In this episode you will hear from an incredible entrepreneur who has succeeded across all channels of competition, from sports to business, Stan Efferding!

Stan is a legend in the bodybuilding/powerlifting space, and he is also an incredibly high-performing champion—not only in competitive sports but also in business. He is also one of the great diet experts on the planet who puts out an incredible amount of content, and he brings such a thoughtful and strategic approach to not only weight loss but weight gain for competitors in strength sports as well. 

This episode is full of interesting insights thanks to Stan’s knowledge and highly sensible perspective, and as you’ll hear me remark during the show, it feels like we’re all finally marching towards this end point where we’re increasing the sensibility of our dietary practices and getting away from restrictions and gimmicks. This episode is packed with memorable insights and interesting takeaways about everything from peak performance to entrepreneurial success to sustainable weight loss methods and healthy eating strategies. Stan also dispenses some wonderful advice and tips about career success and focus in this inspirational show.

Stan Efferding is an IFBB Professional bodybuilder, World Record Holding Powerlifter, and one of just 10 men in the world to ever total over 2,300 pounds raw in competition! He is also a successful entrepreneur who has built three different start-up businesses into multi-million dollar companies. Stan studied Exercise Science at the University of Oregon and has been training high school, Collegiate, and Professional athletes for over 25 years, and once held the title of the World’s Strongest Bodybuilder. And if that wasn’t enough, he also conducts seminars all over the country for various sports and nutrition and training techniques, and has written for magazines like Muscular Development, Flex Magazine and Power Magazine. 

TIMESTAMPS:

Stan Efferding, a weightlifter and businessman, talks about weight loss and weight gain in strength sports. [01:26]

Stan’s story goes from being a scrawny kid to building businesses, living big, and turning back to strength training and coaching. [04:29]

Anyone who has reached a level of success in any sport with the discipline, consistency, and time management that is required, could be successful in any venture. [08:11]

Stan uses a spreadsheet to hold himself accountable for his plans for fitness as well as business. [11:30]

There are many stressful situations in your life over which you have no control. It helps to acknowledge that, write about it, and then let it go.  [17:15]

Stan has the most experience of anyone in gaining and losing weight. [21:50]

There is a lot of danger in the chronic dieting environment of weightlifting and bodybuilding.  [23:54]

What is recommended for postmenopausal women? [40:52]

There’s a big difference between exercise and training. Exercise is battle ropes and burpees. Training is measurably progressing load over time so that you’re stronger. [43:32]

Be patient with your weight loss. [50:58]

What is the Vertical Diet? [55:49]   

What is Stan’s regimen now that he is in his mid-50s and not competing? [01:01:49]

LINKS:

• Brad Kearns.com
• Brad’s Shopping page
• Stress for Success
• If you want to be healthy, don’t compete
• Vertical Diet
• Stan Efferding.com

LISTEN: 

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B.Rad Podcast

Brad (00:01:26):
Stan Efferding listeners, this guy is a legend in the body building and the power lifting space. He’s an incredibly high performing champion, not only in his competitive sports, but in business. And his story is quite amazing. He gets into it a little bit at the start. So we’re gonna learn about an amazing entrepreneur who succeeded across all channels of competition, from sports to business, and also one of the great diet experts of the planet, in my estimation. The amount of content that he puts out and the thoughtfulness and strategic approach to not only weight loss, but weight gain for these competitors in the strength sports. So I think you’re gonna find some really interesting insights, and it’s centered upon his very, very popular vertical diet. And he’s conveying that over the course of the show. And at the end, he’ll summarize everything for you. But it’s basically following a nutrient dense, easy to digest diet that’s sustainable, that delivers all the balance of macronutrients and micronutrient that you need to survive and thrive and feel great and keep hunger and satiety under control.

Brad (00:02:43):
It’s so incredibly sensible. He’s been pumping this out for over a decade, and as I told him at the end of the show, I think we’re all finally marching toward this end point where we’re increasing the sensibility of the dietary practices and getting away from the, uh, restrictions and gimmicks and things. But you’re gonna hear some really interesting and memorable takeaways. Some of them relate to his peak performance tips and entrepreneurial success, and then some of ’em relate to eating strategies. I love how he will simplify it down to look, if you wanna drop excess body fat, and by the way, the vast majority of health benefits from dietary transformation come when you just drop excess body fat. And there’s a bunch of different ways to do that that are unsustainable, as we know from the body building community and all the health problems they run into.

Brad (00:03:36):
But if you do it right and you’re patient, you’re gonna get massive health benefits from losing 6% of your body weight if you’re overweight or obese. And I also love some great peak performance tips when it comes to, uh, a career success and focus. And I’m titling the show Compliance in the Science because that’s what he stand by. And he works hard. He quantifies everything, and it’s a great inspiration to listen to Stan and dispense his wisdom for this hour of power. So here we go. Stan Efferding nicknamed Rhino. I didn’t get a chance to ask him why, but he can still deadlift 700 pounds at age 55. So pretty strong guy. And a strong message Stan Efferding. I gotcha. Almost fitting in the screen.

Stan (00:04:25):
It’s great

Brad (00:04:26):
To connect.

Stan (00:04:27):
Thank you.

Brad (00:04:29):
We have a lot to talk about the vertical diet, how to eat sensibly and appropriately for peak performance, recovery and longevity, all that great stuff that you’ve been deep into. But I’d love to just get an introduction, especially how you, uh, plunged into the, the fitness scene and competing and doing your deep studying. Cuz uh, I remember that anecdote from talking with Mark Bell where you were, uh, you left the, the, the mansion and the Rolls Royce behind and packed a couple bags and went into the strength training scene cuz you were a little bored living at the top of the hill or something like that. Let’s hear about that man.

Stan (00:05:04):
Well, you know, it’s a labor of love. It’s been my, my whole life since I was a teenager. I was a scrawny kid, had a soccer scholarship, and I was all of 140 pounds in college. And so I started lifting weights. I wanted to get bigger and I just fell in love with it. I love lifting. I’m always cautious when I make recommendations to people about their exercise programs that I’m, I’m cognizant of the fact that not everybody loves lifting . So, uh, it, it’s been certainly a passion of mine all my life. And, uh, you know, I competed for, uh, up until about, uh, from 1986 to 1997, and then I took 10 years off of competing while I was building my businesses. And, uh, um, once I was comfortable and, uh, you know, financially and everything was kind of settled in my life and I had the time and the resources, I dove back into competition.

Stan (00:05:55):
And I had the opportunity to go down and train with Flex Wheeler down in San Jose back in 2008 and 2009. And so I did, I packed my bags and I jumped on an airplane and I lived in an extended stay for three months while I trained with him every single day, twice a day. And he prepped me to win the, uh, uh, the Master’s Nationals where I won my I F B Pro card. And, uh, oddly enough, during that time, Mark Bell had reached out to me because I had a history of power lifting, and he asked me if I would do a meet with him. And so as soon as I got my pro card, I drove from San Jose to Sacramento and I spent two more months training with Mark and set an all time world record and power lifting. And, uh, I played around a little bit after that with a few more power lifting meets and a few more body building shows before I, uh, my window of opportunity had had shut. And I was in my mid forties and the weights started getting pretty heavy and my body started getting pretty tired of all the competition. And so I, since then, I’ve just, you know, focused on helping others achieve the things that I was able to achieve. And in my life, I always say, if I knew then what I know now, now I’m trying to send that message to folks who need help.

Brad (00:07:03):
So you had sort of two separate forays into intense training and competing, broken up by a decade of, of going and building businesses that weren’t related to fitness, as I understand,

Stan (00:07:15):
Correct? Yeah, I started to telecommunications company. I had a real estate development company where I bought, built and sold single family, multi-family and commercial real estate. And, uh, ran an engineering firm and just a host of different businesses in order to make money. The fitness industry at the time certainly wasn’t as, uh, lucrative as it as the potential is now. We didn’t have the social media reach and it was mostly just personal training and, uh, you know, it’s really hard to make a, a good living on personal training, although now, you know, we’ve found some methods that, that can help people, uh, make six figure incomes on personal training that’s one on one. And so, I worked, worked hard to try and get those businesses up and running so I could have the financial security that I always wanted. Uh, and then my, my passion took over once I was comfortable to get back into competing.

Brad (00:08:11):
So it sounds like you could relate some success attributes that crossover from lifting the heavy weights becoming a big guy, and, you know, then going and, and crushing these businesses. It’s fascinating that you’re able to just apply to whatever your goal was in front of you.

Stan (00:08:28):
You know, it’s interesting that you asked that because I’ve said in, in a number of times, in one of my rhinos rants, uh, on YouTube that, uh, the anybody who’s reached a level of success in any sport with the discipline, the consistency, and the time management that’s required, uh, particularly with all the sacrifices, cuz most of those sports don’t, don’t compensate you, um, could be successful in any income producing venture if they applied the same amount of, uh, of commitment and the consistency in time management. And they were patient enough. And I’ve said that probably within five years, if you were you know, uniquely focused, have I said, you could be great at anything, but you can’t be great at everything. And so you kind of gotta pick your path and go hard at it, and things evolve. I understand that, you know, the business plan that you start out with doesn’t always end up that way, and actually rarely does, but as long as you’re persistent and consistent and then repeat successful behaviors, one of the things you learn in power lifting and body building is certain things work, certain things don’t. You ask a lot of questions, you learn a lot of lessons, you apply what you can and discard that which doesn’t work, and then just keep repeating the same successful behaviors over and over and over again, uh, that you’re just obviously likely to emerge, uh, at the top.

Brad (00:09:53):
Yeah. And then you’ve obviously, back to that, uh, analogy to sports. You throw out the stuff that doesn’t work because that’s how you injured your shoulder. And so if you can keep those metaphors going into whatever’s not working in business, and I think a lot of people get stuck there, perhaps, especially when I’m kind of frustrated seeing, you know, great athletes struggling in general everyday life. I’m thinking of young kids who were, you know, they were the champs, they were 12 and 0 on the football team, and then they’re drifting around the neighborhood, uh, aimless because they’ve been past their heyday. But, um, you’re, you’re describing lighting up the same switch, uh, just looking at a spreadsheet rather than a, um, a a tackling dummy.

Stan (00:10:38):
Yeah. You know, you hit on a few things there. Uh, I find this a lot with military, ex-military folks. When they’re in the military. They have a very specific focus. They have a team of people that they’re working with, They have a supervision, uh, that’s telling them what to do, when to do, and they’re very successful. And then they get out, and now they really don’t have as rigid of a plan. They may have relied on their superiors to help guide them, and they, they kind of get lost in the day to day. I hate being too general, so I wanna just offer some specific recommendations that have been very successful for me, both in competing and in business. And, uh, it’s kind of a daily checklist, and I’ve talked about that which gets measured, gets improved. You know, in, in the sports industry, we say everything should be measurable and progressable and transferable.

Stan (00:11:30):
And so I just printed out an Excel spreadsheet that had the days of the month across the top, and it had the a list down the left-hand side of the things I needed to check off every single day to be successful. And this included, uh, my hours of sleep. You know, I’d weigh myself daily, uh, my training obviously, and there had to be some sort of progression there. I had to get better over time. Uh, any sports supplements that I might be taking at the time, maybe, you know, nowadays it’s my 10 minute walks, uh, after each meal, I keep track of those things. It holds me accountable. I can look at that sheet and I can see whether or not I’m accomplishing the, the, I would say, obligations or requirements in order to be successful. And I did the same thing in business, Obviously.

Stan (00:12:15):
I would use an Excel spreadsheet to create a, um, you know, a financial progress statement, something that I could, I could look out into the future and see, you know, kind of what my long-term financial outlook looked like. But I lived off of a yellow notepad at one time. I was running a hundred million dollar, 1200 unit property with, uh, you know, 5,000 residents and 60 employees. And I, I ran that thing primarily off of a, uh, a yellow notepad, a paper that I carried with me everywhere. It was on my end table at night when I went to bed. It was on my, uh, bathroom counter when I was there in the morning. It was on my kitchen table when I was eating breakfast. And it went with me everywhere throughout the day. And I did one thing in addition to writing down everything that I needed to accomplish that day.

Stan (00:13:09):
It was just a to-do list. I just found that if I, a lot of that stuff, if I put it in my phone, would end up kind of like, I call it like the junk drawer in the kitchen. Once you close it, you just forget about it. So I wanted those things staring at me, reminding me every single day. And I fell into the, the, uh, often the problem that people often have is I was, I was doing a little bit of everything in a whole lot of nothing. I would, you know, start checking off things on this list that really didn’t lend themselves well to the growth of my company. So I had to obviously prioritize those things. And what I would do is I would put little dollar symbols after the things that would actually pay me. And that didn’t include a trip to Costco or to Walgreens.

Stan (00:13:52):
You know, the kinds of things that we feel accomplished at the end of the day when we check off of our list, and I, I started having to economize those things. I had a meal prep company send me meals. I had, uh, uh, you know, companies that there’s, um, what’s the name of the, uh, Instacart would go do my grocery shopping for me. You know, I, I started outsourcing the things that, that would preoccupy my time and my, uh, my brain power that could better be spent focusing on the things that actually paid me. So the dollar symbols told me that, and I, I focused on those things and, and then tried to economize the rest. And so I, I hope that’s helpful, because at the end of the day, I’m kind of a blue collar guy. Uh, I’m not a, I’m not a genius. I didn’t build these companies and become successful because I was smarter than everybody else. Uh, I was just very, um, organized and consistent. I had great time management, uh, and I just knocked things off of my list day after day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, decade after decade. And that’s how you build a great, uh, you know, body building or power lifting or sports career. And that’s how you build a great business.

Brad (00:15:00):
So the to-do list on the yellow legal pad has a $1 sign, $2 signs, $3 signs, or, or the $5 sign. One, you’re staring at that, and that’s the one you’re gonna jump on first thing. And sort of, that’s, that’s a prioritization strategy for those, the various things on your to-do list.

Stan (00:15:19):
Yeah. And at the end of the day, you know, you, you, you cross off all the things that you accomplish. And if you find that the things with the dollar symbols on

Brad (00:15:28):
Aren’t the other are crossed off.

Stan (00:15:30):
Generally it’s, it’s because it, you know, usually it’s because those things might take a little longer or they don’t really have a start and a finish. Things like marketing, you know, it’s a continuous process and it, it isn’t clean. Like, you know, you, like, you check off a, you know, something that you get at Walgreens, it’s something that you have to implement, wait for response, make a call back, set up, schedule a meeting, close a deal. Those things can take days or weeks to, to come to fruition, and they just don’t become, uh, as maybe as urgent or they become easier to postpone until tomorrow. But those are things that pay you, that afford you the opportunity to do everything else. Anything else?

Brad (00:16:11):
So I guess if we’re listening now and I’m thinking, Gee, Stan, that sounds like a big hassle. I don’t really operate that way. There, uh, lies our first problem, huh?

Stan (00:16:24):
I agree. And, and you know, these foundational items, like when I talk about things just like sleep, I, I did a, a rant on YouTube called Stress for Success. And a few times throughout my career, as much of us have experienced, you end up burning a candle at both ends. You get very little sleep, you’re working long hours, you know, 12, 14 plus hours a day, seven days a week, and you just start deteriorating physically, mentally, uh, productivity starts to decline. And so at one point, and, and then stress starts taking over and anxiety and, and all those things. So at one point, when I experienced those problems, uh, I went to the library and I bought a book called Stress for Success by Jim Loehr. And I was reading the book, and I was expecting to have such, find some stress management techniques, you know, meditation or anything like that.

Stan (00:17:15):
And really the foundation of the book was get eight hours of sleep, exercise regularly, and eat a healthy diet. And I was just, and coming from a, a, a guy who had competed in body building for over a dozen years prior to that time, uh, it just rang so true to me that, that I measured everything by performance. I measured it in terms of strength or size, and those things would be adversely affected by things as loss of sleep, missing a meal, missing a workout. And so when you apply that to work, uh, you find the same thing. I, I immediately, uh, I was sleeping four or five hours a night. I immediately fixed that problem. I, I started exercising again. I stopped eating crap. But, uh, I was actually for over a year there getting dollar meals at McDonald’s, being when I started my company, because I was so, I was so busy and so broke.

Stan (00:18:05):
Uh, it was just convenient. And I realized that all of those things were contributing to, uh, my, my stress, uh, and my, my lack of success. And so, uh, yeah, again, those, those foundational items, while they might sound, uh, somewhat boring, that I, I likened stress to weight on the bar. If you’ve got, you know, if you’ve got a 300 pound bench and there’s 200 pounds of, of weight on the bar, it feels pretty light. But if you’ve got a, a 100 pound bench and there’s 200 pounds of weight on the bar, it’s overwhelming. And I liken stress the same way. And if you’re not strong enough from having sufficient sleep exercise, you know, nutrition and, uh, certainly whatever stress management techniques you use, whether it’s, uh, you know, deep breathing or relaxation or whatever, uh, then that, that stress is gonna seem heavy to you.

Stan (00:18:58):
But the stress never really changes. You just become weaker or stronger based on, uh, what kinds of things you do behind the scenes. And you don’t want to avoid stress, and you don’t want to reduce stress. And even successful person is just able to handle more stress, uh, because they’re, they’re stronger, more experienced, more organized, uh, and they’re able to handle it because that ultimately, you know, with more employees and more income and more customers, there’s gonna be more stress. You just have to be in the position to be able to manage it, uh, by having, you know, a good, obviously a good business structure, good employees, uh, good time management skills, uh, so that it, it just becomes kind of normal to you. You’re re it out as I would say.

Brad (00:19:41):
Yeah, I’m, I’m envisioning that bar. And then it also happens that certain days there’s too much weight on the bar, but the next day the weight’s fine. You, you’re kind of going with the flow, just like an athlete with the overall stress score of your life.

Stan (00:19:54):
Yeah, agreed. And all of it’s worth mentioning. And on my to-do list, I also write down my stressors, uh, Dr. Matthew Walker, who’s a sleep specialist PhD that focuses on sleep, talks about, uh, there being substantial research to show the benefit of just something like a worry journal at night before bed, taking out that yellow pad of paper and writing down your stressors. And some of those things could be your, your to-do list items that you don’t wanna forget about. And, and you might sit there and, uh, you know, imaginate about them over and over again. Don’t forget, don’t forget, don’t forget, and I write down some stressors. And oftentimes if you write down these stressors and just identifying them and offloading them out of your conscious where you, you know, you need to move around, uh, a lot of different details in a day, uh, it, it helps give you room to focus on the other things, because that’s, that’s sitting there and sometimes just saying, Hey, I’m not in control of that. Yeah, I’m stressed about this, but I’m not in control of it. At least you can compartmentalize it and park it somewhere.

Brad (00:20:57):
That’s what I did in April of 2020, Stan, with the pandemic. I just wrote down like, I have no control over this. I’m gonna quit reading about it and live my life, follow the rules, do what I need to do, but quit talking about it nonstop since I’m not an expert. And it worked really well. I just, I just put it aside. And then of course, you gotta adjust, uh, with the things outta your control. But I, I love that.

Stan (00:21:19):
Yeah. And I said the same thing about the 24 hour news channels, because I was immersed into this whole political, uh, deal with, with the covid as well. Mm. And I just had to turn off the news channels. I just found that, that every time I watched them, I was in a bad mood. It’s pretty simple.

Brad (00:21:37):
Pretty simple, man. Okay, so speaking of that, 140 pound soccer player heading in, that was freshman year of college, you were, you were 140 and a little soccer guy, that’s what you’re saying.

Stan (00:21:50):
Yep.

Brad (00:21:50):
Um, I’m wondering, do you have the most experience of anyone ever with gaining and losing weight?

Stan (00:21:57):
You know, I feel like I’m very experienced. I will say this. I’ve gained and lost, albeit intentionally throughout my career, well over a thousand pounds . I ultimately, by the mid nineties, 95, 96, I had bulked up to 300 pounds. And I had, had gone back and forth. I would bulk up to 300 or 280 to, to, to compete in power lifting, to be as big and strong as I could. Then I would dial it down to single digit body fat to compete in body building, and then I would turn around and flip the switch and do it again. And sometimes two or three times a year. And so I had gained and lost a lot of weight, and I learned a lot of lessons along the way. And it’s why I’m, in addition to training a lot of athletes. I was a high school soccer coach, and I trained, uh, the University of Oregon football and track teams all through the, the early to mid nineties.

Stan (00:22:49):
And, just from that experience, having worked with figure physique, bikini, bodybuilder competitors, and then, uh, obviously, uh, now hundreds if not thousands of dad bods and soccer moms all over the world, uh, I, I feel like I have experience, but also empathy on both ends of the spectrum for how difficult it can be. And I, I feel like that I’ve seen, uh, you know, I’ve experienced that there are, I made a lot of mistakes and I, I learned a lot of lessons, and I experienced, uh, that there are ways you can do it to minimize some of the challenges of extreme dieting or losing a lot of weight and bulking and, uh, you know, potentially compromising your metabolic health from being over fat or those kinds of things. So I, I talk on both ends of the spectrum, sometimes interchangeably, which can be confusing to folks, but there there are some, there are some very important, um, I think strategies that each individual can use that are somewhat different,

Brad (00:23:54):
Very confusing. If you wanna gain, gain weight, drink orange juice. If you wanna lose weight, eat your oranges. Oh my gosh. It gets very detailed. But let’s, um, explain a bit for the listener who’s maybe not familiar with that competitive environment, the difference between competing in body building, which I think we’re all aware of, the guys oiled up on stage and on the magazine covers with all their muscles showing, and then power lifting where, And, and answer me why, as well, why do you need extra pure body weight to lift a heavier weight?

Stan (00:24:26):
Yeah, Boy, on the dieting spectrum, let’s, I call these professional dieters, bodybuilding figure, physique, bikini wellness. It goes on and on with the classes. But this is, this is the environment that I cut my teeth on. Uh, these professional or extreme dieters. Uh, they do a lot of things that, that aren’t very beneficial to the, for the general public or necessary. And when it was isolated, that industry, I, you know, I didn’t think much of it. I just knew it was, you know, I certainly didn’t recommend some of those extreme practices to, to my clients cuz I had seen the downsides. But when this industry became so popular over the last, I would say seven plus years now with social media, it’s everywhere. The diet culture and your soccer moms are seeing these girls in the quote unquote best shape of their life on stage, and they start following their programs.

Stan (00:25:20):
And they, what they aren’t aware of is behind the scenes. These girls suffer from significant health issues, uh, you know, not the least of which is the female triad, where with chronic calorie restriction comes anemia, which is, uh, iron deficiency, amenorrhea, which is cessation of the menstrual period, and osteopenia, which is bone mineral density loss. And, uh, along with the energy loss, the hypothyroidism resulting in hair loss. These are things that we commonly experience in that competitive dieting industry with the bikini and figure and physique girls, uh, that isn’t well known to the general public. Uh, and for us, it’s not surprising when someone goes on an extreme diet and starts to have these issues. Uh, we recognize that, that that’s kind of more common than not. And so with the dieting, there’s the few things that we do. These girls, uh, in the dieting industry will be overs restricted.

Stan (00:26:15):
They’ll just eat, um, egg whites, tilapia, protein powder, broccoli, and maybe a scoop of peanut butter. And that’s kind of what I’ve just described there, is, is most people recognize as your common guru diet, your weight loss diet, and it, it’s absent a lot of the, um, micronutrients that are necessary to maintain good health. Uh, iron being a huge one for women, Uh, biotin, which is for skin, hair, and nails. Of course, the chronic calorie restriction results in the hypothyroidism. So they start losing their hair and their energy and their metabolism starts to slow and, uh, they just can’t lose weight, uh, with, uh, even with the, the over restriction of calories. And so, uh, the vertical diet, the, the program that I use with my customers and, uh, and clients that I’ve been using for over 10 years now, it specifies that if you’re gonna be in a calorie restriction, you want to get the most diverse, uh, highly bioavailable, micronutrient dense foods that you can in order to stave off a lot of these deficiencies.

Stan (00:27:14):
And so, I don’t exclude red meat. I don’t exclude fruit. I don’t exclude, uh, salt, salt sodium, which is commonly, uh, taken out of these people’s diet. And I don’t exclude dairy. And for all those reasons, iron, B12, zinc, choline, biotin, calcium, all those things are commonly deficient in these chronic dieters. And so, uh, I’m very careful with my clients, uh, one not to, to implement an extreme deficit and to lose weight a little slower, and then just include more foods that, uh, that provide them the nutrients that they need. Uh, and it’s more sustainable. That’s a big thing is that to me, it’s, it’s not a, uh, the end doesn’t justify the means, and there’s no finish line to this. It has to be a lifestyle. It’s simple, simple, sensible, and sustainable. And so I designed the program based on the individual’s ability to comply long term and is it consistent with their preference, preferential taste when they eat what they like to eat, Uh, those kinds of things.

Stan (00:28:13):
So that way, uh, because weight loss isn’t hard, but weight loss maintenance is very, very difficult. I can ensure long term dietary adherence. And I kind of apply just on that same note, uh, a much more modest exercise regimen because I think a lot of people overtrain and then they end up with what’s called compensation where they get tired and they sit more and eat more. And that’s counterproductive, obviously. Uh, particularly if you’re a busy, you know, a mom, uh, with a job, uh, you know, you can’t be tired all day mm-hmm. , uh, and, and hungry all day. And so we, we avoid those things by doing a more modest amount of, um, of physical activity, uh, that incorporates, uh, some resistance training to maintain lean body mass. And then lots of what we call neat non-exercise activity just walks, uh, staying on your feet.

Stan (00:29:08):
And, and that way, uh, you burn more calories throughout the course of the whole day than you would if you tried to crush yourself for 40 minutes and then sat around all the rest of the day. Yeah. And then the flip side of that, I’ll, I’ll try and keep this side brief, but the guys who are trying to gain weight, they generally end up overeating and, and getting too much body fat, and then they start suffering from metabolic syndrome, which is, uh, primarily driven by fatty liver. And that’ll result in elevated lipids, high blood pressure, high blood sugars. And I’ve seen that, that, and I’ve experienced it myself. I’ve had over a hundred blood tests throughout my career while I was competing. And I could see these things, uh, with myself. And so now I, what I do with my big athletes is I try and mitigate damage by addressing those, uh, those potential downsides of all that excess body weight.

Brad (00:29:59):
That sounds like they’re eating a lot of the bad stuff. Because if they were eating a high amount of nutritious, easy to digest calories, they’d get fitter, stronger and, and all that, they’d respond to their training optimally.

Stan (00:30:13):
It’s just too much of a calorie surplus. Hmm. And a lot of those calories do tend to be too high in saturated fat, which drives the, the, uh, the liver fat, the, um, the non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and the elevation in lipids and long term, that’s a horrible prospect. And then of course, the insulin resistance and contributes to the high blood pressure. And a lot of these guys experience sleep apnea. And so we’ve gotta get them C P A Ps, uh, because they’re not really inclined to, uh, to lose a ton of weights. And so that might be a, a therapy that they have to use in conjunction with all their training. But you’re right, uh, they, they just, they tend to go on these all you can eat diets, , these dirty bulks, and they think that that a more of a calorie surplus is gonna help them gain more muscle. But really the, the limiting factor is that muscle is put on the body much slower than fat. And so you have to be a little more patient.

Brad (00:31:08):
Right. But if you’re patient and eat in a calorie surplus, uh, methodically over time, you can avoid those potential drawbacks of getting fatty liver because you’re trying to get bigger and do it correctly and see this steady increase in muscle mass, which is the main goal of the, the weight gainers, right?

Stan (00:31:28):
Correct. Coupled with, uh, a reduced saturated fat diet. So you can manage your LDL abi, uh, and a sufficient amount of fiber for the same reason. If those two things, those are probably your primary drivers of fatty liver and ultimately all the other metabolic syndrome problems. And so, yeah, I could keep ’em in, in a slight surplus. And, uh, like you said, eat quote unquote healthier foods is hard. Just, you know, very specifically with respect to ldl, if you could just reduce saturated fats by avoiding bacon, butter, ice cream, uh, uh, hot dogs, things that are, that are saturated fat bombs, and you can increase your fiber intake to probably 10 to 15 grams per thousand calories. You can go a long way to mitigate, uh, a lot of the problems associated with, uh, you know, elevated ldl.

Brad (00:32:23):
So when you talk about those extreme performers trying to cut up for the contest and have all their muscles showing on stage, we know that’s just a one day snapshot, and it’s certainly not healthy to dehydrate and do all the tricks that they do. Uh, but, but I’m wondering if, if they’re following a really sensible diet, they’re on the vertical diet program, they’re working out really hard, they’re not getting depleted, they’re not getting hypothyroid, is it possible to kind of end up at the same destination that you went with your crazy unhealthy practices? In other words, can an elite do this right, without compromising their health and then cut down on the, on the week of the contest and then get back up to 11% body fat for a female, which is not gonna get them in the triad, and then they’ll, they’ll dip down and get back to healthy.

Stan (00:33:12):
I like what you said there. It, it is temporary. It is, uh, you know, it’s for the day of the show. And so can you postpone a lot of these, uh, uh, problems, like you said, the tryon, et cetera, as long as possible, and then come back as quickly as possible? And the answer’s absolutely yes. With a lot of the methods that we just mentioned, I did make another video on YouTube or Rhinos Rant called, Uh, If You Wanna Be Healthy, don’t Compete. . There is a time, you know, the, the difference between health and fitness, fitness is the ability to perform a particular duty or task and the fitness level required to be a world’s strongest man is, is likely not healthy. The fitness level required to, to be a UFC champion, or even a 14 year old gymnast in the Olympics is likely not healthy.

Stan (00:34:01):
You’re pushing your body to extremes. But the idea is, is to, again, mitigate as much of that as you can for as long as you can, and then recover from it as quickly as you can. Hmm. And all the methods we just discussed, you know, taking your time using a lower, uh, much slower weight loss protocol. Uh, keeping the micronutrients in, not over-training, getting, uh, a sufficient amount of sleep, getting blood tests and watching your hormones to make sure to see how you’re affected by this whole process. All of those things can help you, uh, participate in this. And then you’re able to stay closer to competition weight around the year, so you don’t have to crash as hard or take a rebound as badly. I have 120 pound, 115 pound female bikini competitors that are eating 2,400 calories a day. Uh, which is kind of where you want to be is, is, uh, to have, have created a lifestyle, uh, and a workload, uh, such as mostly weight training, To be honest with you, they, a lot of my competitors do very little, uh, uh, traditional steady state cardio like the treadmill or the elliptical, uh, as they get closer to a competition.

Stan (00:35:11):
I just prefer that they, they work out twice a day. They’ll go in the morning for 40 minutes and come back at night for 30 minutes and just try and build the kind of of body composition, meaning more muscle mass that burns more calories at rest and certainly burns more calories at work. Uh, and then they can eat more food. And then it seems less restrictive. And then the foods that they eat, uh, particularly for dieters, I try to make them more satiating. Uh, and that’s back to whole foods, a higher protein diet, probably about a gramma protein per pound of, of goal weight or, or lean weight, um, plus, uh, sufficient fiber. And then there’s other high satiety foods that, that, uh, if you incorporated them into diet, you’ll be less hungry as often. Things like boiled potatoes and oranges, like you mentioned at the beginning of the conversation, are very high on the satiety index.

Stan (00:36:00):
You just tend not to be hungry as fast. There are conditions under which, uh, your, your hunger signaling is greater. Lack of sleep is one. Adrenal hormone starts pumping out like crazy when you don’t get sufficient sleep. Another one is P C O S. That’s a condition, as you’re aware, where women have a lower estrogen and a higher androgen content. And they tend to start storing fat, uh, um, centrally, uh, central adiposity around the organs, much the same way that that more men do than women. Cuz women without P C O S or prior to, uh, menopause tend to store fat in the hips and butt and subcutaneously rather than viscerally around the organs. And although, we’ve suspected that they had a decreased metabolism, basil, metabolic rate, now the evidence suggests that that’s not the case. They just have an increased hunger signaling and a decreased leptin sensitivity, which is the satiation hormone.

Stan (00:37:01):
So, someone with P C O S versus someone without, if they eat a meal, the person with P C O S will be hungry sooner. And it, it’s just, they just tend to eat more. And I know it’s frustrating. It sounds like I’m blaming the victim, but I’m not. It’s, it’s just not a matter of willpower. Uh, it’s, it’s the fact that, that your body is sending signals to make you hungrier more often. And the tendency is to then eat more calories than someone who, uh, does not have those problems. And so we try and obviously manage that by first and foremost reducing the liver fat. Uh, and there’s a number of strategies that we use for that. Weight loss is the big one. A lot of blood sugar, uh, issues. Um, and insulin resistance occurs as a result of liver fat, getting sufficient choline in the diet.

Stan (00:37:49):
Those are in egg yolks, or you can supplement choline in the diet, helps reverse or prevent fatty liver. Um, and then things like more fiber, of course, lower high glycemic carbs, higher protein, eating a larger high protein breakfast helps with post prandial glycemia with later meals. Um, and then walking after each meal actually helps, it’s twice as effective as metformin for reversing or preventing type two diabetes. And that’s the number one subscribe medication in the world for type two diabetes. And in the absence of all of that, uh, we do now have, I say we, the medical community is, uh, is, uh, been prescribing a, a medication called semiglutide, which you may have heard of. And semiglutide has been shown to be extraordinarily effective. And what it does is it suppresses appetite. And so you’re just not as hungry as often. And it’s, uh, it’s been shown that the, the average sustainable weight loss is somewhere between five and 6% while on semiglutide it’s north of 15%. And so it has demonstrated itself with a good safety profile, uh, to be very efficacious, particularly for those people who have this increased hunger signal.

Brad (00:39:05):
Wow. Some, uh, medicine finally recommended by, uh, you know, the, uh, the actual health experts out there training and doing the right thing. That’s amazing. You can fit that piece in.

Stan (00:39:16):
Yeah. You know, and I mentioned with, with my blood tests throughout the years, I’m, I don’t consider myself a holistic guy that’s, everything’s about the root cause. Sometimes people have, uh, medical, you know, real medical problems. Uh, hypothyroidism is an example. If you’ve got Hashimotos, you know, an autoimmune disease, it’s, it’s not curable. Uh, I know some people claim that it is, but the, the endocrinologists who deal with this quite regularly, um, suggest that it, it, in the vast majority of cases, it’s gonna need medical intervention. And getting thyroid medication is, is not a, uh, is a good idea. It’s, it’s, uh, particularly for those people who are trying to lose weight, not just for your, your general sense of wellbeing, because your energy levels will tank, uh, but it, it will help you burn more calories and stay more active. And the same thing would be true for a male that was hypogonadal and had, uh, associated symptoms of ED or, uh, you know, fatigue, depression, loss of muscle mass. Uh, that would be a great time to go in, get diagnosed, uh, and, you know, use all the resources that are available to you. I mentioned postmenopausal women, they should be on estrogen therapy. Hmm. Uh, because again, of the fact that the body will start preferentially shuttling, uh, fat to the midsection, to the visceral adiposity, and they’ll have bone mineral loss, and particularly for women, that’s a huge problem. And so, uh, estrogen therapy is definitely recommended for postmenopausal or for even women with P C O S who have low estrogen.

Brad (00:40:52):
You’re saying any, any postmenopausal women would be a blanket recommendation?

Stan (00:40:58):
I would, I would, in most cases, I would, I would consult an endocrinologist and get diagnosed. And if you have low estrogen, one of the, one of the major problems with that, particularly for women, is bone mineral density loss. And that’s a huge concern as women age. Uh, the, you know, the, the most important intervention for that is to get sufficient calcium, potassium, and resistance training. Hmm. Potassium, or I’m sorry, protein, calcium and resistance training. Just eating enough protein and calcium isn’t enough. Mm-hmm. , you have to provide a stress,

Brad (00:41:36):
Oh darn, I gotta go to the gym too. Imagine that.

Stan (00:41:38):
You’ve gotta, and I say that, you know, somewhat encouragingly because I know that not everybody likes to lift weights. And I think that’s a shame because I, I, I think the trainers feel as though their clients perceive a hard workout to mean they sweat a lot and breathe real hard. Battle ropes and burpees. I don’t recommend those for anyone. When someone comes to the gym, I find exercises that they’re comfortable doing, uh, and I progressively load them things. You know, I might use a trap bar deadlift cuz it’s more comfortable than a regular bar. Uh, I might even use, uh, like a box squat as opposed to a regular squat just because it’s a little more comfortable to do. Uh, I try and find any exercise that the clients, uh, hopefully enjoy. So I try and design the program around the exercises they’ll do, and then I get them to progress those over time, which is the single most important factor of the whole thing.

Stan (00:42:39):
When you see in research when they’re talking about longevity, uh, that strength is a huge contributor to all cause mortality for lifespan and health span. And more recently, we’ve all heard about the studies where they use grip strength to measure. It’s, it’s a proxy, it’s it’s overall strength, but that’s just how it was measured. They could have used a leg extension or a squat, uh, which prompted everybody to run out and start doing dead hangs . But, uh, in, in fact, um, the most effective method for building strength is, is any kind of resistance training. And, and I would recommend some sort of axial loading. And by that I mean deadlifting or squatting or weighted carries because a lot of the bone mineral density that you’re concerned about as you age is in your spinal column and your hips. And I want those to be the bones that that receive most of the benefit.

Stan (00:43:32):
If you’re sitting down doing a leg extension, that’s great for, you know, the quadriceps, but not necessarily great for bone mineral density, uh, accumulation in the hips and in the spinal columns. So I try and find exercises that they enjoy and then I progressively load them and get them to set. PR is what we found is in the research that it’s not the training per se. If you take, say the top 25%, the strongest group, if you break ’em up into quartiles, the life extension benefits are the highest for those that are the strongest, not ex necessarily the ones that exercise the longest. So if, if guy A is stronger than guy B, but guy B trains twice as long as guy A, guy B still doesn’t have the same, uh, long term benefit as guy A a cuz guy A is stronger. So results matter and the program should be, again, measurable and progressable over time. It’s, it’s, to me, there’s a big difference between exercise and training. Exercise is battle ropes and burpees training is measurably progressing load over time so that you’re stronger.

Brad (00:44:41):
And how do you, uh, where, where do you stack up with someone whose fondness for endurance exercise and measures their progress by how fast they could run the half marathon and hoping that they’re promoting longevity as well?

Stan (00:44:57):
Well, that’s, that’s, that’s VO2 max. And that’s important too. They’re both important and it’s, it’s not a dichotomy. You, it’s not one or the other. Uh, the reason I don’t recommend a lot of steady state cardio is because I found that that long term compliance is poor. And it’s not, it’s not advisable, or let me say what’s the more exercises not ex ex necessarily lead to more weight loss because of the compensatory effect that we talked about earlier. Mm-hmm. people, when they do more exercise, your body becomes more efficient. As you lose weight, you, you burn fewer calories for the same time invested in that exercise. Exercise is great for health, it’s great for cardiovascular health. And so I do incorporate it into the program, but I can get that out of a brisk 10 minute walk three times a day after meals and also get the glucose benefit, the digestion benefit.

Stan (00:45:49):
Mm-hmm. , um, you know, we see now that sitting is the new smoking. And if you, if you, uh, measure sedentary people against active people, sedentary people who exercise 30 minutes at the end of the day versus more active people who exercise, let’s say 10 minutes, three times a day, the, the more frequent exercisers have the, uh, greater benefit. And so I like frequency over volume, if that makes sense. Right. Uh, and it’s more sustainable every time you, you eat a meal, you could take a 10 minute walk. It, it, it’s something that a busy professional can do. Taking your kids to class, jumping on a little recumbent bike in your living room or uh, in your garage 10 minutes is, is uh, a bite size chunk that’s sustainable. But the barrier to entry to getting change, getting in the car, driving to the gym, putting in 30, 40 minutes on a treadmill, driving home, that’s the first thing that goes by the wayside. Especially for busy folks. It’s just not something people enjoy doing and it’s not terribly effective and it’s not sustainable.

Brad (00:46:48):
Yeah. There’s so many other benefits to getting up from your interaction with the screen for 10 minutes and sprinkling those in throughout the day. And as a former endurance athlete who is doing all that extreme stuff, it’s interesting for me to realize that you can get cardiovascular benefits from a brisk walk or even a gentle walk. And you can also get them from going in and doing a heavy strength training session because your heart rate’s up there and you’re working hard. It’s, um, you know, the steady state cardio thing has sort of been, in my opinion, overblown that you need to peg your heart rate at this level and last for 30 minutes or 45 or 60 minutes where you’re getting cardiovascular benefits from all kinds of exercise.

Stan (00:47:31):
Yeah. And again, I I’m not, I’m not trying to crap on anybody’s preferred exercise. The best exercise is the one you’ll do. I start there . Yeah. And if I can, what’s the best diet stand the one you’ll follow.

Brad (00:47:42):
Oh, imagine that. Wow.

Stan (00:47:44):
So, and that’s why we spent so much time talking about today, about compliance, about building habits, about sustainability, about, uh, simple, sensible, you know, and sustainable. Uh, I’ve, my quote is compliance is the science. I’ve lived by that and, and I, and I definitely focus all of my programs on, uh, finding, uh, ways. And we talked about satiety ways in which you can, uh, you can almost subconsciously through habit and through, uh, preventing yourself from getting too hungry too often, uh, you have to utilize all these strategies cuz your body’s gonna fight you every step of the way. Uh, you know, everybody wants to, everybody wants to find a particular demonn or an, an enemy and identify an enemy.

Stan (00:48:29):
You know, it’s carbs or it’s fats or it’s this or it’s that, or, uh, and I’d even had my own, uh, you know, things over the years that I said were particularly egregious. Um, but what we know is, is that the obesity epidemic is a result of excess caloric consumption period. Um, and the foods we tend to over consume are the ultra processed foods. And in study after study, when they feed whole foods against ultra processed foods, the ultra process foods folks just tend to eat about five to 700 calories more a day, because they’re not as satiated. And, and so, you know, that’s a good advice to go to whole foods. Uh, but you gotta be cautious about demonizing any particular food. And it’s okay. You know, Alan Aragon talks about the flexible diet where you have kinda an 80 20, uh, when people are dieting at a significant calorie deficit, it becomes harder and harder to do an 80 20 because you have to get sufficient protein, calcium, iron, uh, you know, all in your diet before the, uh, before you have room for, uh, your typical splurges.

Stan (00:49:41):
And that’s why I like to build metabolism so that you can eat more calories so you have an opportunity to have a little more of the things that you enjoy, but they have to be controlled, they have to be calorie controlled. There’s just no all you can eat diet. And some people find that they’re more satiated by, uh, doing time restricted feeding, and by skipping a meal. Some people find they’re more satiated, uh, by skipping carbs, by going keto. And that’s fine. That’s very individualistic. There’s no research to suggest any is better than the other. It’s what seems the least restrictive to you is what’s important. And, and that should be good news. I know people are like, Well, Stan, now what do I eat? I know, you know, what’s the best diet? And I, I prefer to put all that information out there because then you get to choose and you don’t feel as though though you’re funneled into a particular diet dogma because it’s supposedly the only thing that works or cause it works for someone else. It doesn’t work any better than any other diet. For you, you gotta choose which form of restriction to use. Uh, but they all end up, uh, if they work restricting calories to the point where you’re in a deficit so you can lose weight. We just wanna find the one that where you’re not, uh, you’re not so hungry that, that you can’t sustain the diet.

Brad (00:50:58):
And again, I’m guessing you’re gonna tell us to be patient with that weight loss.

Stan (00:51:04):
Yeah. So that, although I’ll say this, when if there’s significant, if someone has a significant weight to lose, if they have obesity, if they have type two diabetes and metabolic syndrome, one of the most effective interventions for the quickest resolution of type two diabetes is an 800 calorie liquid diet. Mm-hmm. , within seven to 10 days, they see a massive reduction in H 1 C. Now, I’m not saying that’s sustainable, but in a triage situation, there may be times in that first two to four weeks where people can utilize, what I would typically suggest is a overs restricted diet or, uh, uh, an excessive calorie restriction, particularly if you’re lifting weights during that time and getting some protein. Weightlifting will help you greatly in retaining lean body mass even with, uh, minimal calories. Not long term, but short term. Uh, uh, Stu Phillips lab out of Canada, the McMaster University, uh, did a study where they had, um, I think they had a 1.6 grams of protein per kilogram, and they did another one that was half of that.

Stan (00:52:20):
And they both worked out and they both retained their lean mass, uh, in the short term because they were training hard. The lower calorie, lower protein diet people, uh, they were, they were pretty exhausted after the 30 days. But if that’s enough to get that first, the number is generally around five, six or 7% body fat loss. Mm. That helps to, uh, mitigate about 95% of fatty liver as measured with, with biopsy. And now if you’re a 300 pound person, that’s 20 pounds. And it’s very reasonable to think that you can lose that in the first 30 days with, uh, you know, an all out program because you have it to lose. I’m talking about people with a significant amount of, of, uh, of excess weight that’s resulted in, uh, you know, those blood markers, type two diabetes in particular in fatty liver, and a 15% weight loss we can reverse type two diabetes and restore pancreatic function for those who haven’t had, uh, type two diabetes for too long of a time, many, many, many years.

Stan (00:53:28):
And pancreatic function, of course, is what drives, uh, you know, your insulin release so that you’re not type, you’re not insulin dependent as a type two, some type twos are, are on insulin and, uh, that is reversible with a 15% weight loss. Now you’re looking at 45 pounds for 300 pound person. And that’s a significant weight loss that, you know, when we look at the research, I know we hear about these people who lost a hundred pounds. That’s not too terribly common. They were patient and persistent and consistent and, and they were able to do it. Generally speaking about a 5% weight loss on average is what people can sustain. Um, and so if you’re doing better than that, you’re doing great. Now give yourself props and 5%, 6% is enough to impart significant health benefits. So don’t think that just because you don’t have a six pack, that you’re not healthier because you lost 5%, which again, for a a 300 pound persons, uh, you know, not, not gonna be that much. That’s only 15 pounds.

Brad (00:54:26):
Um, for 150 or 200 pound person still very visible and must feel great to drop 10 pounds. I mean, it’s a big difference.

Stan (00:54:35):
A hundred percent. And you’ll see, again, you’ll see I said this recently on, on, uh, Tom Bi You’s podcast. I talked about the McDonald’s diet. Uh, I spoke about this in my obesity rant some five years ago, that the 95% of health benefits are realized simply from weight loss itself, irrespective of a diet. Now it got cut off right there. Yeah. My

Brad (00:54:55):
Very soundbite sound bite

Stan (00:54:56):
Right. My very next line was, I would never recommend a McDonald’s diet for all the reasons we discussed for satiety in particular. It’s not terribly sustainable long term. And, and you might end up with micronutrient deficiencies and potentially because if it’s burgers and the burgers are 75 25 beef, they’re high in saturated fat, and your LDLs may suffer. But initially, even with a keto diet that’s super high in fat, the weight loss will allow for a reduction in ldl. So you, you do see improved blood markers initially, uh, irrespective of diets. And so again, back to the 800 calorie liquid diet, if weight loss is that important, and you can realize such significant health benefits, at least initially, uh, then, you know, that’s what I’m focused on. And then long term, hopefully we can educate the habits necessary to do something that’s more sustainable.

Brad (00:55:49):
And that’s where the vertical diet comes in. You’ve bounced around with some good philosophical insights that shape your, what you call the vertical diet. So before you go, maybe you could give us this, this formal send off of what that diet’s all about. Why’d you name it the vertical diet, and then you know how we can learn more and connect with you and get those, uh, those great, um, that great coursework that you keep updating that contains all your research and all your rationale.

Stan (00:56:15):
Yeah, I, I took everything that I wanted my clients to do from 30 years of competing and coaching and college and collaborating and, and being coached. And I put it into one document I called the Vertical Diet ebook, which is now in its third Evolution Vertical Diet 3.0. I’ve upgraded it periodically over the years with new information, and I partnered with the PhD, RDN, that was director of dietetics for U N L V. And now we’ve got over 500 peer reviewed, published research, uh, articles, videos, and, and, uh, uh, attached to the diet. But it’s really everything. It’s not just diet. It’s sleep and hydration and nutrition, and it’s digestion and it’s blood pressure and cholesterol and, uh, blood testing and all those things are in there. And I, I give this to my clients, so I have to repeat myself over and over and over again for everyone that I talk to and say, Here are the things.

Stan (00:57:02):
And I, I put them in a pretty simple to follow, again, as described checklist, uh, with a hierarchy of most important to least important, uh, so that people can start implementing these things. And it focuses a lot on, uh, you know, simple, sensible, sustainable, and compliance is the science, Uh, the name itself. I just felt that, you know, how tall is a pyramid? It’s, it, it is dependent upon the, uh, its base, the size of its base. So I wanna build a strong foundation. I talked about getting highly bioavailable, micronutrient dense, easy to digest whole foods. Um, and so it starts with the foundation, which is, if we’re gonna look at macros now, obviously we’ve already described the fact that calories are king, and if you wanna lose weight, gotta be in a deficit. So how do we get there? Um, uh, and so I start with higher, a higher protein that what might historically have been considered normal, uh, about 30 to 35% of total calories or one gram per pound of goal weight, uh, proteins part of the foundation.

Stan (00:57:59):
And then a variety of protein sources as mentioned. And I don’t demonize red meat, uh, but I’m, and I don’t demonize eggs. I’ve got all the research in there to talk about cholesterol and saturated fat, and at what point those things become concerning and for whom, based on blood testing and your genetic predisposition. Uh, I keep dairy in, of course, the calcium’s very important for bones, uh, also for nerve signaling and for muscle contraction and relaxation. So I have a broad spectrum of protein sources, and if you’re allergic to, uh, to dairy, you can avoid it. But if you’re, uh, intolerant, then you can utilize lower lactose sources like, uh, a, you know, a fat free Greek yogurt or cheese, cheddar cheese, uh, and then dose dependent after that. So I’ve got eggs in there, I’ve got dairy in there, I’ve got some steak in there, salmon twice a week for mega threes.

Stan (00:58:43):
So a broad spectrum of protein sources prioritized into the diet, uh, at 35% of your total calories. And then next my macro would be fats at around 30%. Uh, and that’s because, you know, fats are important for every cell membrane in the body, A, D E and K, uh, and fats beyond that which provide you a health benefit don’t necessarily provide you a performance benefit. And that’s where I started on the carbohydrates. And that would be the rest of those calories. So you could look at a third, third, third, or, you know, a 35 or a 30. 30 40, uh, carbs being the 40. And those carbs start with, again, a foundation of, uh, fibrous carbs that are potassium rich, uh, potato as twice the potassium is a banana. Uh, you wanna get about 4,700 milligrams of potassium a day. Dieters generally end up staying right about there.

Stan (00:59:35):
They end up with a potato, a couple pieces of fruits and, uh, vegetables. And that’s probably will satisfy their carb demands in order to, to diet. And my bulkers, my weight gainers are gonna need more carbs, and they might have to throw in smoke oatmeal or even some white rice to drive, uh, a huge workload or a large body, so it’s easier to digest. So that’s the foundation for the vertical diet and it’s, it’s nutrition components kind of in a, in a nutshell. Uh, and then, you know, whether or not they wanna gain weight or lose weight, I just adjust total calories.

Brad (01:00:06):
Well, it’s, uh, it, it’s way too sensible. I don’t see any gimmicks there. It’s never gonna sell. I’m sorry, you gotta gimme some . It’s just, it’s, it’s too sustainable. We’re not gonna need to jump to the next thing. It’s amazing that you’ve been doing this for 10 years, and, uh, I’m gonna direct listeners to, to read more about this and learn more about it and, and sign up because, um, I feel like the, the, the masses in general and the diet scene in general is, has been marching toward this sensibility and has taken 10 years to land on the, the, the stuff that you’ve been doing and getting, you know, the balance of macronutrients and going for the best micronutrient sources and not, uh, fooling around with anything that’s unsustainable. But I love that point you make where if you gotta lose weight, you can do it with the Twinkies or the McDonald’s or whatever, and all that ridiculousness we put in proper perspective and then get to this point where we’re happy with our body, and then do something that really works and doesn’t, you know, throw you off track with hypothyroid and all the dead ends that people run into and, and they come to you with their tail between their legs.

Stan (01:01:11):
Yeah, I want, I don’t want people to be tired and hungry. That is just not a

Brad (01:01:16):
Sustainable besides that. Yeah, Your diet’s fine. How is it now? Oh my goodness.

Stan (01:01:20):
And everything’s at Stan Efferding.com. I have a, a nationwide meal prep company where I send meals to people’s doors all over the country at Stan Efferding.com My Instagram is @stanefferding and I have, uh, uh, uh, that YouTube site I mentioned is also is just under Stan Efferding, and I put a lot of, there’s a lot of free content on there and, and videos and stuff that, uh, I think covers a lot of the stuff that we discussed today. They’re kind of fun. I I purposely planned them out so they’d be enjoyable and brief and information

Brad (01:01:49):
Packed. Yeah, incredible resource. And we really, I wanna say thank you because you’ve been putting it out there for so long and, um, just very generous with the, the stuff that you give away. And of course, that’s gonna lead people to, um, to take further action. But, um, it’s a rare privilege to, to talk to you and, and, um, I’m sure there’s, there’s much more. Maybe I’ll have you back sometime, but I want to end by asking, you’re still going strong, you’re not competing. Uh, but what about your regimen today? You, you’ve hit the big five Oh, like me, and, um, what’s the, what does it look like now?

Stan (01:02:22):
Yeah, I turn 55 last or next month, and I, I’ve been bragging about the fact that I’m so healthy, meaning I don’t have the chronic knee and joint pain that I had when I was power lifting since rehabs from all of that. And I have a much more sensible training program. I utilize lower fatigue movements, and I’m cautious with my joints, but I still live reasonably heavy. And, and that’s, you know, all a matter of, uh, just, it’s nothing like I used to do. Well, more recently, about two months ago, CT Fletcher called me and he said he wanted me to come down in January and deadlift as a guest at his, uh, Iron Wars that he holds in at, uh, iron addicts in LA and cts, he’s a legend. You don’t say no to ct. And at the time, my max deadlift, you know, about less than three months ago was probably a 600, which is, you know, for me, not great.

Stan (01:03:11):
A deadlifted well, well over 800, uh, in competition. And I was like, sure. And then I realized when I hung up the phone that I didn’t wanna go down there and embarrass myself. So I’ve been training a little heavier recently, admittedly, and it’s been a little harder to recover from, but I employ some, uh, very important things that I recommend to all of my, uh, all my athletes, and certainly my clients that are older who, who used to crush themselves lots of heavy weight, and I use low fatigue movements. So I use the box where I use some, uh, some pin, some good mornings off of pins. So it’s mostly concentric movements, uh, and it just creates less fatigue, less ecentric loading. Mm-hmm. . Uh, so I have less muscle damage, and I have been able to, over the last three months, get my deadlift back up to, uh, just over 700. So I’m, I’m, I’m pleased with that. I’m not trying to do anything more that I might injure myself, but yeah. Uh, this is when I have to say do as I say, not as I do. I wouldn’t encourage everybody in their fifties to deadlift 700 , but I’m, I’m careful about how I’m going about it. And, uh, but again, it, there’s, if you wanna be healthy, don’t compete, there’s always a point at which you can do too much

Brad (01:04:20):
And low fatigue training when you’re over 55. Love it, man. What a great, great suggestion. Stan Efferding everybody, the one and only.

Stan (01:04:30):
Thank you, brother.

Brad (01:04:31):
Thank you so much. Da da da da da da. Thank you for listening to the show. I love sharing the experience with you and greatly appreciate your support. Please email podcast@brad ventures.com with feedback, suggestions, and questions for the Q and A shows. Subscribe to our email list at bradkerns.com for a weekly blast about the published episodes and a wonderful bi-monthly newsletter edition with informative articles and practical tips for all aspects of healthy living. You can also download several awesome free eBooks when you subscribe to the email list. And if you could go to the trouble to leave a five or five star review with Apple Podcasts or wherever else you listen to the shows, that would be super incredibly awesome. It helps raise the profile of the B.rad podcast and attract new listeners. And did you know that you can share a show with a friend or loved one by just hitting a few buttons in your player and firing off a text message? My awesome podcast player called Overcast allows you to actually record a sound bite excerpt from the episode you’re listening to, and fire it off with a quick text message. Thank you so much for spreading the word, and remember, B.rad.

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