College student clean bulk
TilapiaForDays
Posts: 3 Member
im a college student trying to bulk up, get juicy you know but still maintain abs. The app wants me to eat 3,000 calories and all this stuff. That would be very expensive for groceries since I live in an apartment. I am going by the 1gram of protein per pound of body weight is that good enough for a lean bulk? My diet consists mostly of peanut butter granola bars, milk, egg, bacon, tilapia, beef, little pork, no fast food, white rice, fried rice, and water.
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Replies
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A clean bulk or lean bulk is simply just eating a small surplus where you gain minimal amounts of fat. Eventually over time you will hit a point of fat gain where you'll have to cut. You do realize bacon is pork right? Id switch to a wild rice or brown rice if you can. Higher nutrient levels. More complex carbs.
What about fruits and veggies? Those should always be included in your diet. It might be cheaper for you if you were to invest in a whey protein to hit your protein goals. Depending on where you are, sometimes it works out cheaper per gram of protein. Honestly though, eat good, with enough protein and make sure to hit your calorie goal everyday.1 -
A clean bulk or lean bulk is simply just eating a small surplus where you gain minimal amounts of fat. Eventually over time you will hit a point of fat gain where you'll have to cut. You do realize bacon is pork right? Id switch to a wild rice or brown rice if you can. Higher nutrient levels. More complex carbs.
What about fruits and veggies? Those should always be included in your diet. It might be cheaper for you if you were to invest in a whey protein to hit your protein goals. Depending on where you are, sometimes it works out cheaper per gram of protein. Honestly though, eat good, with enough protein and make sure to hit your calorie goal everyday.
I don't use protein powders. I'm hitting my protein goal
But not my calorie goal.0 -
Then you've got to eat more food. Try adding in come fruits, avocados, more grains, nuts. I only suggested protein protein powder because you had mentioned food costs are quite expensive for yourself.0
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Hitting your protein goal only won´t help, as protein won´t be used as efficient for your muscles then...give your body fuel to be able to mantain it´s energy from carbs and fats, otherwise your protein will be used...whey can really be helpful in saving money for proteins....
are you just getting starting to work out, or??? 0 -
as an 18YO male with a good progressive strength training routine you can pretty much bang in whatever the hell food you like or can afford and you will see good muscle growth with minimal fat. The cleanliness of your diet should not your primary concern - calories are king and if that means some fast food then chomp it down.
Sure, if you can afford to, and if you want to for health concerns (fibre, nutrients, etc) you can stick to simple whole food ingredients. I would even recommend that these foods form the main part of your diet, but 100% "clean" is not essential.
This time is your absolute golden time for muscle growth. Use it wisely - I envy you. Good Luck.1 -
@StealthHealth damn right, what you need for maximum muscle growth is testosterone which you will have buckets of at your age. So start with a nice split of macros. I've read you can go as low as 0.6g protein per pound body weight. Eat clean and stick to a modest surplus of maybe 200-500 calories per day. Track your progress then adjust as necessary. Also plan 3/4 good meals for most of your calories then the rest you can use snacks/protein shakes.0
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Buy those bags of frozen chicken breasts. They are pound for pound the cheapest meat source for protein, and very good ratio of protein to fat. Liquid egg whites are cheap too and high in protein/low fat. I mean I eat tilapia too, but it's a little more expensive compared to chicken breasts and egg whites.0
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Ice cream and peanut butter.0
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Get juicy?0
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being a gap year student due to illness where i can only work part time now due to said illness and no student finance and recovering from an eating disorder where i need an incredible amount of food also - my advice? be prepared to save money in other aspects of life if you really want your 'cleaner' foods.. but it doesn't have to be that expensive trust me ! and there is nothing wrong with doing an 80/20 diet - some junk food will not only help you calorie wise but be so beneficial mentally. it is good to treat yourself too if you dont have a medical condition which makes it difficult for you.
I am no expert in bulking but I know a lot about weight gain, muscle gain and nutrition through own experience and working with professionals to heal my body ( I had a body fat percentage that was so low it couldnt be read and my muscles wasted down so much that my heart was being burned to give my body eneergy since it is indeed a muscle ..) - hitting your macros EXACTLY isn't necessary - especially at your age. And it definitely isnt good for you mentally to be so strict with yourself.
Peanut butter is ofcourse your friend. I also eat raw nuts (cheap for a bag and can toss them in anything).Avocado - I wait for them to be reduced in price where they need to be sold - buy them all - then take them home to skin them and freeze them - voila ! avocado whenever you need
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Make some 'clean' desserts if you prefer - like mine is mashed avocado and banana with unsweetened cocoa powder ( also cheap to buy for a big tub ).
Don't be afraid of fats or carbs - your body needs them just as much as the protein ( i got obsessed with protein before and it actually did damage to my body and made me ill - higher carb and fat intake too and I am feeling so much better and have much more energy !!) More energy = more energy to go the gym.
Potatoes are good and cheap. So are sweet potatoes and Oats - good, nutritious carbs. Quark is a fat free high protein soft cheese which can be used savoury or sweet. Seeds are cheap, healthy and high calorie / very dense. Dried fruit are healthy, high calorie and cheap to buy. Dark chocolate. Buy tinned fish which is much cheaper. How about quinoa ? Also not expensive. Make sauces using spices , coconut milk, tinned tomatoes ( cheap ! ) and a little olive oil. Make your own granola bars using peanut butter, honey ( or without if you dont need it to be sweet ) and oats ( much cheaper than buying bars and much healthier and you can add seeds, nuts, dried fruit etc to make them higher calorie.
These are all clean, cheap and have no protein powders. Alternatively, you cannot gain weight without also gaining a little fat. The only way to keep your 'abs' is to increase your lifting / routine when also increasing your intake - but make sure you are still eating a surplus, if not, adjust accordingly. You are young - don't restrict your food, you can eat whatever you like 1 -
You had almost all of your mentions of the word 'clean' in commas but missed one towards the end, good effort though. On a more serious note, that's a great dessert idea you mention. I love blending avocado, unsweetened cocoa, banana and protein powder. The avocado gives it a really great texture. If you don't like protein powder but want something else for flavour you can always add honey or whatever else you can think of. On an even more serious note than that, all the best with your recovery. It sounds like you've got your head around this at least so are on your way to getting better.0
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Buying beans and bulk plant foods is going to be a lot cheaper than buying beef and bacon
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Where's the chicken? Where's the veggies and fruits? How about adding avocado, nuts, beans. You can buy a bag of beans and cook them up and eat on them for days. I do not suggest protein powder, this stuff is expensive as one poster stated to add to your diet. You can buy 5 pound bags of chicken for about 9 to 10 bucks in my neck of the woods.
You need complex carbs in your diet, and although the protein number is acceptable at 1 gr/body weight, drop that to .8 gr/body weight and add in more carbs.
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10142490/a-list-of-calorie-dense-foods/p10 -
Whole wheat pancakes
Whole wheat frozen waffles
Oatmeal
You need more carbs0 -
If you need more calories in your diet peanut butter is a great route, also as stated before fast food is packed with calories. Only downside is the high sodium content can cause higher water retention making you look like you have more fat than you actually do so your abs won't appear as defined. Potatoes are a great starch and can easily substitute rice for a few meals for vaiation. If you like sweet and white potatoes you can alter between them, the main difference between them is the complexity but I would try to go for the most complex carbs you can, also means throwing in some brown rice. PB is great because it's got healthier fats and 1g of fat = 9 calories where as protein and carbs = 4 calories. 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight should be sufficient for muscle growth. I run 30% protein, 50% carbs, and 20% fats, carbs are only 4 calories but they are ESSENTIAL as your main energy source and what you dont use is more or less stored as fat unlike protein. You could always double check and recalculate your TDEE and I would suggest adding 25%. So if your TDEE is 2000 calories add 500. Make sure 3000 isn't your maintenance. My fitness pal was under when I set mine up. All in all I wouldn't worry so much about the protein, BCAAs are a great supplement in my opinion especially on a lower protein diet. I like extend by Scivation, it's cheaper than most competitors and actually has 7g of branch chains, 3500mg of l-leucine per serving which is pretty high, also will have 1g citruline malate if you want to go that route. If your looking at protein powders I would get a mass gainer style which will have more carbs than straight whey but I would not suggest that over real food. You sounded like you already had a general idea of what your doing and there's been some great advice from above so play with it and I'm sure you'll find what works for you. Goodluck0
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The best advice I ever got for a clean bulk is YouTube "Size For Seventy" it was the best video I ever watched.0
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Pizza has a crap load of calories if that is what you really need to meet. Eat 2-3 slices, that can be 900 calories on average.
Some others:
Pasta,
peanut butter.
Coconut oil on bread.
Homemade shakes with ice cream cream, protein, a banana(can have 100 calories) all together 700+ calories
whole milk. a cup is like 150
Most foods considered "junk foods" will have lots of calories. candy bars, cookies,
I think a snickers is around 460 or something.
So on so forth.0 -
eat slightly above maintenance. For a lean bulk, shoot for adding 10-15% to your maintenance calories and go from there. Protein is sufficient at 1g/lb. You could probably deal with less, to be completely honest, ie: .8g protein/lb. Fats should make up anywhere from 25-40% of your total calories and you fill the rest in with carbs.
All the food recommendations are solid in here. Pizza, donuts, ice cream, lean meats, not lean meats, healthy fats, unhealthy fats (in moderation), carbs (simple or complex), etc. EAT IT ALL, until you hit your calorie limit.0
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