Vertical Diet for Weight Loss (100 pounds lost in 9 Months)

If you want to break through a weight loss plateau and keep dropping the pounds, you may consider using Stan Efferding’s Vertical Diet.

The Vertical Diet is about optimizing your digestive system by consuming foods that your body can “put to work” instead of wasting valuable time breaking them down a causing you to feel bloated.

Stan Efferding’s diet consists mainly of lean red meat, white rice, low FODMAP vegetables, and various other micronutrients.

Using the Vertical Diet for weight loss is simple – you adjust your caloric intake by scaling your lean red meat and rice intake up or down. This makes it easy to control your calorie intake and cut back on food if needed to lose weight.

In this article, we will discuss how I personally used the Vertical Diet to lose 100 pounds and how you can use it for weight loss too!

Losing 100 Pounds on the Vertical Diet

To give myself some credibility regarding the Vertical Diet and weight loss, I will delve briefly into my own story.

I began my weight loss journey on October 1st, 2021, after enduring several major health issues, including having to have a large piece of my colon (large intestine) removed.

I began my journey standing at 5′ 11” and weighing a whopping 278 pounds.

Saying that I was a fat, unhealthy f*** would be quite an understatement. I was on death’s door at only 30 years old.

After getting out of the hospital, I realized the only way to make a change and see results would be to go “all in”. Like I am sure millions before me, I turned to the internet to find a diet that could help me get back into shape and a diet where the science made sense.

In comes the Vertical Diet.

Interestingly, the Vertical Diet is not necessarily designed for weight loss. However, one of the great things about the Vertical Diet is that it is goal agnostic.

Whether you are a bodybuilder, soccer mom, teacher, or division one athlete, the Vertical Diet can be followed and tailored to your desired results.

The simplicity and no-nonsense approach brought by Stan Efferding in the creation of this program “clicked” for me.

The weight loss program can be merged with the Vertical Diet. It is as easy as calorie control and monitoring output vs. input of caloric energy expenditure.

Vertical Diet Weight Loss Monster Mash

The cornerstone of the Vertical Diet is Stan’s Monster Mash, the standard Monster Mash consists of the following:

• Ground bison
• Red bell peppers
• Carrots
• Sweet potatoes
• White rice
• Chicken bone broth

To adjust this, so I am hitting my desired protein macros of about 1 gram of protein per pound but keeping overall calories low, I would cook the following Monster Mash recipe:

• Ground bison or Ground Turkey or Filet Mingon
• Red bell peppers
• Carrots
• Sweet potatoes – smaller amount aka vertically down
• White rice – smaller amount aka vertically down
• Chicken bone broth

When looking at these ingredients or plugging them into a food tracker (hint: you should be if your goal is losing weight), you will notice that most of the calories are due to white rice and sweet potatoes.

These are calorically dense and heavy carbohydrates. Once you are closer to a baseline weight or your energy output is getting higher due to strength training and cardio, you can vertically scale these backups.

Benefits of Following a Vertical Diet for Weight Loss

The main benefit of the Vertical Diet, when applied to weight loss, is routine.

Everybody knows creating habits, whether good or bad, requires consistency and repetition.

Eating the same specific diet day in and day out has a few positives:

• You are aware of your calorie intake
• Easy to meal prep and plan ahead
• Grocery shopping is similar
• Less bloating and discomfort as your body adapts to the Vertical Diet

You may be thinking out loud, “how can I eat the same thing everyday”?

The real beauty of the Vertical Diet and Monster Mash, particularly, is how customizable the recipe is.

• Swap out the bison for venison
• Switch the sweet potatoes for russets
• Change from baby carrots to purple
• Try out Asian seasonings in place of just salt and pepper

The options and versatility are genuinely endless on the Vertical Diet.

Digestive Health & Weight Loss

The Vertical Diet is all about making your body and, most importantly, digestive system work more efficiently.

Stan has said on many occasions that the goal of the vertical diet is to make your body a “fat-burning machine”. One way this is done is by including probiotics in the form of fermented foods (i.e., whole-fat plain Yogurt) and also bone broth.

Bone broth is rich in amino acids, which help with gut health as well as provide numerous other micronutrients your body needs to up its game.

Personally, with all of my digestive issues and battle with severe diverticulitis, the Vertical Diet has given me my life back, and even my doctors have commented in support of my current diet and cited it as helpful in preventing reoccurring issues.

How to Follow a Vertical Diet for Weight Loss

Simply stated, you can follow the Vertical Diet as usual and adjust the quantity of food you consume to maintain a caloric deficit.

A vertical Diet sample meal plan day in a deficit would look like this:

Lunch: Monster Mash with smaller portions of rice and sweet potatoes

Snack: Fage full-fat yogurt

Dinner: Filet mignon, baked sweet potatoes, and a salad with olive oil & vinegar dressing.

Repeat day one or mix it up a bit while still keeping your overall calorie intake a bit under your RMR or resting metabolic rate.

You can find out your exact macros using our custom Vertical Diet macro calculator.

Vertical Diet Recipes

Monster Mash [Weight Loss Edition]

We have a few Vertical Diet recipes at Lindy Health, the main one being our Monster Mash recipe guide that includes several excellent, tasty, and repeatable Monster Mash recipes for weight loss:

Protein + Yogurt

This is a great way to turn your Yogurt into not only a dessert but a protein macro-hitting treat.

Ingredients:

1 cup whole-fat plain Yogurt

1 scoop cookies n’ cream protein powder

1 splash of vanilla extract

2 dashes of ground cinnamon

Directions: 

Stir for about 3 seconds (add a splash of milk/water if it is too thick)

Enjoy!

Vertical Diet Taco Seasoning

FAQS About the Vertical Diet

Can you lose weight on the Vertical Diet?

Yes, stick to the standard Vertical Diet but adjust quantities and eat less calorie-dense carbohydrates for weight loss on this diet.

What foods are in the Vertical Diet?

Lean red meat, potatoes, white rice, low-FODMAP vegetables, and various other macronutrients are all foods in the Vertical Diet.

Why can’t you have coffee on the Vertical Diet?

The reasoning behind having a low amount of coffee on the Vertical Diet is to keep your total caffeine intake low which can disrupt digestion and sleep, both critical parts of Stan Efferding’s diet.

How much does the Vertical Diet cost?

Food prices have been skyrocketing lately and purchasing large amounts of lean meats such as bison and lean steak is expensive. Costco trips can help cut down on the cost of the Vertical Diet significantly.

How many Vertical meals should I eat a day?

You can eat as many meals as you want on the Vertical Diet while losing weight. You need to track overall calorie consumption to make sure you are in a deficit. Eating 5 small meals versus 2 heaping meals is essentially the same. There may be small advantages to different regimens as you get more advanced, but for weight loss, this is not a concerning factor.

Can you eat oatmeal on the Vertical diet?

Yes, but they must be fermented to optimize digestion. The best way to enjoy oatmeal on the Vertical Diet is to leave them soaking overnight in the fridge to remove gasses that are stored in the Oates.

Is tea allowed in the Vertical diet?

Yes, tea is allowed on this diet, but you will want to not overdo it as tea does have small amounts of caffeine which are discouraged in the Vertical Diet.

Verdict

The Vertical Diet is an excellent tool for weight loss as it helps to control calorie intake and provides a lot of variety. It is also rich in probiotics and amino acids, which can help with gut health.

To follow the vertical diet for weight loss, simply adjust the quantities of food you consume to maintain a caloric deficit. It’s not that hard!

Also, be sure to read up on the other lifestyle suggestions put forward in the Vertical Diet, such as sleep hygiene, stress reduction, and taking frequent walks (especially post-meal) to keep your blood sugar in check.

Is the Vertical Diet weight loss magic? No.

The Vertical Diet will, however, show you how to not just take care of your body but fuel it like a fine Italian sports car.

This is the magic that helped me lose weight, keep the pounds off, and now pack on muscle.

Thanks, Stan!