daily health routine, and talked about brain hacks, swallowing sixty supplements at once, and why Asprey ejaculates every eleven days to protect his chi.
GQ: Hi Dave!
Dave Asprey: Hi. I’m cooking steak, if that’s okay.
Perfect.
There might also be butter involved.
I have a snack, too. [Holds up Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Collagen Protein Bar by Bulletproof.]
My old company.
Do you still eat them?
No. I think they started using plant-based stuff. I use their MCTs [medium-chain triglycerides] though.
Most people probably know you as the man who put MCT oil in coffee.
I got the idea in Tibet from yak butter tea. I trademarked Bulletproof [a brand built on blending MCT oil into coffee that helped launch the “butter coffee” craze], and venture funded that. I didn’t trademark “biohacking” but I made it something for society. Merriam-Webster added it as a new word in 2018, and my name is in the definition. It’s totally crazy. Just from this idea that we can control our own biology—you just have to know what to do.
You once posted a picture of 84 pills captioned “breakfast.” I also read somewhere that you spend—is it $3000-a-month on supplements?
That’s exactly the number.
What’s your morning routine?
This “morning routine” idea is kind of toxic. You end up doing stuff your body doesn’t need just because it’s your “routine” instead of listening to your body and saying: How stressed am I? Do I need more stress? Or more recovery? The body improves when it’s in a recovered state. Don’t push harder. Recover harder. I have an at-home Upgrade Labs [Asprey’s chain of biohacking centers that offer red-light therapy, cryotherapy, neurofeedback, etc.]. I have an AI machine for cardio, an AI machine for putting on muscle, and a whole body vibration platform. You have to do what your body needs.
It’s hard to know what you need.
It was. That’s what AI is for. I’m not here to pump all my stuff so no need to write about this but we have an app that looks at your data and tells you what to do to reach your goal. No one is going to study all nine of my books, 3,000 blog posts and 1,300 podcasts. So we trained an AI model so you can just say: “I look like this. This is how I am. Tell me what to do.”
I saw you post your $17,000 espresso machine.
Literally, I made coffee on that an hour ago.
Does it taste like a $17,000 coffee?
For a true coffee nerd it makes a five-to-ten percent difference. Mine is chrome and sexy so I feel like I’m driving a Ferrari when I make my Americano.
You seem to have very selective taste. I know you feel strongly about certain foods, like oatmeal “pisses you off,” you often say, and “fuck peanuts.”
All from experience.
How do you eat out?
You can get this at every restaurant. [Holds up raw meat.]
What is that exactly?
Grass-fed wagyu ribeye cooked in tallow over a fire in my backyard to prevent indoor steak smoke fumes. I add rosemary, oregano, margarine, and thyme for antioxidants and longevity.
Beautiful.
I eat this everyday.
Is this your first meal of the day? [It is 1:30pm.]
It is. I took cognitive enhancers this morning, nootropics and all. Now I’ll throw this on a cutting board and show you my supplement stack.
Oh yeah, let’s circle back to that. How many do you take a day?
About 150.
Wow.
I’ll show you how I do it because I’m about to go on a three-week road trip.
That has to take a whole suitcase just for pills.
It’s, like, manageable. By the way, this here is daikon radish, a couple onions and cauliflower, all sautéed in butter. [Shows the rest of his lunch ingredients.]
Do you do one meal a day?
Usually two. I’m 6% body fat. I used to be obese. I’ll show you my abs. [Shows his abs.]
Yeah.
I have veins and I’m allegedly 52 years old.
Is that a six pack or eight?
Six. Eight packs are genetic. You’re just lucky if you have those extra two abdominal muscles. But how is it that a fat computer hacker could have abs like this? It boggles my mind. And I don’t exercise much—probably twenty minutes per week. It’s not hard to have muscles if you know how to eat.
When you go to a restaurant, you get steak. But what if someone wants to make you a meal? Would you eat hummus socially, for example? Do you ever feel like you have to be flexible about food to be polite?
I just make fun of people who eat hummus. Like, “Oh, you chose weakness.” I’m only half kidding. People used to call me crazy but now they’re respectful. I won’t eat chicken on purpose but if I’m at someone’s house, okay, fine, I’ll have some chicken.
[Laughs.]
I’m going to show you my supplements now. Don’t publish a picture of this because I don’t want people to copy me. It’s very customized. People have offered me thousands of dollars to tell them what I take and I’m like, let me help you take what you need, not what I need. So, yeah. [Pans camera to show a walk-in closet lined floor to ceiling with pill bottles like a private GNC.] This is my supplement cabinet.
Holy shit. Wait. Stop. I’m obsessed. Oh my god.
Basically I start here in the morning with this shelf. Then, like, go down here. [Runs his hand along several feet of supplement-packed shelving.] How the heck would you do that when you’re traveling? I’m going to Romania and Ecuador for this Unlimited Life Mastermind retreat I host, then to L.A. and I’m seeing Steve Aoki in Vegas. [Unzips a big black packing cube.] This is what I wanted to show ya. [Holds up a plastic baggie bulging with pills.]
Wow.
These are my supplements for one night.
How many are in there?
I’m guessing 50. That’s one evening stack.
How many pills can you swallow at once?
Probably 60. Here’s my morning bag. [Holds up another bulging baggie.] It’s bigger—eighty to 100 pills. I could swallow that whole but it’d be work so I take two swallows. But if you drank beer in college, you know how to take supplements.
Were you a big beer drinker?
I was just generally big. Like, 300 pounds big.
