The Liver King, an influencer who eats raw meat and preaches a primal lifestyle, admits to lying about steroid use

• The Liver King has garnered roughly 5 million followers by proselytizing a primal lifestyle.
• This includes eating raw liver and bone marrow, taking freezing showers, and doing intense workouts.

The Liver King, an influencer who rose to renown by proselytizing a raw meat diet and other primal habits to achieve a "healthy and happy" life, has come clean about his use of steroids.

Per a recent YouTube video titled "Liver King Confession... I Lied," posted Thursday, the creator – whose real name is Brian Johnson – described suffering from pervasive self-esteem issues, which led him to start taking steroids last year.

"When I talk about the 85% of the population that suffers from self-esteem issues – that's me. This is why I fucking work myself to death in the gym, this is why I do twelve to fifteen blood-burning workouts a week – just to feel like I'm okay," he said in the video.

The confession wasn't made voluntarily. It arrived days after emails Johnson allegedly sent to a bodybuilding coach in 2021 came to light. Those emails, shared by another fitness and self-improvement YouTuber who goes by More Plates More Dates, claim that Johnson was on roughly $11,000 worth of the growth hormone Omnitrope a month.

Johnson also outlined a cocktail of other drugs he was on at the time, including steroids like Testosterone Cypionate, Deca-Durabolin, and Winstrol. Today, he said in his YouTube video that he's on 120 mg of testosterone per week.

The admission was particularly charged as Johnson has predicated his image on a natural-minded eating and workout regimen.

On his website, Johnson outlines nine so-called "ancestral tenets," which include wearing UVEX glasses to block the "non-native light spectrum," taking freezing showers, walking around barefoot, and eating a raw meat diet (namely liver, bone marrow, and bull testicles).

While he previously lied about using steroids for fear it would undermine his brand – which comprises roughly five million followers across TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube – he said in his most recent video that there's room for modern medicine within his ancestral ideology.

"I believe there's a time and place for pharmacological intervention, monitored and managed by a trained hormone physician," he said.

Johnson did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.