Peter Attia's Longevity Protocols: What He Tests & What It Costs
Peter Attia's Medicine 3.0 playbook — DEXA scans, ApoB, Lp(a), Zone 2, CGM — with real Austin cash-pay prices for each protocol.
Peter Attia is not interested in helping you live a little longer. He's interested in whether you'll still be able to hike at 80, lift at 85, think clearly at 90. His framework — "Medicine 3.0" — is less about treating disease after it arrives and more about catching it 10–20 years before it would become obvious.
That means testing things most standard physicals skip. It means caring about ApoB when your doctor is still just running total cholesterol. It means knowing your VO2 max, your muscle mass, your blood glucose patterns across an entire day — not just a single fasting snapshot.
Some of this is expensive. Some is surprisingly affordable in Austin if you know where to look.
The Medicine 3.0 Framework
Attia's core argument: the leading causes of death (heart disease, cancer, neurodegenerative disease, metabolic disease) have 10–20 year latency periods. If you start monitoring in your 30s and 40s, you catch problems when they're still reversible.
That means earlier, more comprehensive testing — and then building a life around the four pillars he returns to constantly: Zone 2 cardio, strength training, sleep, and nutrition.
Here's what that costs in Austin.
Protocol #1: DEXA Scan (Body Composition)
What it is: A DEXA scan measures body fat percentage, lean muscle mass, and bone density with much more precision than a scale or BMI. Attia tracks muscle mass as one of the key predictors of longevity — sarcopenia (muscle loss with age) is a major mortality risk that most people don't think about until it's too late.
In Austin, a DEXA scan runs $75–$175 at cash-pay imaging centers.
Hospital-based DEXA for bone density can run $300–$500. Performance-focused DEXA (which includes full body composition breakdown) at private wellness centers runs $75–$175.
Protocol #2: Extensive Bloodwork — Beyond the Standard Panel
This is where Attia diverges most from mainstream medicine. His panel goes well beyond the standard CBC + lipid panel.
ApoB (Apolipoprotein B) The particle count marker he cares about more than LDL-C. ApoB measures the actual number of atherogenic particles — a more accurate predictor of cardiovascular risk than the standard cholesterol number. Most insurance-covered physicals don't include it.
Cash-pay cost in Austin: $20–$60. LaboratoryAssist or Any Lab Test Now.
Lp(a) — Lipoprotein(a) A genetic cardiovascular risk factor that diet and exercise don't change. You either have elevated Lp(a) or you don't — but most people have never been tested. Attia tests everyone once, early.
Cash-pay cost in Austin: $30–$80. Needs to be specifically ordered — not on standard panels.
Glucose + Insulin Markers - Hemoglobin A1C — 90-day average blood sugar. Cash-pay: $8–$49. - Fasting insulin — The early warning signal for insulin resistance that A1C doesn't catch until later. Cash-pay: $25–$60. - OGTT (Oral Glucose Tolerance Test) — The full glucose/insulin response test. Cash-pay: $50–$150.
Standard Markers He Still Runs - Complete Blood Count (CBC) — Cash-pay: $5–$49 - Lipid Panel — Cash-pay: $7–$49 - Liver enzymes, kidney function, thyroid, Vitamin D, inflammatory markers
Full Attia-style panel in Austin: $150–$350 at cash-pay labs — versus $500–$1,200+ if billed through insurance or ordered through a hospital lab.
Search longevity lab tests in Austin → | Browse Longevity+Care providers →
Protocol #3: Zone 2 Training + VO2 Max Testing
Attia returns to Zone 2 cardio constantly — it's the foundation of his exercise prescription. He also cares about VO2 max more than almost any other longevity biomarker. His data: people in the top 2% of VO2 max for their age have roughly a 5x lower mortality risk than people in the bottom 25%.
To actually know your Zone 2 and VO2 max, you need a test — not a Garmin estimate. A proper metabolic test (VO2 max or lactate threshold) runs $150–$300 in Austin at performance labs. Steep for a one-time test, but this number doesn't change that fast — test every 1–2 years.
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Protocol #4: Continuous Glucose Monitor (CGM)
Attia was recommending CGMs for non-diabetics before it was mainstream. Wearing one for 2–4 weeks shows you how your blood sugar responds to specific foods, exercise, sleep, and stress — data that a single fasting glucose snapshot can't capture.
In Austin, a 2-week CGM run costs $75–$150 out of pocket. Libre and Dexcom sensors are available through some DPC practices and functional medicine providers. Without a prescription in Texas, you'll need a provider to order it.
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Protocol #5: Sleep Tracking + Sleep Quality
Attia treats sleep as a performance variable — not just something that happens when you're done working. He tracks HRV (heart rate variability), respiratory rate, and sleep stages using wearables (primarily Whoop and Oura).
If you have consistent sleep issues and want to rule out structural problems, a home sleep study for sleep apnea runs $150–$400 cash-pay in Austin — versus $1,500+ through hospital sleep labs.
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Do It in Austin
Attia's full protocol is genuinely expensive if you go through traditional channels. Run through hospital labs and insurance billing, the annual testing alone could cost $1,500–$3,000.
Run through Austin's cash-pay lab market, the same tests cost $200–$500 total. The DEXA, the ApoB, the Lp(a), the A1C, the fasting insulin — all available without a hospital markup.
Written by
Marcus Webb
Independent Health Researcher
Marcus is a freelance health journalist based in South Austin. He went four years without employer insurance and became obsessed with figuring out how the self-pay system actually works — so he started writing it down.
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