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Vertical diet, a recently trending plan among fitness enthusiasts, was created by Stan Efferding, a pro bodybuilder. This diet is a way of structuring the diet plan, especially for athletes, in such as way that consuming these foods can help them get the maximum number of calories and increase muscle mass and strength. This can significantly help to get the best out of strength training and support high-intensity workouts.
Promoted by popular personalities like Camille Leblanc, the Crossfit Champion and "The Mountain" from Game of Thrones, Hafthor Bjornsson, a lot of people wonder what the vertical diet plan actually is. In this article, we will try to break down for you everything about the vertical diet and the best way to incorporate it into your fitness journey to maximize its benefits.
What is The Vertical Diet?
The vertical diet is a structured eating plan, specially designed for athletes, that involves eating a large number of calories to increase weight and increase muscle mass and strength for proper bulking. Recently, it has also been popular with weight loss regimes.
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The main purpose of the vertical diet is to create a structured plan comprising nutrient-dense foods, that the body accepts easily. This makes the body digest them and absorb their nutrients completely, without causing any trouble with indigestion.
Eating junk foods, or foods with low nutrition, doesn't let the body take complete benefit of them, which leaves nothing but just waste, and along with that, it adds to extra unhealthy fats and bloating especially around the stomach region. Hence, to eliminate it, the vertical diet is structured in such a way that we only eat what the body prefers, which enables us to get the highest potential out of them.
The vertical diet also limits the variety of foods that we consume, which enables the body to recognize the foods more easily. This makes it efficient for the body to digest them completely and absorb the most nutrients.
How To Incorporate The Vertical Diet?
The basic and most common two foods eaten on the vertical diet are red meat and white rice. The prime focus of this diet is to maximize muscle gain and hence involves consuming high amounts of carbs. These two foods meet that necessity. However, there are other variations of this diet too, including low-carb diets, and intermittent fasting, mainly for weight loss, that involves eating low carbs.
Red meat and white rice are the two primary ingredients in the vertical diet for several reasons. White rice is one of the best sources of simple carbohydrates which gets very easily digested by the body to produce energy, even when consumed in large quantities. This can help athletes and bodybuilders who need a high amount of carbohydrates throughout the entire day for maximum energy.
Meanwhile, red meat is a highly nutrient-dense food filled with iron, B vitamins, zinc, and good cholesterol, which are very essential for muscle building. They are much more effective than poultry and fish and increase testosterone production in the body.
However, completely depending on only these two foods is not enough, and they can't fulfil the need for all the micronutrients. The diet can also involve other nutrient-rich foods which are similarly easily digestible to the body. They may include
- Salmon
- Eggs
- Full-fat dairy
- Carrots
- Spinach
- Cucumbers
- Bell peppers
- Hormone-free chicken
- Yogurt
Incorporating the following foods along with red meat and chicken can make significant changes if maintained consistently with regular exercises.
Benefits and Downsides Of The Vertical Diet
Benefits:
The vertical diet is meant to support greater muscle mass and accelerate recovery after frequent and intense workout sessions. The extra number of calories that should be added to your diet depends on your body type, and how much your training demands.
This substantially increases our hunger pangs in between meals, as the body begins to digest food very quickly. This leads us to consume more foods, adding more calories "vertically," and directing it with proper exercises leads to muscle mass gain until one has reached his desired limit.
Along with gaining muscle quantity, the vertical diet significantly improves our digestive health and encourages discipline in our food habits.
Downsides:
However, there are a few downsides to the vertical diet. The foods that we consume while being on this diet are very low in fibre, especially white rice. Fibre is an essential compound in improving our heart health and gives us that satisfaction of fullness after a meal. It also lowers the risk of chronic diseases, such as type 2 diabetes, and certain kinds of cancer.
Further, although the foods included in the vertical diet help in releasing energy, they are very low in prebiotics, which give essential feed to the bacteria in our gut. Also, this diet limits the variety of food, which makes it difficult to sustain in the long term.
Precautions To Take
The vertical diet is quite effective and completely changes your fitness game if you are looking to gain some body weight and muscles. It can give you an ample amount of energy during your workouts and can lead to quick and more muscle recovery, giving you a more enhanced structure.
However, if one is on the vertical diet regime, one should avoid eating other kinds of grains, such as brown rice. Further, one should avoid eating peas, beans, lentils, peanuts, and foods made from soybeans. Onion and garlic also should be avoided as much as possible as well.
Processed and junk foods should be strictly avoided while being on this diet, as they contain unhealthy fats and processed vegetable oils, which are very harmful to the body, and can completely neutralize the benefits.
This is a very curated diet plan and should be followed with utmost care, otherwise, it can lead to nutrition deficiency, which will result in doing more harm than good. Hence, it is always advised to consult a certified dietician before going on this diet regime in order to reap the most benefits without risking any side effects.
