Indian Food For Bulking

Hi Guys

My mum is Pakistani so all I eat is Indian Food really. She cooks and she only really enjoys cooking that cuisine, I was asking whether Indian food (mainly curries I won’t lie) are bad foods to solely bulk on. I have Protein Powder and a big box of Maltodextrin as well. My breakfast is usually Hot oats or weetabix. I have no means to really get more supplements but I understand right now they aren’t particulary vital. My dinner will usually consist of a curry and a chappati (a.k.a roti). What should I do?

It’s not hard. Just ask your mom to make the dry stuff, like chicken tikka and all kinds of kabob. Even daal is pretty good for you. Try to stay away form all the oily stuff.

I think eggs for breakfast would be A good addition.

I eat a lot of Indian food and it’s worked. Tell her you want more dry dhals, and chicken if you’re not veg.

Nothing wrong with it if it’s authentic and made from scratch. Probably loads of benefits from all the turmeric, chilli, cinnamon, fenugreek etc. Worry more about the actual volume of food you will be eating and the macronutrient breakdown i.e eat more.

[quote]Vulpes Vulpes wrote:
Probably loads of benefits from all the turmeric, chilli, cinnamon, fenugreek etc. Worry more about the actual volume of food you will be eating and the macronutrient breakdown i.e eat more. [/quote]

These are two great points.

Generally speaking though, Indian food is similar to Mexican food: high fat/high carb and low protein. An excellent way to adequately feed more people, but hardly in line with BB-type goals.

Certainly, home-cooking can address that glaring issue and you’ll need that kcal surplus regardless.

I always get the same thing when I go to the Indian restaurant I like. Can’t remember the name but it is a curry with hard boiled eggs cut in half. I go there enough that they know I want extra eggs in mine.

Point is, you can take a delicious Indian curry or sag and add chicken or lamb or hard boiled eggs until you achieve the macros your looking for. If your momma won’t make you chicken to go with your meal then I guess your S.O.L. until you move out and start fending for yourself.

You could also try the North of Vag approach and chug two scoops of protein powder before meals to increase your protein intake.

N.O.V Link:
http://www.T-Nation.com/strength-training-topics/1464

[quote]JLone wrote:
I always get the same thing when I go to the Indian restaurant I like. Can’t remember the name but it is a curry with hard boiled eggs cut in half. I go there enough that they know I want extra eggs in mine.

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I know the curry you are on about, it’s a Goan curry? or something like that.

Op if your mum is unwilling to shell out for the extra meat/or do the surplus cooking you could always just buy and cook up an extra chicken breast etc and add it yourself.

Also get that sag aloo down you, that shits the bomb

god I wish I had this problem. I’d happily eat indian food 5 times a day.

Most Indian food is cooked in Vegetable oil. I would highly recommend avoiding this unhealthy fat, especially since South Asians as a whole are so prone to heart disease.

Invest in some quality cooking oils like Virgin Coconut Oil and/or ghee and get your mom to prepare your meals with that. I migrated my parents over to Virgin Coconut oil after years of using vegetable oil and they love it.

Make sure your mom doesn’t buy Vanaspati Ghee or whatever, that’s a cheap transfat laden rip off. Make sure she is using clarified butter.

[quote]rds63799 wrote:
god I wish I had this problem. I’d happily eat indian food 5 times a day.

[/quote]

ditto

My father’s pakistani and here’s how I modified his “oily” recipes

  • Swapped out vegetable oil for oleic sunflower oil, rapeseed oil or extra virgin coconut oil. Or Canola oil if budget is tight, not the best but still better than veg oil.
  • Swapped out coconut milk/cream/ghee/butter with skim milk or Greek yoghurt
  • Replaced all the potatoes with carrots, don’t need the starch but feel free to ignore this.
  • When possible use horse meat instead of beef.

That said, the big threat in the Indo-Pakistani diet isn’t fats per sÃ???Ã??Ã?©. It’s calories. And when it comes to calories, I always remove the empty ones first. So out go the Naan, roti, white basmati, chapati, etc. I usually don’t eat ANY grains at all if I make beef curry, but if I do, it’s sprouted grains like Ezekiel bread or whole grains like boiled quinoa (add lime or lemon to make it bearable).

The fat in Indian food makes it EXCELLENT for bulking. But yes, if you stick to the “tradition” you can get really carried away with sat fats. I love cumin, turmeric, coriander, cardamom, chili, etc. and those spices, particularly turmeric, are fantastic for you longevity. Curcumin, which is in turmeric, is an extremely powerful anti-oxidant.

Thanks Samir.

[quote]Samir wrote:
My father’s pakistani and here’s how I modified his “oily” recipes

  • Swapped out vegetable oil for oleic sunflower oil, rapeseed oil or extra virgin coconut oil. Or Canola oil if budget is tight, not the best but still better than veg oil.
  • Swapped out coconut milk/cream/ghee/butter with skim milk or Greek yoghurt
  • Replaced all the potatoes with carrots, don’t need the starch but feel free to ignore this.
  • When possible use horse meat instead of beef.

That said, the big threat in the Indo-Pakistani diet isn’t fats per sÃ???Ã???Ã??Ã?©. It’s calories. And when it comes to calories, I always remove the empty ones first. So out go the Naan, roti, white basmati, chapati, etc. I usually don’t eat ANY grains at all if I make beef curry, but if I do, it’s sprouted grains like Ezekiel bread or whole grains like boiled quinoa (add lime or lemon to make it bearable).

The fat in Indian food makes it EXCELLENT for bulking. But yes, if you stick to the “tradition” you can get really carried away with sat fats. I love cumin, turmeric, coriander, cardamom, chili, etc. and those spices, particularly turmeric, are fantastic for you longevity. Curcumin, which is in turmeric, is an extremely powerful anti-oxidant.
[/quote]

Rapeseed oil IS canola oil. it’s just rebranded to sell better.

Rapeseed/canola and sunflower oils ARE ‘vegetable’ (ie, seed) oils

Also, extra virgin coconut oil has no benefits over VCO, it’s also a marketing thing. People think it works the same way as olive oil/EVOO. You can probably save money by buying VCO instead of EVCO.

ghee is used in traditional Indian cooking, and it’s good for you