Sup guys, this is Derek from moreplatesmoredates.com. Today we're going to be talking about Stan Efferding's vertical diet. So I've, I started the vertical diet mid 2018 and there was a few goals. Some of them were basically cognitive based in terms of maximizing mental acuity and sharpness, secondary goals. Well, not necessarily secondary.
They were actually primary goals at the time. Um, maximizing it. thyroid hormone output as that was suboptimal due to T3 abuse in the past.
Some other goals included improving my bloods, improving my health in general. Not that I wasn't healthy, but it's just I'm a lot more longevity based now than I used to be. And you know, the diet fills a lot of micronutrient needs which are otherwise left unmet.
by the standard, you know, traditional bodybuilding type diet. It's been almost a year now. I did a mid 2018. I started it's approaching mid ish 2019. Now, and I just want to do an updated video on my thoughts.
As far as like elaborate details on how exactly how the foods in the vertical diet affected my blood work, you know, like my inflammation levels, how my cholesterol levels were affected, you can go look at my logs I did where I literally do a new round of blood work per every, you know, four weeks or so to show what little changes in the diet did to my blood work and my health markers. But I just wanted to do a kind of general overview and kind of like a review of the diet itself. So some takeaways I got from it, mainly quality of life and energy levels, those went up.
fairly noticeably so typically getting out of bed used to be a big big struggle so i'm sure you've had those mornings where your alarm goes off and you have to set like 15 alarms to get out of bed and you hit snooze a million times and no matter what you do that you know the eight hours you get you wish if you could you would stay in bed for nine or ten and you just you know It's a drag to get up. When I started the vertical diet, one of the first things I did notice was that it was a lot easier to get out of bed in the morning. Whereas before I would probably hit snooze about 10 times on the vertical diet, it would be, I would just wake up to my alarm and then get out of bed. And it was a lot easier of a transition than it would have been otherwise on a standard micronutrient deficient diet. And I kind of attribute the...
I don't think people realize how much of a difference not only the micronutrient fulfillment has on basic health markers and you know longevity but also in how you feel during the day like it really makes a huge difference on your energy levels and how your diet translates into your everyday productivity efficiency and ability to you know really make the most of each hour now granted a lot of my you know weaknesses aren't just magically solved by the diet if you procrastinate you're you're probably still going to be a procrastinator if you don't take steps to fix that but as far as just like blatant noticing energy improvement like i was able to stay awake longer if i needed to which i don't recommend because It kind of goes against the principles of the diet in the first place, which is adequate rest and recovery. But also when you do get adequate rest and recovery, you wake up a lot easier than you would otherwise on the same amount of sleep. So that's one of the main things I realized as far as, you know, how the red meat affects your blood markers and stuff like that. One thing I've realized is it's very individually dependent. There are certain, you know, genetic mutations and alleles and things of that nature that.
will greatly affect if something like the vertical diet is going to be healthy or not for you. So in general, most people will succeed with the diet and improve health markers. However, there are certain things that it's not a blanket statement of what will work or not work for you. Like, you know, you'll have arguments between vegans and like carnivore diet people about how, oh, like meat is bad, meat is good, you know.
Vegan diets are bad, vegan diets are good, stuff like that. In the vertical diet in particular, there are certain things that if you have a genetic propensity to... destroyed lipids from foods like eggs and stuff like that, it's gonna hurt your health markers. Like for me in particular, I find it kind of baffling how so many people will reference like one study where it showed that, you know, eggs didn't have any effect on HDL, LDL, total cholesterol, triglycerides.
And, you know, it's like a subsection of a certain, you know, cohort of individuals. And then they apply that as a blanket statement to every single person. And then they say, oh, eggs don't affect, you know, cholesterol levels.
And that's been proven in the science. If you go look at my first two vertical diet updates, you can blatantly see how detrimental of an impact just having three eggs a day had on my LDL and total cholesterol. The impact, it like doubled my total cholesterol and doubled my LDL. So you can just see how, you know, for a lot of people, they could have, you know, five, six eggs a day and have no difference. But for me in particular, it totally destroyed my cholesterol levels and it barely improved my HDL, which was the main thing I was hoping to get out of it was if you're on TRT, you probably have low HDL and getting it into the healthy range is a struggle.
And I'm sure If you're on TRT, you can, you know, most of you guys will know what I'm talking about. If you actually get your bloods done, it's very rare for a guy on TRT to have exceptional HDL. It's usually low. Typically, it's actually not even in the healthy range.
So a lot of, I was hoping with this increased, you know, fat and cholesterol intake and all these things that are supposed to, you know, modulate lipids that, you know, I was hoping for. a just big boost in HDL with no effect to LDL. But it just wasn't the case. The three eggs, I checked whether taking out the eggs without the red meat would make a difference because I didn't want to take out both to skew the results because then if my lipids corrected themselves, I would have no idea if it was the eggs or the red meat.
So all I did in that part of the diet after getting those terrible lipid results back was take out the eggs and kept. one pound of red meat in per day which was exactly the same thing i was eating was the one pound of ground bison per day and taking out the eggs completely reversed the issue so it was 100% the eggs and i still eat the red meat every single day with no issues on my lipid profile so you have to see how this is individually dependent it's not a knock to the vertical diet it's just kind of something you have to take into consideration because a lot of times you'll read a statement that oh eggs are fine but in not in all cases for some guys it's you know could be a huge health benefit. You know, you get your vitamin, I believe it's the vitamin K that you would be missing. Vitamin K2 could be wrong on that. Biotin as well.
Obviously that's easy to get from other stuff though. Alpha GPC or choline, I should say, you can get that through alpha GPC. Exogenously though, which is what I do because I can't have eggs anymore, but it just goes to show that you have to take Everything with a grain of salt, just because there's a study showing one thing for a certain subsection of the population, it doesn't mean it's applicable to you. Like if you go get, you know, genetic testing done, you could find you have some like abnormal thing where your body doesn't process, you know, mercury correctly or something.
And then at that point, all these things that are totally harmless to the general population could literally like screw your brain up big time. And these like very, very rare, minute things aren't considered typically when people are trying to make blanket statements about this diet's healthy, this diet's healthy. So one thing I can say is the vertical diet covers your bases in terms of making it very, very idiot proof to hit all your micronutrients and macronutrient needs, which is great. But once you do hit all those needs, you have to do follow up blood work.
extensive blood work to see if there are certain foods in the diet that just aren't going to be compatible with your genetic profile because more often than not there's one or two things that are going to screw you up if you don't you know know what you're talking about and know what you're looking at when it comes to your blood work and your diet because diet it's literally so everything basically comes down to what you're putting in your body so It's not just like if something works for somebody, it doesn't mean it's going to work for you. So put it that way. But everything else besides the eggs, you know, was very complimentary to, you know, my needs.
And I had no issues with anything else other than that. Like I said, I get those nutrients from supplementation now, as you should do if you have, you know, issues with a particular food group. One thing I should note as well is. I believe the vertical diet is best suited for those who are trying to gain muscle and stay leaner while gaining that muscle. So this is perfect for you know, bodybuilders, strongmen, you know, people who have especially strongmen and powerlifters who have to put on, you know, slam tons of food and stay hungry while doing it because you know, if you bodybuild too, you'll know that, you know, eventually you hit a sticking point in your bulk where well, you're either too fat and shouldn't keep bulking or you hit a point where food is just so repulsive to you because you're force feeding yourself essentially to keep growing that you need foods that aren't too satiating.
Like if you hit a point where you're literally forced to eat junk food to get your calories in, like getting a bit of junk in is okay to some extent. It's just not optimal for your health profile, though. So a lot of people will say, you know, get your calories in no matter what. Get McDonald's if you need to.
It's like you would be much better suited doing something like the vertical diet where you can still have a completely optimized diet for health, longevity, blood markers, you know, organ health, stuff like that without having to compromise, you know, your your quality of life just to hit a calorie allotment. So it keeps you very hungry. Like your metabolism will be as maxed out as it could be on a diet.
Essentially from the vertical diet, it's very well suited for gaining lean muscle and strength and revving your metabolism. Now, this is great for bulking, but for people who are trying to stay lean year round, it can be a bit counterproductive. And the reason I say that is, yes, it maxes out your... boost your metabolism up you stay hungry all day which is great you know nutrients are partitioned better your insulin sensitivity is more on point you're not overdoing like crappy carbs or anything like that you're using exactly what you need to meet your personal performance recovery needs however if you're in a calorie deficit using calorie dense foods like eggs like red meat like you know a lot of the things in the vertical diet like Having shots of sugar throughout the day to stimulate, you know, metabolism and stuff like that.
Like you have shots of orange juice like a few times a day. Even if you're cutting and you switch to whole oranges to get a bit more fiber in to be more satiating. These things all rev your hunger up too.
So staying in a calorie deficit on the vertical diet, I feel is pretty difficult personally. At the start of the diet where you're eating, you know, you're just starting it. You're at like 3,000 calories still.
It's not that bad. But once you get to like... 2,700 or under, if you have a decent amount of muscle and you're, you know, following the vertical diet perfectly, you'll find it quite difficult to stick and adhere to a perfect diet model without deviating and cheating on your diet because the diet is designed to keep you hungry all day long. Like there are little alternatives you can use to switch to that are more satiating and are a bit more fiber dense, but the diet is designed to not bog down your digestive system on purpose, which is great. But at the same time, it's just like there aren't enough food groups in there that you can use that will not put you in a deficiency of micronutrients and still satiate you and hit all your macronutrient needs.
You know what I mean? So it's like you're having things every day like your almonds, which are super calorie dense. You're having things like fruits.
every day oranges or orange juice whatever you're choosing you're having cranberry juice you're having shots of sugar that make your insulin go up and then you get hungrier and you have you know red meat which is you know great for you know micronutrient needs and building muscle but when you're in a steep deficit is having like ground bison or a cheaper meat that's even more calorie dense that's red Is that going to be conducive to you adhering to your deficit? Probably not. And I find it very difficult to stick to a steep deficit past like 2700 when I'm on the vertical diet. Personally, I find myself finishing a meal and being hungry still.
And then I end up, you know, I can't use a lot of my diet like hacks because they're not vertical diet friendly, like zero nutrient type foods that I used to use for satiation purposes only. are just not vertical diet friendly because they're not necessarily good for you. And you're basically giving up.
You have so much of your allotment is dedicated to hitting micronutrient needs that by the time you're done that and you hit the vertical part where you're eating your red meat and your rice in a steep deficit, hitting the micronutrient horizontal portion can put you very close to your entire daily allotment if you're in a steep deficit. And then your entire diet is basically comprised of like random like almonds, orange. Uh, you know cranberry juice random like you have your eggs you have your whatever and before you know it you're at like 2 000 calories and then you only have room for like one red meat and rice meal and you're just hungry all day long and It's just not conducive, in my opinion. Like, sure, you can swap certain things to, you know, swap red meat for chicken. You swap, you know, red meat for some fish.
You swap, I don't know, eggs for egg whites. But then at that point, you're just you're missing the horizontal portion of the diet where you're getting your micronutrient needs met. And then you're not really doing the vertical diet at all.
At least, you know, unless Stan would say otherwise and he thinks that's OK. But that's not really touched on. in the diet and that's something i feel that should be noted it's not uh there's nothing wrong with it necessarily it's just if you're trying to get shredded and we both know it's not a healthy thing you're gonna be in a deficiency of micronutrients to some extent if you're trying to get it all from whole foods if you're in a steep deficit because there's simply not enough room to meet your macronutrient needs while simultaneously hitting all your micro needs when you're like in a thousand calorie deficit or something like that to get super shredded so These are things to keep in mind if you're going to go on the vertical diet spikes your hunger a lot and it becomes very difficult to fit everything in when you're you know on like 2500 sub calories you know what I mean and you're doing cardio on top of that which is making you even hungrier which is you know you'll probably be too hungry even without the cardio at 2500 or less calories on this kind of diet model so I think uh as far as guys who are trying to gain lean or guys who are trying to really bulk up Vertical diet is perfect for guys who are in a steep deficit.
The principles of the vertical diet should still be incorporated, but there are deviations from the diet you will have to take if you don't want to suffer to an extent that only the most elite of willpower could adhere to. It's kind of hard to explain, but it's like, once you hit all your micro needs with all these like non-satiating foods, you have like no room left. So.
if you're in a super steep deficit. Just keep that in mind if you're gonna go on the vertical diet. Other than the deficit part and being hungry though, it's like, like that's the purpose of it.
That's the whole point of it. So it's like, it's not, it's also not a knock on the vertical diet. It all depends on your individual goals and your individual needs. Because obviously year round depriving yourself of certain nutrients isn't congruent to optimized health practices.
So it's not like. that's a knock on the diet whatsoever it's just saying if you're going to be in like a contest prep or something and you're getting down to like 2100 calories you're doing cardio like six seven days a week at the tail end of it it's nearly impossible to follow the diet model perfectly so just keep that in mind and be prepared to uh alter some things accordingly and deal with some temporary deficiencies because it's pretty much impossible to, you know, like I said, I'm not going to, you know, ramble on too much about the same thing. But other than that, though, those are kind of like the main points I have about it.
And the main things I wanted to touch on, I think the diet's great quality of life will likely go up, your energy levels will likely go up, your thyroid production gets far more optimized, you know, you hit micro nutrient needs that you didn't even know you were deficient in that so many people they think, Oh, I eat my vegetables, I eat fruit, I eat this, I eat that I can almost promise you that you're deficient in something very important that you're not addressing. And I find the vertical diet is best for just idiot proofing the whole process because you know, if you follow the horizontal portion to a T you're covered and then the vertical portion, you know, you're covered for muscle and strength gain and you know using the most digestion friendly choices of protein and carbs that you could be using for you know recovery building muscle building strength and staying hungry to continue hitting your meal allotments without uh force feeding yourself with mcdonald's and other crap so you know i recommend anyone try it regardless if you're cutting or not just so you can see what it's like because hitting your micronutrient needs really is going to change your quality of life big time. Like you'd be surprised that once you hit all these requirements that you didn't even know you're deficient in, a lot of things change in your life in terms of your mindset, your ability to like get up and get going, your ability to, you know, even things you didn't even think of, like even just your mood, like things are maximized that you didn't even think weren't maximized previously. So I highly recommend You guys try it if you haven't you've been on the fence about it I'm going to include a link in the video description below where you can go check it out The link supports me and stan directly Obviously, he makes money off of it and I get a piece of a commission for you guys if you try it obviously, uh it's uh something that I think Most people like 99 of people could benefit from at least exploring and looking at and trying trying once because there are a lot of things you didn't even realize that you were deficient in that you very likely are and you know maxing out those at least understanding how it works even if you're not going to stick to the diet long term understanding how it works and what kind of deficiencies you're putting your body through by not fulfilling those needs it's important to understand what you're leaving on the table by not eating correctly And this thing saves you so much time from having to go research.
How do I maximize this? How do I maximize that? How can I hit my whatever vitamin needs without depriving myself of this?
How do I do this without doing that? How do I maximize my recovery post-workout and have a meal that's not going to bog down my digestive system while I get glycogen replenishment? All these things you're not going to consider that are going to maximize all your goals ideally. you know keep you healthy is the goal honestly and like regardless of how much performance you're seeking the uh health portion of it is extremely important and plays right into it so i highly recommend you guys try it and check it out at least and uh like i said link in description if you want to check out my logs on it with extensive blood work details you can go look at my vertical diet logs in my youtube channel um thank you guys for watching please like subscribe check out my blog more plates more dates.com check me out on instagram snapchat twitter podcast itunes stuff like that which are just audio rips of these videos essentially but it's good for if you're on the move and you don't want to you know stream a video on youtube and kill your data so anyways thank you guys for watching talk to you guys soon