The Vertical Diet, created by powerlifter Stan Efferding, is a nutrition plan designed to enhance athletic performance and improve recovery. It focuses on a limited selection of high-quality, nutrient-rich foods that are easy to digest. Originally developed for high-performance athletes and bodybuilders, the Vertical Diet is also marketed as an option for casual gym-goers.
What is the Vertical Diet?
The Vertical Diet is a performance-based nutrition plan developed by a professional bodybuilder and powerlifter. It aims to optimize gut health, correct nutritional deficiencies, and balance hormones. It also promises to improve energy, endurance, and recovery in athletes. Unlike traditional “horizontal” diets emphasizing dietary variety across numerous food groups, the Vertical Diet focuses on a limited number of high-quality, nutrient-rich foods. According to Efferding, limiting variety makes your body more efficient at digesting and absorbing nutrients, improving muscle growth, recovery, gut health, and metabolism. However, these claims are not backed by scientific evidence. The Vertical Diet emphasizes consuming many calories to increase energy and gain muscle mass.
Core Principles of the Vertical Diet
The central premise of the diet is to eat nutrient-dense foods that the body likes-foods that are easily digestible and don't aggravate the digestive system. The thought is that sometimes foods just pass through the body and leave as waste. The Vertical Diet also suggests that when you limit the food variety in your diet, your body will become more efficient at digesting and absorbing nutrients. The Vertical Diet is a diet plan based on the philosophy of consuming nutrient-dense foods that are easy to digest. To allow better nutrient absorption, the Vertical Diet encourages you to eat foods that are digestible.
Primary Foods
Red meat and white rice comprise the bulk of the Vertical Diet. According to the diet’s advocates, white rice is the primary carb source because it’s easy to digest, especially in large quantities. This is particularly important for serious athletes with very high calorie needs. Red meat is preferred over poultry or fish due to its nutrient density and concentration of iron, B vitamins, zinc, and cholesterol, which the diet claims are important for muscle growth and testosterone production. However, as you can’t meet all your micronutrient needs with these two foods, the diet includes a limited amount of nutrient-rich, easily digestible foods, such as eggs, yogurt, spinach, and salmon. Red meat, preferably grass-fed bison and beef, is a cornerstone of this diet.
Foods to Include
The Vertical Diet emphasizes red meat and white rice while offering limited amounts of other items. Foods you can eat on this diet include:
Read also: The Hoxsey Diet
- Rice: white only
- Red meat: beef, lamb, bison, and venison
- Fruits: mostly oranges, 100% orange juice, cranberries, and 100% cranberry juice - but all fruits are allowed
- Potatoes: white and sweet potatoes
- Low-FODMAP vegetables: carrots, celery, zucchini, cucumber, bell peppers, eggplant, spinach, butternut squash
- Oils and fats: extra-virgin olive oil, coconut oil, avocado oil, butter, nuts
- Fatty fish: wild Alaskan salmon is highly encouraged
- Eggs: whole eggs
- Dairy: full-fat yogurt, whole milk, cheese
- Sodium: bone broth, chicken stock, iodized table salt
- Poultry: chicken, turkey
- Oats: only if soaked and fermented
- Legumes: beans and other legumes, only if soaked and fermented
The diet likewise encourages eating high-quality foods, such as grass-fed meats, free-range eggs, and organic fruits and vegetables.
Foods to Avoid
The Vertical Diet discourages foods it considers difficult to digest, as well as highly processed foods, including:
- Grains: brown rice, bread, pasta, breakfast cereals, wheat flour, unsoaked oats
- Legumes: unsoaked lentils, beans, soy, peas, peanuts
- Highly processed vegetable oils: canola, soybean, corn, safflower
- Onions and garlic: all forms of onion, garlic, and shallots
- High-FODMAP vegetables: broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, asparagus, kale
- Sugar alcohols: erythritol, xylitol, sorbitol
- Added sugar: candy, pastries, baked goods, soda, sports drinks
- Coffee: regular and decaf
- Other beverages: alkalized water
Remember that the diet permits small amounts of some of these foods as long as your body can digest them without any digestive symptoms, such as gas or bloating. When it comes to dietary restrictions, Stan Efferding says, “I don’t eat foods I like, I eat foods that like me.” Since everyone’s body is different, what may not suit one person may be the most easy-to-digest food for another. The goal of the Vertical Diet is to eat foods that you can easily digest.
How to Follow the Vertical Diet
When starting out, you calculate your basal metabolic rate (BMR), or the number of calories your body needs to function while at rest. You then add calories based on your training regimen. Bodybuilders should aim for a calorie surplus to gain muscle weight. As your body adjusts to the diet and starts to feel hungry between meals, you’re supposed to “go vertical” by adding more calories. This process is meant to support greater muscle gains, quicker recovery, and more intense or frequent training sessions.
The exact number of additional calories is based on training needs and involves either increasing your portions of rice and meat or eating an additional meal during the day. Once you start feeling hungry between meals again, you repeat this process until you’ve reached your goal weight or goal muscle mass. Assuming your goal is mass building and muscle growth, you're likely to be in a caloric surplus. This meal plan is designed for those who want to gain muscle mass, improve their nutrition, and boost their athletic performance.
Read also: Walnut Keto Guide
Potential Benefits of the Vertical Diet
Bodybuilders, powerlifters, and other athletes looking to gain muscle mass may find that the Vertical Diet fits their needs. It may also benefit those who want to lose weight or have difficulty digesting FODMAPs.
- May support muscle gains: A calorie surplus is important for gaining muscle, especially for bodybuilders, powerlifters, and other serious athletes. By focusing on easily digestible foods, the Vertical Diet makes it easier to eat frequent, high-calorie meals without experiencing digestive side effects. Furthermore, the diet emphasizes increasing your carb intake, which can help boost muscle mass. Studies show that adequate carb intake before training can enhance athletic performance. Carbs may also increase protein synthesis and reduce muscle breakdown.
- May reduce digestive symptoms in some individuals: Diets low in FODMAPs - foods that the Vertical Diet limits - have been shown to significantly reduce digestive symptoms, such as bloating, stomach cramps, constipation, and diarrhea, in people with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Bodybuilders and other athletes who need frequent, high calorie meals may also benefit, as low-FODMAP foods reduce your risk of bloating. Bloating may otherwise impair your muscle and weight gain by limiting your food intake. Because the diet emphasizes consuming low-FODMAP foods, the Vertical Diet significantly reduces constipation, bloating, and diarrhea.
- Enhanced Nutrient Absorption: To allow better nutrient absorption, the Vertical Diet encourages you to eat foods that are digestible.
- Increased Calorie Consumption: By consuming foods that are easy to digest, you can eat more and burn more. One of the greatest problems athletes face is consuming enough calories because they eat nutrient-dense food. This feeling of being full hampers weight gain.
- Promotes Muscle Growth and Recovery: Since the Vertical Diet is a protein-rich diet, it not only promotes muscle growth but also recovery.
- Simplicity and Effectiveness: What makes the Vertical Diet so great is that it is simple yet effective. With its minimal ingredients, it fulfills your body’s nutrient requirements - all the while keeping you healthy. It minimizes high-sugar, processed, and caffeinated items.
- Easier Calorie and Nutrient Monitoring: The greater the variety, the greater the choices and variables at play. This can make it harder to keep track of your calories and nutrient consumption. With the Vertical Diet, although your options are limited, you’re able to easily monitor what you’re putting in your body.
- Tailorable to Caloric Requirements: The best part about the Vertical Diet is that you can tailor it according to your caloric requirements.
Potential Downsides of the Vertical Diet
It’s important to note that the Vertical Diet has numerous downsides, including being:
- Low in fiber: Adequate fiber intake aids fullness, heart health, and digestive health. It may also lower the risk of chronic diseases, such as type 2 diabetes and certain forms of cancer.
- Low in prebiotics: Despite claims that it boosts gut health, the Vertical Diet excludes many important sources of prebiotics - dietary fiber that feeds the beneficial bacteria in your gut - including garlic, onions, and barley.
- Limited in variety: The diet is restrictive and repetitive, making long-term adherence difficult. It may also lead to nutrient deficiencies if not planned correctly. Limiting the variety of foods could lead to nutrient deficiencies and increased risk for chronic diseases.
- Inappropriate for vegetarians or vegans: As the Vertical Diet emphasizes red meat intake while limiting vegetable, grain, and legume intake, it’s unsuitable for people who are vegetarian or vegan. Another major downside of the meat and rice diet is that not everyone can have it.
- Expensive to follow: While white rice is usually cheap, the other components of the Vertical Diet can be costly - especially considering the recommendation to buy only high-quality foods, such as grass-fed beef and organic produce. While you don't necessarily need to purchase premade meals sold by Efferding's company, animal-based proteins such as red meat can be pricey. And, unfortunately, grass-fed and hormone-free meat costs even more. Red meat, the main component, is more expensive than most sources of protein. The reason red meat is preferred over white meat is because of its nutritional value. A cheaper fix to consuming just red meat is to consume some white meat as well. If you are consuming iron, zinc, and vitamin B in adequate quantities, consuming just white meat in place of red meat has no downsides.
- Nutritional Imbalance: Since the Vertical Diet restricts a lot of grains, beans, and even veggies, it may lead to an overall nutritional imbalance. For instance, it restricts high-fiber foods as they could lead to bloating. However, fiber is also crucial for gut health and healthy digestion.
- Potential Health Risks of Red Meat: Research published in 2022 in Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology found that individuals who consumed at least 1.1 more servings of red meat and processed meat daily for 12 to 26 years had a 22% higher risk of developing heart disease than those who did not. Researchers theorize that this is because red meat contains high amounts of the amino acid derivative L-carnitine. When it reaches the gut and is metabolized by the gut bacteria, it produces a byproduct called TMAO, or trimethylamine N-oxide. Current studies suggest that we do not need to limit red meat in contrast to professional advice that says red meat should not be excessively consumed. Some health professionals do suggest a link between excessive red meat consumption and bowel cancer. Another example of red meat and its notorious effects is that people who eat red meat are more likely to commit behaviors with negative health effects vs. people who follow plant-based diet.
Sample 3-Day Menu
Here is a 3-day sample menu for the Vertical Diet. Remember that your number of meals may vary based on your training regimen and calorie needs.
Day 1
- Meal 1: whole eggs scrambled with cheese, red peppers, spinach, and salt, served with raw baby carrots, raw almonds, and 4 ounces (120 ml) of cranberry juice
- Meal 2: ground sirloin beef and white rice cooked in chicken stock, plus 4 ounces (120 ml) of orange juice
- Meal 3: chicken breast and sweet potato served with 4 ounces (120 ml) of orange juice
- Meal 4: grass-fed steak with white rice cooked in chicken stock and 4 ounces (120 ml) of cranberry juice
- Snack: Greek yogurt and baby carrots
Day 2
- Meal 1: whole eggs scrambled with cheese, spinach, red peppers, and bone broth, served with boiled potatoes and 4 ounces (120 ml) of cranberry juice
- Meal 2: ground bison with white rice, sweet potato, and bone broth, alongside 4 ounces (120 ml) of orange juice
- Meal 3: chicken breast with white rice, sweet potato, bone broth, and an orange
- Meal 4: grass-fed steak with white rice, potatoes, zucchini, and bone broth, served with 4 ounces (120 ml) of cranberry juice
- Snack: whole milk and baby carrots
Day 3
- Meal 1: whole eggs scrambled with cheese, spinach, red peppers, and salt, alongside overnight oats made with yogurt, milk, and optional raw honey and nuts
- Meal 2: ground sirloin steak with white rice, peppers, and chicken broth, served with 4 ounces (120 ml) of cranberry juice
- Meal 3: wild Atlantic salmon with white rice, spinach, peppers, and chicken broth, plus baby carrots and 4 ounces (120 ml) of orange juice
- Meal 4: grass-fed steak with white rice, sweet potatoes, and chicken broth, in addition to 4 ounces (120 ml) of cranberry juice
- Snack: Greek yogurt and berries
Is the Vertical Diet Right for You?
The Vertical Diet is meant to help bodybuilders and other serious athletes gain muscle mass and improve performance. It includes easily digestible foods to help your body absorb nutrients more efficiently and prevent digestive side effects, such as bloating.
The Vertical Diet may provide short-term performance-related benefits, but it does not support an overall healthy lifestyle change. If you are an athlete engaging in high-intensity activities, you might consider trying the Vertical Diet with the support of a registered dietitian specializing in sports nutrition. If you are an average gym-goer just looking for ways to manage weight or tone your body, you are better off eating a balanced diet that emphasizes a variety of foods, including whole grains, vegetables, fruits, low-fat dairy and alternatives, lean meats and plant-based proteins.
Read also: Weight Loss with Low-FODMAP