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My Views On Bulking
After many years of training I have learned a lot about diet and nutrition and seen many bodybuilders with poor nutritional habits destroy their physiques. In my opinion there are five main ingredients to building yourself a better body:
- Genetics – being the most influential
- Diet – you cant grow without food
- Training – you cant grow without proper training
- Willpower – you cant grow if you give up
- Self Discipline – you cant build a decent physique if you can’t stop yourself binging
If you take away one of these ingredients it will make your job all the more difficult. Structuring yourself a decent diet can reap rewards such as better health, improved fitness levels, and a better physique.
Here is a diet I have designed for a bodybuilder wishing to add mass while staying fairly lean. Unless your a genetic super freak and I doubt you are or else you wouldn’t be reading this, you will gain fat whilst eating above maintenance calories. Some people will gain more fat than others, some people will find it more difficult gaining mass than others, its only by experimenting you can find out what your body needs in order to improve your appearance.
Example bulking diet plan for an average 200lb person looking to add quality mass
06:30am :
10g of L-Glutamine and 5g Branch Chain Amino Acids
07:00am :
30 mins Steady State cardio (walking uphill, jogging slow, cycling)
07:45am :
100g oats in water
4 egg whites & 1 whole egg (high omega 3 eggs if you can)
10:30am:
Meal Replacement Powder 20g Carbs 40g Protein
1 tablespoon of peanut butter
01:30pm:
150g tuna or 150g chicken breast on wholemeal pitta bread
Large salad – tomatoes, lettuice, cucumber
Apple
Some fish oils (O3 epa,dha)
04:30pm:
50g Mackerel or salmon on wholemeal pitta bread
1 tablespoon peanut butter
05:00pm: Training (weights)
06:00pm:
40g Whey in water
20g maltodextrin
20g dextrose
Creatine
Vitamin C
06:45pm:
75g rice
150g chicken breast or 150g lean beef
Loads of vegetables (2 cups full)
15ml Flaxseed Oil
09:30:
250g cottage cheese
Mackerel or salmon salad
Handful of nuts
* Note - This diet should be tweaked for individuals and is just a starting guideline bulking diet.
I’m from India and i think some of the suppliments mentioned above are not available here. if you could provide examples of foods that contain these suppliments or alternate foods, it would be really helpful..(eg: 20g maltodextrin, 20g dextrose, Flaxseed Oil, cottage cheese, L-Glutamine and 5g Branch Chain Amino Acids)
Comment by sujith — April 18, 2007 @ 10:12 am
maltodextrin and dextrose you can use brown sugar
cottage chesse, use white chesse
the others, I dont know how
Comment by TTT — July 31, 2007 @ 6:41 pm
i am from ireland. i love your website. my problem is im 5 foot 6 inches and only 9 stone and have a poor appetite. i just cant get enough calories in to gain weight. what the hell can i do . and please dont say eat more , because i get full very quick and have a small appetite. i am so sick of it that i am starting to lose the heart to carry on working out in the gym .for the love of god man , help me please .
Comment by michael — February 11, 2008 @ 3:00 pm
Michael, I was like you. I was 6′3″ and 11st. I couldn’t put weight on through lack of appetite. I gave up smoking because I heard it’ll increase my appetite and it did a bit. I phoned up a Hypnotist who specialises in weight loss, giving up smoking, etc. I asked him if he can do the opposite and help me gain weight. He said he’d never done that before and that he’ll try. He needed a week to look into it or something. I went to see him a week later. I put weight on unconciously over the next three years. He asked me what I felt my ideal weight would be, I decided 18st for my height. No matter how much or little I eat, whenever I stand on the scales, I’m 18st …. and I’m not fat if you’re wondering.
For breakfast I got Porridge Oats and just poured loads of milk and sugar on it. I liked the taste. Try it. It’s less filling than if you cook it. Also half a bowl of Oats would expand and be too much even for me to eat. Anyway, with my way of eating it you get about four servings in one and an easy tasty way of eat that amount. It expands in your stomach like you’ve cooked it and gives you energy throughout the day. Don’t worry about lunch. At Tea Time eat mashed potato. Being Irish you should love your spuds like Like I do. I have about 4Ib of spuds every tea-time mashed with lots of butter. Have what you want with it, it doesn’t matter, because the Potato is what puts weight on you. It’s called Carbohydrates Michael, make sure your diet is packed with them. Potatoes, or Crisps, or Chips, or Pastry, or Bread, etc.
Carbohydrates store around your body, a bit like the hump on a camel. Meat and other sources of protein can come later when you’re hitting the weights. Impotantly you have to have fat with the carbohydrates since it’s the chemical reaction of the two which makes it store (i.e Butter in spuds, Butter in Bread, fat in the pastry, grease on the chips (so no oven crap), crisps have grease, but have a peanut butter dip for them.
I had meningitus last year and I was vomiting in hospital from April to August - I couldn’t keep any food or water down and I was on a drip to keep my fluids up to prevent another bout of kidney failure. Any way, I thought I was going to lose loads of weight, but I only went down to 15st 9Ibs. I was discharged in August and I was back to 18st by the end of November.
I’m telling you this because from a teen I spent a fortune on weight gaining shakesm but all I ever did was sweat any calories off, particularly at night. I tried all sorts of suppliments without results. I studied nutrition, which is why I know that Carbohydrates is what you need. If you wanted to lose weight, it’s just a simple case of cutting out ALL Carbs from the diet. It’s only these that get stored in the body. Fat in the food you eat can store in your arteries if you have to much of the wrong sort of fat (saturated), the fats don’t store anywhere else. Meat, veg, fibre, protein, etc goes right through you as waste, they don’t store.
The Porridge in the morning will stretch your stomach to give more room (increased appetite). The Potato will stretch your stomach to give more room (increased appetite).
If you’re 9st at 5′6″ then you can expect to weigh about 12st in 12 months.
Increase your appetite, eat like I said, watch the scales confirm weight gain, then convert to muscle in next to no time. Bulk up first, then work out.
Give it ago. I was shocked when they weighed me in hospital and told me I’m 18st. It really crept on me without me really noticing.
Comment by Charlie — October 10, 2008 @ 3:54 pm
If you’re struggling to gain weight, try adding more calorie dense foods like cottage cheese and upping carbohydrates.
Comment by Ste — October 31, 2008 @ 8:41 pm
Thanks alot for the info, its really helpful… this whole website is very helpful and supportive… keep it up man
Comment by Thank You — April 7, 2009 @ 9:49 am
Im 9 and a half stone 6 foot tall ive beeen doing weights for 1 month i am 10 and a half stone now. my hint is eat plenty of bananas and nuts eat a big breakfast it should work.
Comment by jordan — July 6, 2009 @ 1:39 pm