What to eat on a bulk and how much

As far as the body’s concerned, the ideal scenario would occur when energy intake perfectly matches energy expenditure. We also know that it will fight to stay there, and there are very important reasons for our body to try to maintain this homeostasis or ‘unchanging” state.

Because energy imbalances can affect a lot more than weight gain or loss. Drastic changes in energy balance can impact other processes in the body, such as reproduction, cognitive functions, metabolic functions, repair, and regeneration.

When you want to grow, you must give the body the material it needs. Imagine calories and protein being the building blocks of your body, not only muscle and bones, but also organs, skin, hair, nails, and the energy it needs for all metabolic functions and the brain.

So, when bulking or looking to gain muscle mass, you have to maintain a caloric surplus to make sure that the basic metabolic functions are met, the repair and regeneration of tissues is happening and we still have some spare for growing and building some expensive muscle mass.

The rate of the surplus will depend on how much you want to gain, and if you want most of the growth as muscle, or if you are OK with gaining some fat as well. It will also depend on how long you have been training with a proper progressive program, or if you are a new lifter or a seasoned one.

Optimal nutrition is individual to each person but as long as you can maintain a caloric surplus (consuming more calories than you burn), you are not at risk of losing muscle mass as happens when you are in a caloric deficit. So you don’t even need to worry much about consuming a lot of protein because your body won’t be consuming muscle for energy if you are NOT in a deficit. This is a KEY point, you have to maintain a surplus consistently, a few days at maintenance may not hurt but deficits can set you back or stall progress. Ideally, you want at least three meals a day with enough calories and protein.

What is enough surplus? Enough will depend on the individual needs. But if you can figure out your maintenance (where your weight is stable), you can add from there.

You can track calories and macronutrients if you like the method but you can also adjust according to what you see happening, and build habits around your needs which is much more sustainable, and my preferred method.

When you are bulking, you should see consistent or increasing weight on the scale but never decrease. A slight decrease due to less salt or carb intake or dehydration can happen, and the weight oscillates up and down daily but consistently, you want to see a steady increase or maintain some days.

once you find your maintenance calories or how much you regularly eat to maintain your weight, you add an extra snack, meal, or portion, to your intake to increase caloric intake. Your diet should not change drastically, it’s a matter of adding a few extra calories to your regular intake.

You can add foods you enjoy that are caloric-dense to fill in the caloric needs but you still have to make sure that you get a proper basic nutrition supply for performance, repair, and growth. Most of your foods should still come from whole sources, protein (not necessarily from lean sources), and some vegetables (not looking into high volume as when you are dieting or cutting) but enough to supply vitamins, micronutrients, phytosterols, fiber, etc.

Once the basic nutrition needs are met, you can play with adding high-caloric foods such as ice cream, nut butters, nuts, seeds, avocado, oils, granola, whole dairy, chocolate, and anything you like that you can consume if your calories aren’t met after you had your nutrient-dense whole foods.

Remember that whey protein isolate is lactose-intolerant approved so it can be a good way to add protein if needed.

Our body only needs enough fats for proper hormonal function and fat-soluble vitamin absorption which is not much, 0.35/0.40 grams per pound of bodyweight is usually enough. But, since fats are 9 calories per gram and protein and carbs are 4 calories per gram, carbs will give you a lot more food volume than fats. So, you can manipulate between carbs and fats depending on how hungry you are. Carbs will give you more energy for your workouts but if you need the calories to be able to make it into a surplus and you aren’t hungry, then fats can give you that a lot easier than carbs.

Fats will give you more calories per gram and carbs will give you more volume for fewer calories, so depending on how hungry you are, you can manipulate which ones you consume more of.

If you are currently maintaining (weight is stable and consistent overtime), you can aim for recomposition (gaining muscle while losing bodyfat), but it will be a very slow process and will work better as a new lifter.

if your goal is to gain muscle minimizing fat gain, you can start at maintenance or a very slight surplus (200 calories over maintenance) but if you see that you are lacking energy or start losing weight, you can add a couple of a hundred calories more but I wouldn’t add unless you see something changing, usually, more exercise doesn’t make that much difference in calories because our body compensates by lowering NEAT. Read more about NEAT here: https://strengthsisters101.com/nutrition/metabolism-cardio

But if you want to lean bulk, then you can mess up with too many calories so you are going to have to be patient and add slowly and see what happens overtime. Add gradually and only if you see a need for it to prevent fat tissue gain.

But if you need the extra calories or you are a hard gainer, consuming foods that are caloric-dense will help you get the calories you need. Parting from the base that protein and carbs are 4 calories per gram and fats are 9 calories per gram, fats will be your friend to supply the necessary energy. You will still need enough protein but you can certainly fill in the rest with liquid calories containing full-fat dairy, ice cream, sugars, honey, butter, nut butters, nuts, seeds, cheese, and all those foods that most people attempting weight loss should avoid.

You can add butter, oils, cream, or cheese to foods such as rice, pasta, or salads. Use butter generously on potatoes, bread, toast, hot cereal, rice, noodles, and vegetables, and in soups. Put olive oil, avocados, or another oil on bread, rice, pasta, and vegetables. Be careful with potatoes since they are very satiating and can make you too full and left without much room for more food. Pain potatoes are usually recommended for satiety and not for bulking.

If you need more calories than you are comfortable consuming, you can use this chart to help figure out foods that aren’t too satiating.

Spread peanut butter or other nut butter — which contain some protein and healthy fats — on toast, bread, apple or banana slices, crackers… Dip pretzels in peanut butter.

Use croissants or biscuits to make sandwiches.

Granola or muesli are highly caloric dense, you can spread it to your heart’s content.

Add powdered creamer or dry milk powder to hot cocoa, milkshakes, hot cereal, gravy, sauces, meatloaf, cream soups, or puddings.

Add sliced avocado or guacamole to salads and sandwiches.

Add seeds, such as sunflower and pumpkin seeds, to salads, stir-fries, and casseroles.

Add ground flaxseeds to yogurt, smoothies, hot cereals, and casseroles.

Top hot cereal with brown sugar, honey, dried fruit, cream, or nut butter.

Bacon can be used to add calories, just be mindful of overall saturated fats content and avoid any trans fats.

Toppings for pie, cake, or pudding with ice cream, whipped cream, or cream.

Use fruit canned in heavy syrup. It has more calories than fresh or juice-packed fruit. If you prefer fresh fruit, you can add sugar and cream or ice cream.

Drink beverages that contain calories, such as fruit juice, lemonade, fruit-flavored drinks, malts, floats, soda pop, cocoa, milkshakes, and smoothies. Or try afogato for a treat.

Nutritional supplement drinks are also convenient options.

For more in-depth nutrition knowledge, you can read our book for free on Kindle Unlimited:
https://strengthsisters101.com/product/nutrition-101-nutrition-basics-and-implementation

Regarding training, it’s advisable to keep the program you are already following focusing on performance since this is the time when your lifts should soar. If they are not, it’s time to revisit your nutrition or training volume, frequency, and/or program. Or question when was the last deload and how has your sleep been.

SS101 powerbuilding 7-Cycle Program (7 months)