Am I really the only one that finds it easy and enjoyable to eat? I used to buy a 6lbs pack boneless skinless breasts from Sam’s Club every day. My record is finishing one before 12pm (noon). Add in some broccoli; mayo, olive oil, or salsa; and rice or bread on lifting days and it’s pretty easy to gain weight. Before I developed an egg allergy, I’d eat 18 eggs for breakfast just because I liked them.
Learn to enjoy food. Gaining weight will never be a problem again.
[quote]johnnytang24 wrote:
Am I really the only one that finds it easy and enjoyable to eat? I used to buy a 6lbs pack boneless skinless breasts from Sam’s Club every day. My record is finishing one before 12pm (noon). Add in some broccoli; mayo, olive oil, or salsa; and rice or bread on lifting days and it’s pretty easy to gain weight. Before I developed an egg allergy, I’d eat 18 eggs for breakfast just because I liked them.
Learn to enjoy food. Gaining weight will never be a problem again.[/quote]
I find it easy to eat… at least I thought I did until this post. 6lbs of chicken before noon… the fuck?
The scale as such isn’t the greatest measuring stick for success on a bulk…
Think more of how much strength you gain compared to your bodyweight gains.
Artem had a thread in the cell… Read that. He gained a lot of weight but far too little strength, and, suprise, ended up with mostly additional fat.
Your body needs reasons to pack on muscle…
Gaining 40 lbs but only moving your bench from 225x8 to 245x8 is what you want to avoid.
Gaining 40 lbs while moving from 225x8 to 315x8 is a lot better.
And no, I can’t give you exact numbers here.
[quote]Cephalic_Carnage wrote:
The scale as such isn’t the greatest measuring stick for success on a bulk…
Think more of how much strength you gain compared to your bodyweight gains.
Artem had a thread in the cell… Read that. He gained a lot of weight but far too little strength, and, suprise, ended up with mostly additional fat.
Your body needs reasons to pack on muscle…
Gaining 40 lbs but only moving your bench from 225x8 to 245x8 is what you want to avoid.
Gaining 40 lbs while moving from 225x8 to 315x8 is a lot better.
And no, I can’t give you exact numbers here.
[/quote]
I saw that thread…crazy stuff when you see how much time was put into it
I agree with the above poster about liking to eat. Honestly I think I like to eat too much. I just want to slap some of these people who complain about getting in 2500 calories a day 
(or the ones who complain about needing to eat so much to gain weight…be happy you don’t need to bring calories so low when you eventually have to lose some fat)
[quote]Tumbles wrote:
[quote]johnnytang24 wrote:
Am I really the only one that finds it easy and enjoyable to eat? I used to buy a 6lbs pack boneless skinless breasts from Sam’s Club every day. My record is finishing one before 12pm (noon). Add in some broccoli; mayo, olive oil, or salsa; and rice or bread on lifting days and it’s pretty easy to gain weight. Before I developed an egg allergy, I’d eat 18 eggs for breakfast just because I liked them.
Learn to enjoy food. Gaining weight will never be a problem again.[/quote]
I find it easy to eat… at least I thought I did until this post. 6lbs of chicken before noon… the fuck?[/quote]
To be fair, I started work at 6AM, so eating at 6, 8.30, 11.00 is three meals, not as bad as it sounds.
As far as 1000 calories in one meal, how about one Chipotle double meat burrito?
1375 cal
Handling 2 of those bad boys might be a little tougher. Some guys from the gym don’t think I can do it just because I don’t want to eat 2700 cal at 10PM (after training). It may be time to put the doubts to rest.
The main priority when bulking is to make sure you don’t purposely shoot yourself in the foot. Eating more calories than you need will put on fat (acceptable), but don’t eat in a way that will put on fat with little to nothing to show for it.
Try to avoid hydrogenated fats (fries, crisps etc) - although they’ll ramp up your cals., they won’t be used in a good way.
Be wary of macronutrient balance - in one meal, don’t eat high fat AND high carb…eat either high or moderate carb with low fat, or low carb with high fat…or just an equal partition (33%P/33%C/33%F). Don’t get too caught up with macronutrient partitioning, just make sure not to do an extreme (at least, not without a particular goal in mind).
Eat the majority of your carbs/calories at the start of the day and around your workout (leave less for before bed time).
Carbs are essential for a bulk/stregth…but only as far as they are needed. No need to go above 50% of your total calorie intake. If anything, I’d rather eat >40%. Obviously, don’t do a ketogenitic diet (VERY low carbs)…but at the same time, there’s no need to ramp up carbs. You could cycle carbs (high one day, low the next) if this suits you.
That’s the basics, but it’s up to you whether you want to heavy bulk or “light” bulk. Depends whether you’re comfortable spending several weeks cutting it back off again if you want to do the heavy bulk (although, there are other ways around that which I will explain). Most pro’s do it the heavy way, and in my opinion, it’s the most straight forward and almost gauranteed way of gaining good amounts of muscle.
Personally, I preffer to bulk in shorter cycles since I can make the best of both worlds that way. Say do 4 weeks of bulking (gain about 8lbs), then 2-4 weeks of cutting. I don’t like to cut for long periods (something you have to do when bulking for long periods) because this leads to muscle loss, stagnation (less and less fat loss as the weeks go on) and is frustrating (not to mention depressing!). When you do it this way (more frequent cycles) you get a kind of supercompensation from the cutting phase when you go back to the mass phase. If you are cutting more often (as aposed to LONG bulks and LONG cutting), then your metabolism doesn’t get chance to adapt to high calories or low calories…it’s more even. Also, when you do it this way, you’re actuall muscle gains are easier to track and work out (they slowly go up each month).
[quote]Professor X wrote:
Also, as far as bulking…the next time someone says “slow bulk”, ask them how much they have gained and whether they have pictures.
Unless you are damned close to your goal in terms of size, if you think you will “slow gain” your way to huge, you may want to set another goal.[/quote]
Prof X - what’s you’re idea of a good bulk? Just wondering…
Forgot to say, when doing either phase, do it with “full measure”. Don’t bother seeing if you can get away with just a slow method. This especially applies to cutting; when cutting, don’t be lazy as regards the cardio (e.g. HIIT) and be sure to cut the calories by a decent amount (e.g. 2000 cals). You can get away with a drastic cut in calories for the first 2 weeks or so (another reason to keep each phase short).
When bulking, don’t jump straight to high end of the calorie intake (the amount you were taking in before the cutting). So if before, through trial and error, you figured that you needed 5000 cals to gain, don’t jump straight up to 5000 cals from a diet of say 2500cals. The reason why is because you’re metabolism would have slowed down on the diet and therefore a massive increase will lead to more fat gain than before. Rather, increase by say 1000 cals straight from the diet (e.g. 3500cals). This will probably be enough to gain with at the start, then slowly go up by say 500+ each time you need to increase calories.
[quote]JaX Un wrote:
i am 6’5’', weighed 198lbs at the beginning of July and by thanksgiving i hit my initial goal of 225lbs.
basically, i went with 2lbs of ground beef/day, i had all of my carbs before 5pm (200g), i made a huge weight gainer for breakfast(1k cals) and another one before bed (800cals). got around 4kcals a day, and lifted 5-6days a week, with a minimum of 350g protein spread out over 5meals. shitload of peanut butter and other nuts.
[/quote]
OP -
In terms of laying out a menu that’s in line with what just about all the big dudes are saying, I don’t think it can be laid out any simpler that JaxUn’s post. Start there and if you don’t gain on that in 3 or 4 weeks, add more meat and potatoes (calories) as necessary.
Assuming that you’re hitting the weights hard 5+ times per week and progressing, there’s no reason you shouldn’t put on some quality weight.
For all you people claiming to enjoy eating so much - how long have you actually been “bulking”? I know I like to eat just as much as the next guy, but I have staples in my diet that, without a doubt, I’m sick of eating but they’re easy and they’re part of my “system”.
For example, I eat a pound of turkey everyday split between 2 sambos I use as before and after lunch snacks. I’ve been doing this for a couple years now and let me tell you, I’m absolutely sick of turkey and cheese sambos.
i’m not planning on any candy or snack cakes… i’m talking something like yogurt and canola chunks, and nuts. Cereal, oatmeal, steak (lots), ocasional chips and salsa, peanut butter and jelly, chicken, potatoes, eggs, enchalada’s, pasta… no cokes only diet… maybe some fastfood burgers and chicken sandwich… just making sure i’m not making some mistake before i get big and fat…
[quote]LankyMofo wrote:
For all you people claiming to enjoy eating so much - how long have you actually been “bulking”? I know I like to eat just as much as the next guy, but I have staples in my diet that, without a doubt, I’m sick of eating but they’re easy and they’re part of my “system”.
For example, I eat a pound of turkey everyday split between 2 sambos I use as before and after lunch snacks. I’ve been doing this for a couple years now and let me tell you, I’m absolutely sick of turkey and cheese sambos. [/quote]
I think I’m an exception in that I never get tired of the same foods, so I can see your point. I eat 10 eggs every morning and love them, and about a pound or more of chicken/day everyday. When there is something new though I do enjoy it a little more and at one point I did get really repulsed by tuna…but I think that was when I was sick or something.
Naturally it’s going to depend on the calorie level and foods too. When I’m stuck eating 2000 calories everything I put in my mouth is a treat, but the times when I’ve added weight with 4000+ calories of not so great food (mostly low carb stuff) it can get a little less appetizing.
[quote]LankyMofo wrote:
For all you people claiming to enjoy eating so much - how long have you actually been “bulking”? I know I like to eat just as much as the next guy, but I have staples in my diet that, without a doubt, I’m sick of eating but they’re easy and they’re part of my “system”.
For example, I eat a pound of turkey everyday split between 2 sambos I use as before and after lunch snacks. I’ve been doing this for a couple years now and let me tell you, I’m absolutely sick of turkey and cheese sambos. [/quote]
I like to eat at times, but I also consider eating more of a job than something I do for pleasure. Anyone at this long enough can get tired of eating ALL of the time but you do what you have to do.
Why would I sit around complaining about it when I can see the results of what I do everyday?
“Slow bulking” is something to consider when you are quite obviously huge already. Someone with large amounts of size attemping and “all out” bulk will likely end up gaining a lot more fat than necessary.
If no one can tell you lift weights, there is definitely merit in stuffing a few pizzas in yourself now and again.
[quote]ty_ty13 wrote:
…just making sure i’m not making some mistake before i get big and fat…[/quote]
You would only get FAT fat if you did it for long periods of time which is just stupid if you ask me. Like I said, do it in shorter cycles.
It’s beyond me why some people think you have to become some “lard arse” for a year before looking huge…you can “eat like an animal” for short and frequent periods (as I mentioned above) and reap the benefits without getting OVER fat.
It doesn’t have to be black and white…
[quote]Dave_ wrote:
“Slow bulking” is something to consider when you are quite obviously huge already. Someone with large amounts of size attemping and “all out” bulk will likely end up gaining a lot more fat than necessary.
If no one can tell you lift weights, there is definitely merit in stuffing a few pizzas in yourself now and again. [/quote]
This needs to be written and neon and posted across the top of the forum.
If I “slow bulk” at this point, that makes perfect sense. If I had tried “slow bulking” at 150lbs, my guess is things would have turned out like it does for most people who do things that way…you end up blaming everyone else’s progress on “genetics/drugs” to make yourself feel better.
Some of these guys act like the simple act of gaining weight will kill them.
[quote]LankyMofo wrote:
For all you people claiming to enjoy eating so much - how long have you actually been “bulking”? I know I like to eat just as much as the next guy, but I have staples in my diet that, without a doubt, I’m sick of eating but they’re easy and they’re part of my “system”.
For example, I eat a pound of turkey everyday split between 2 sambos I use as before and after lunch snacks. I’ve been doing this for a couple years now and let me tell you, I’m absolutely sick of turkey and cheese sambos. [/quote]
Do what it takes when bulking…and enjoy your food when dieting
It’s amazing how enjoyable cooking and eating becomes when you’re starving LOL
Back to the OP’s question: Apart from the obvious, nothing’s out. Accept, it’s more a case of “what’s IN”. Keep the Saturated fats pretty high (e.g. dairy/beef). I think this applies more to natural bodybuilders though to keep test levels high. I tried an experiment once where I ate nothing but un-saturated fats for weeks (for my fat intake), and then sat fats for weeks…the sat. fats weeks made me much stronger and aggresive! It was really strict testing because I used nothing but liquid meals and didn’t cheat or anything (also, I did each phase after a weeks break, so fatique didn’t interfere with it). If anyone asks whether this is healthy or not, there are counter-arguments that prove otherwise…too long for this thread.
Right now, you cant go wrong with BK’s double cheeseburgers. $1 gets you 450 calories and 30g of protein. If you’ve got the money, chipotle is awesome. Someone above mentioned this, but im pretty sure you can get a chicken burrito to come out to around 1500 cals. Eat some whole milk, peanut butter, cheese, and bagels, and eat a lot of it.
The slow “clean” bulks dont work for that many people. Im sure a lot of the big guys here didn’t try to add 500 cals a day and go for a slow 1/2 to 1lb gain a week.
During a bulk, it doesn’t really matter where you calories come from (to an extent) A CALORIE IS A CALORIE. As long as you are getting 150g+ of protein and not crazy amounts of sugars it all comes down to calorie balance.
[quote]Professor X wrote:
[quote]LankyMofo wrote:
For all you people claiming to enjoy eating so much - how long have you actually been “bulking”? I know I like to eat just as much as the next guy, but I have staples in my diet that, without a doubt, I’m sick of eating but they’re easy and they’re part of my “system”.
For example, I eat a pound of turkey everyday split between 2 sambos I use as before and after lunch snacks. I’ve been doing this for a couple years now and let me tell you, I’m absolutely sick of turkey and cheese sambos. [/quote]
I like to eat at times, but I also consider eating more of a job than something I do for pleasure. Anyone at this long enough can get tired of eating ALL of the time but you do what you have to do.
Why would I sit around complaining about it when I can see the results of what I do everyday?[/quote]
Agreed, part of being successful (in anything, really) is sucking it up and doing things you don’t necessarily want to do. I may have hated every one of those turkey and cheese sambos, but at this point I’m happy I ate them.
Suffer the pain of discipline or suffer the pain of regret.
One of my “friends” on here has that as their tagline (sorry, I forget which one).
[quote]Professor X wrote:
[quote]Dave_ wrote:
“Slow bulking” is something to consider when you are quite obviously huge already. Someone with large amounts of size attemping and “all out” bulk will likely end up gaining a lot more fat than necessary.
If no one can tell you lift weights, there is definitely merit in stuffing a few pizzas in yourself now and again. [/quote]
This needs to be written and neon and posted across the top of the forum.
If I “slow bulk” at this point, that makes perfect sense. If I had tried “slow bulking” at 150lbs, my guess is things would have turned out like it does for most people who do things that way…you end up blaming everyone else’s progress on “genetics/drugs” to make yourself feel better.
Some of these guys act like the simple act of gaining weight will kill them.[/quote]
Exactly, it’s so simple it hurts.
I got myself up to around 250lbs before I started to see any value in slow bulking/recomping/carb cycling etc. I now fluctuate between 225-235 but am far more “solid” than I ever was at 250lbs.
Still, without that “smooth 250lbs” stage of my development I wouldn’t be where I am now.
[quote]young n wrote:
to Jax UN - what the hell were you eating? or at least what weight gainer were you using? how the hell can you down or any person down 1,000 cal in 1 sitting? please do share, im sure the OP wants to know also[/quote]
My personal opinion, is that if you cant take down 1000 cals in one sitting, you’re a little bitch.