Vertical Diet Log | Week 2 & 3 Update

I’m now 3 weeks into The Vertical Diet by Stan Efferding.

Body Temperature And Thyroid Function

I’ve been carefully monitoring my body temperature every day, multiple times per day.

I did experience a minor elevation during week 1, but since then I have seen no additional improvements.

Granted, I am coming off of long-term exogenous T3 and T4 usage, which will undoubtedly skew things, and with the half life of T4 being so long, it’s quite likely that I’m still experiencing the rebound phase of Thyroid upregulation.

At least that’s what I’m hoping, as I’m going to be pretty disappointed if this is all I’m capable of with maxed out natural function.

I’m still waking up with borderline Hypothermic body temperatures every morning (95 °F), and the highest I have seen my body temperature go is 97.3 °F in the evening after eating all of my meals.

Granted, that isn’t the worst body temperature to have at the end of the day, but I still definitely should not be waking up as cold as I am.

Is this tied directly to my Thyroid?

I can’t say for certain, but it’s quite likely in my opinion.

Obviously the ideal would be to get my body temperature up to 98.6 °F, but for now I am just being patient and trusting the recovery process.

Energy Levels

Interestingly enough, despite having a disappointing 2 weeks in regards to my body temperature, one very notable benefit I’ve started to experience is a blatant improvement in my waking energy.

Waking up is far easier than it usually is, and I’m actually consistently waking up before my alarm goes off now.

Typically, I’d be KO’d until my alarm went off, and at that point I would often hit snooze about 5-10 times before I would be able to muster up the energy to roll my ass out of bed.

I’m not a morning person whatsoever.

However, this boost in the mornings has been such an obvious difference that I can’t help but be optimistic for my Thyroid situation.

If I had Hypothyroidism that was getting worse, or not improving at all after coming off of T3 and T4, it’s quite unlikely that I would be experiencing an improvement in my levels of fatigue and energy like I am.

Blood Work And Cardiovascular Risk Assessment

I went to my doctor to get the necessary requisition forms to go get updated blood work, as well as an EKG done to assess cardiovascular risk factor improvement, or negative exacerbation.

I'll be going to get an Echocardiogram done as well in the near future.

The main things I want to assess are my thyroid function, heart function, lipids and hematology, as these are the markers that have likely been hit the hardest (if there have been any changes at all) over the past few weeks.

The consistent consumption of red meat and whole eggs in particular has me somewhat concerned for my lipid profile and cardiovascular risk, but I will be able to see once and for all if these foods have negative implications on my health or not via the pattern of my blood work and literal analysis of my cardiovascular health/heart function over the course of the next few months.

I will be having these same tests repeated multiple times to accurately track exactly what changes are happening in my body, whether that be for the better or for the worse.

Appetite…

This is a double-edged sword, as many individuals will welcome this.

For me though, it’s definitely not a positive thing for strict caloric adherence.

Some of these foods I need to eat in my horizontal axis are quite calorie dense (whole fat Greek yogurt, cheddar cheese, almonds, whole eggs, etc.) and that’s not even accounting for the calorie dense pound of red meat I use in my vertical axis.

My caloric allotment is 3100 calories, and I can just manage to maintain single digit body fat % at this intake.

However, I’m literally hungry ALL DAY.

I’ve NEVER been this hungry on a diet only consisting of “clean food” (what would be normally be perceived as traditional nutritious diet choices) as I would typically choose more satiating, lower fat versions of the foods I'm eating.

Despite my body weight being stable eating this much food, I can’t help but wonder how I will make this work when it comes time to cut down more aggressively.

The horizontal axis in itself takes up a huge amount of calories, and I’m eating what would probably be considered a low amount of red meat compared to most others on this diet.

I’m eating one pound of grass fed 85/15 ground bison each day for the record.

I’ve already tried a few of the strategies outlined in the Vertical Diet for increasing satiety, but I’m still hungry almost all day.

From what I have gathered up to now, the Vertical Diet is excellent for getting in an adequate amount of nutrients to recover and grow with ease and minimal digestive stress.

However, despite it being geared towards a maximization of overall health, it could be difficult to stick to one’s calorie requirements once they get into a steep deficit.

Of course, I could always just cut out certain foods for lower fat options, swap some stuff out and throw in some fiber dense food, and lower certain quantities of the foods in the horizontal axis after cutting down the rice, but then at that point I don’t even know if you could constitute what you are eating as the Vertical Diet.

It would at that point just become a healthier version of your standard high satiety bodybuilder-cutting regimen.

I don’t know, just thinking out loud here.

I’m doing this diet for the health benefits more so than anything, so it can be difficult to justify cutting certain foods down/out entirely when you know they account entirely for your daily micronutrient requirements of one thing or another.

There must be a happy medium that can be reached while dieting without sacrificing too much of the micronutrient fulfilment, and I’ll work on that in the coming months once I’ve sorted out this Thyroid situation.

In Conclusion

For now, I’m satisfied maintaining my current body composition on 3100 calories, and frankly, the fact that I can eat this much and not gain any weight shocked me a bit.

Normally my bulk phases start at 3000 calories, and I can steadily gain weight from there.

Regardless, interesting things are occurring, I’m optimistic about the changes I’m seeing, and I will be keeping a close eye on everything and continuing to log it for your reference.

The Vertical Diet Download

If you want to try out the Vertical Diet for yourself, you can download it here: Vertical Diet & Peak Performance Detailed Program Notes 2.0