If you’re on TikTok, chances are you’ve seen a muscular guy with a caveman look and a thick beard eating raw liver on video! Welcome to the world of the self-proclaimed “Liver King“, an influencer who runs a small dietary supplement empire.
Brian Johnson, aka Liver King
Brian Johnson, a.k.a. Liver King, has one ambition: to change millions of lives by promoting an ancient lifestyle. He also wants to sell supplements to his followers to achieve this. If you’re one of the many users of TikTok, you’ve probably crossed paths with the Liver King, perhaps without knowing it. Instantly recognizable by the obscene amount of meat he displays, always shirtless, Liver King has nearly 3 million followers on TikTok to date, and about 2 million followers on Instagram.
In his often viral videos, Liver King also lifts dumbbells of hundreds of kilos, takes ice baths while giving a pep talk in front of the camera… Liver King is above all a “vibe“, an identity and a will to return to an ancestral way of life. It is for this reason that he does not hesitate to look at the spectator right in the camera, telling him to do Tabata push-ups to “honor the struggle of our first ancestors” and “express your most dominant form”. That alone …
Liver King, whose real name is Brian Johnson, is a 45-year-old American from the state of Texas, from where he makes his videos. If the essence of the “Liver King lifestyle”, according to his fans, is to reconnect with nature, his most viral posts present extreme versions of these principles. These include videos of grueling workouts with dumbbells or wooden planks that he sleeps on in his mansion. But what he’s really known for, you guessed it, are the food videos… Whether it’s a protein shake made from mixed animal organs, raw animal testicles, or his daily dose of raw liver and sea salt, Brian Johnson’s viral carnivorous diet (like his weightlifting physique) has been the subject of much discussion online.
Liver King’s nine age-old principles
Liver King recommends his followers follow his nine principles, which he calls “ancestral principles”: sleep, eat, move, protect, connect, get cold, get sun, fight and bond. He also recommends intense workouts and eating raw liver, much like some wild animals, especially lions. In an interview with GQ, Liver King had claimed that he consumes about 500g of raw liver every day. However, he doesn’t advise eating that amount, explaining that beginners should start with less than 100g of raw liver, twice a week. No more. On his website, the guru makes it clear: “I am not a hospital, I am not a doctor, and this is not medical advice. I have however a diploma in biochemistry”. Not totally unconscious the Liver King…
While the liver will always be his first love, Liver King also sings the praises of other often overlooked parts of an animal, such as the bone marrow, tongue and testicles. Eating another animal’s testicles is supposed to strengthen your own: “Vegetables don’t have the raw material to produce a healthy set of testicles,” he explains, before going on to say, “Testicles have everything needed to produce them, support them and strengthen them.” We can’t stress this enough, Liver King himself says he is not a doctor and does not give medical advice. So his claims should be taken with a grain of salt.
Does Liver King use steroids?
The Liver King would in fact be “the king of doping”! A fitness guru at the head of a business empire worth over $100 million a year, Liver King revealed his steroid use in an apology video he shared on YouTube. “I take steroids,” he had told his fans. While he has made a staggering $100 million a year by touting a raw meat diet and intense exercise as a way to achieve “strength, health and happiness,” Johnson is in danger of losing it all after admitting he uses steroids to sport his imposing physique. In his viral videos on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube, the organ-eating Liver King evangelized for an “ancestral” caveman-style lifestyle, eating such delicacies as raw liver, bone marrow and bull testicles. He later made a fortune selling protein supplements and dried animal organs under his Heart & Soil and Ancestral brands.
But now, the liver king‘s reign as a top fitness influencer is under threat after he admitted to lying about taking steroids. “I lied, and I deceived a lot of people,” Liver King said in a YouTube video. “Yes, I did take steroids, and yes, I am on steroids.” We kind of suspected as much… Indeed, many skeptics had expressed doubts that Johnson was not taking any performance-enhancing drugs. The most bitter criticism came from Joe Rogan, the famous American podcaster. Liver King denied everything: “I don’t touch that stuff. I’ve never priced them. I’m not going to do it,” he said on Mark Bell’s Power Project podcast. Recently, Liver King had no choice but to admit to doping after another YouTuber (More Plates More Dates) leaked emails from Johnson in which he admitted to taking several steroids.
