Food to bulk up

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jasonbruce888
jasonbruce888 Posts: 23 Member
in Goal: Gaining Weight and Body Building
Hi Guys

Probably been asked a million times. I am trying to put on a stone of muscle in time for summer and I know I need to work out, eat, sleep, repeat.

I have worked out I need to eat 3590 Calories a day and around 180g of protein a day.

I can hit the protein mark every day, buy eating eggs, tuna, nuts and protein shakes.

However I am struggling to hit my Calorie intake.

I am not sure what food I should be snacking on during the day that will not add fat.

Any help will be appreciated I really want to achieve my goal.

Jason
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Replies

  • jennifershoo
    jennifershoo Posts: 3,198 Member
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    I am not sure what food I should be snacking on during the day that will not add fat.

    There is no food that adds fat. Eating fat doesn't make you fat.
    Only a calorie surplus adds fat on your body.
    I'm guessing you have a good weight lifting program in mind. Lift heavy, eat your food and you'll gain muscles, but also fat. I think it's about 50/50 muscles/fat.
  • killakyle420
    killakyle420 Posts: 66
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    Try to eat 6 meals a day spaced out so you can fit in your calories, lift heavy weights low reps, do compound excersies like deadlift, bench press, squats, etc and you'll put on muscle but half of it will probably be fat. Be consistent and patient cuz gaining weight should be a slow process if wanting to put on as little body fat possible.. hope that helps!
  • jasonbruce888
    jasonbruce888 Posts: 23 Member
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    Cheers it does, any food I should be avoiding? I have been trying to avoid carbs as much as possible. Should I not worry about an excise amount of carbs?
  • lishie_rebooted
    lishie_rebooted Posts: 2,973 Member
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    Calories are king for bulking. And theres nothing wrong with carbs
  • MB_Positif
    MB_Positif Posts: 8,897 Member
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    I've been bulking the last 16 weeks, take a look at my diary if you'd like. I don't feel any food is off limits as long as you fit it in your macros. I go over on my fats constantly and it has not been a problem!
  • jasonbruce888
    jasonbruce888 Posts: 23 Member
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    Cheers I will take a look, what do you mean by 'macros'?
  • lishie_rebooted
    lishie_rebooted Posts: 2,973 Member
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    jasonbruce888 wrote: »
    Cheers I will take a look, what do you mean by 'macros'?

    macros:
    protein, fat, carbs.
  • jasonbruce888
    jasonbruce888 Posts: 23 Member
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    cool, so basically I need to hit the right balance of those 3
  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,136 Member
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    jasonbruce888 wrote: »
    Cheers it does, any food I should be avoiding? I have been trying to avoid carbs as much as possible. Should I not worry about an excise amount of carbs?

    if you want to add muscle then you should be getting about 40% of your calories from carbs….probably more.
  • lishie_rebooted
    lishie_rebooted Posts: 2,973 Member
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    jasonbruce888 wrote: »
    cool, so basically I need to hit the right balance of those 3

    1g/lbm for protein, if you don't know your lean mass (lbm), then about 0.8g/lb of bodyweight.
    fats about 0.3/lb of bodyweight
    fill the rest with carbs.

    so for me, thats about 115g protein, 50g fat, and the rest of my cals are carbs.
    on a percent scale, since that's how MFP is set up, 25% protein, 30% fat (which is more than 50g), and 45% carbs. But I treat my protein & fat values as minimums. If I noticed an energy issues during my training, I might lower fat a little bit and intake more carbs but I think I'll be ok.
  • jasonbruce888
    jasonbruce888 Posts: 23 Member
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    Nice one that makes sense. What do you eat whist you are at work etc to keep u going? I suppose a lot of it is all about planning to make sure I have enough food with me at work
  • lishie_rebooted
    lishie_rebooted Posts: 2,973 Member
    edited March 2015
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    jasonbruce888 wrote: »
    Nice one that makes sense. What do you eat whist you are at work etc to keep u going? I suppose a lot of it is all about planning to make sure I have enough food with me at work

    This is today:


    Because I'm lazy and didn't feel like cooking veggies last night.
    I'm hitting my fat macro with my dinner tonight (steak, baked potato with butter)

    I do half of a protein shake and add some of it to my coffee in the morning (3 cups) and I don't eat til noon.
    The chicken I'm having today with the veggies, is pretty filling so that's why my PM snack is just cantaloupe (387g of it lol).
    But I'll do leftovers for lunch - yesterday was homemade pizza, had toast with smashed avocado & turkey eartlier this week.
    typically my PM snack is some fruit with cottage cheese or greek yogurt to help with the fat/protein macros. plus it keeps me satisfied til I eat dinner at 730-8pm (I eat at 12p, 3p, 730-8p. I try to eat my snack no later than 330pm on days I have to run after work so I don't feel gross during the run. I personally find this successful for keeping my binges lower and within my calorie goal. I primarily work out in the morning, fasted, except 2 PM group runs a week. Eating schedule is a personal preference) I'll also eat something sweet daily, sometimes just after lunch or sometimes after dinner. I find it necessary for my mental health

    Other food I've brought to work:

    (20% plain greek yogurt with cocoa powder & strawbberies)


    pizza from earlier this week


    cottage cheese with thin mints and strawberries

    ETA: the first picture isn't working for some reason... It's 2 7oz boxes of frozen veggies, a garlic Parmesan chicken breast (was about 240g raw - so good size), a container of cantaloupe, and my protein shake
  • jasonbruce888
    jasonbruce888 Posts: 23 Member
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    This is really helping thanks, so I don't need to stick to a dull salad every day and avoid the things I love :)
  • lishie_rebooted
    lishie_rebooted Posts: 2,973 Member
    edited March 2015
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    jasonbruce888 wrote: »
    This is really helping thanks, so I don't need to stick to a dull salad every day and avoid the things I love :)

    *gags* salad...
    I kid, kind of. I ate so many flipping salads when I started MFP 3 years ago that I rarely eat them now. And if I do, I typically order them when I'm out since I live alone so I'd have to eat salads for days if I made them lol

    ETA: fyi, I'm cutting weight to be a faster runner. but I hang out in the gaining weight forum a lot. ndj, mrM, jo, and a bunch of the guys in here have actual experience with bulking. I just like listening to them bicker and I've learned a bunch from them since a lot of it can still be applied to those cutting weight, it's just a smaller portion size
  • auddii
    auddii Posts: 15,357 Member
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    jasonbruce888 wrote: »
    This is really helping thanks, so I don't need to stick to a dull salad every day and avoid the things I love :)

    I'd hate to see how much salad you would need to hit enough calories to bulk. Granted, I can make some epic salads, but still, why when there is pizza?!
  • AliceDark
    AliceDark Posts: 3,886 Member
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    jasonbruce888 wrote: »
    This is really helping thanks, so I don't need to stick to a dull salad every day and avoid the things I love :)
    Why would you even consider this if you're trying to gain? Unless you're talking about those 1000+ calorie salads they serve at chain restaurants.

  • jasonbruce888
    jasonbruce888 Posts: 23 Member
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    Because I thought I needed to avoid fat and carbs. They where not calorie salads at all lol.

    Fro my food diary I had about 1000+ calories plus to eat
  • AliceDark
    AliceDark Posts: 3,886 Member
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    Um, no. If you're trying to gain, you need fat and carbs along with your protein. Plus, you know that almost everything in a salad is a carbohydrate, right? Vegetables get almost all of their calories from carbs.
  • jasonbruce888
    jasonbruce888 Posts: 23 Member
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    AliceDark wrote: »
    Um, no. If you're trying to gain, you need fat and carbs along with your protein. Plus, you know that almost everything in a salad is a carbohydrate, right? Vegetables get almost all of their calories from carbs.

    No i did not know that lol

  • slideaway1
    slideaway1 Posts: 1,006 Member
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    jasonbruce888 wrote: »
    This is really helping thanks, so I don't need to stick to a dull salad every day and avoid the things I love :)

    Dodge the salads mate if your bulking. Also google/read up on the difference between a clean bulk and a dirty bulk. I have been doing a clean bulk (about 200 cals per day over maintenance for just over a year. I have put on about 25lbs and my body fat has stayed roughly the same (15%). Good luck mate. You seem determined so I'm sure you will have success.

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