Englishman Needs Cheap Bulk Diet

Hi guys, had to pause training. Can’t provide enough food intake. The cost of eating in the UK is getting ridiculous.
I’d like to be able to keep going through these costly times. I can’t be picky now, so I want to know, should I eat pasta all day, find my self a hen, and are frozen veggies ok? The missus says it looks like I’m shrinking. Can I cheat with pizza and things.
I am over 35, but felt it better to post here. I’ve been training for a year and half, so a long way to go yet.

Thanks

Mike:)

y did u pause training?

costco is your friend!

I’m in a similar situation to you, I personally wont take frozen veggies because I don’t feel you get as many nutrients from them…
I just try to eat as smart as possible with the money I have… Some days my diet is spot on others it isn’t.

Buy lots of eggs they can be pretty cheap if you find the right place and you can make all sorts with them…
Chicken in the UK right now is expensive in my area so I don’t get as much of that as I would like…
If you make the pizza yourself it can be fine, there was a good article about it a while ago.

If I really want to get a lot of protein in me I’ll sometimes buy KFC and just skip the pepsi, chips etc…

I paused training because of insufficient fuel. Figured I’d be wasting my time? Should I carry on regardless? Just eat what I can?

Regards, Mike:)

Hi Mike,
Yeah the current climate is a joke and I think we are all in a similar position. Anyway, for what its worth, here is what I would recommend to you right now:

  1. Dont stop training:
    Even in the face of insufficient nutrients, resistance training will at the very least preserve your lean muscle mass.

  2. Shop Wisely:

Cheap protein sources include

a) Turkey: Lidl do very cheap poultry, buy joints of meat and cook or carve them. This works out much cheaper
b) Tinned tuna: go for value options/ foreign versions
c) Beans: combine with brown rice (buy both in bulk) and you have a complete protein source
c) Check out markets. I went to a market recently and managed to get 4kg of Chicken breast for about 15 quid.

Decent carbs:
Rice: get the largest bags you can. You can buy in bulk from ethnic shops for nearly nothing
Oats: Buy value bags
Beans: Tinned or dry will do.

Veggies: Iceland do some half decent frozen deals. Just get whatever you can

Fat: Olive oil, tinned fatty fish

Look out for offers, clearance items, markets etc etc. Be a bit savvy and you can easily save cash. Avoid branded products and stock up on items when they are cheap.

A diet doesnt have to be perfect for you to get results. This is a big misconception.

if there is a costco near you… go there. you no longe have to have a business to be a member.

last time i went i got 72 eggs for £4.50, 6x12 packs of bacon for a 5er.

[quote]AlteredState wrote:

Powdered oats are cheap as hell there. I eat quite a lot of them.[/quote]

i second that… i buy the flavoured whey in bags… think it comes to about £10 a kilo. its nice and i think it is a good protein.

what u reckon about their protein alterstate?

[quote]Dave Rogerson wrote:
Myprotein are great, the university I work for use their products when conducting research, student projects etc.[/quote]

i think they are probably the cheapest whey protein aswell. £20 for a kilo. ive been using it and i think it tastes nice etc but i was wondering about the overall quality? what you think?

Strongly second myprotein for whey powder. I would say same quality as maximuscle and 1/4 the price if buy in bulk.

Pizza Hut all you can eat buffet is your best friend on heavy day.

i think its nicer than maximuscle aswell.

good call on the all you can eat buffet, i wish i was bulking :frowning:

i dunno about down in england, but theres places in glasgow that do a 2 meals for a fiver at some times during the day. go in and eat both meals!

myprotein.co.uk and costco/makro are what you should check out.

Oats! Cheap on myprotein.co.uk ARE YOU MAD!

£2.50 per kg…thats about three times more expensive that waitrose!

Although £45 for 5kg of casein is a pretty sweet deal if you enter www.bulkpowders.co.uk into the price match.

I agree with what the above people have said apart from the oats thing.

Tinned tuna is expensive when you consider that tinned sardines/mackrell/pilchards have about 90% of the protein, still +20g, and are about 50% of the price. Waitrose does sardines for 35p for 115g which has about 23g pro and pilchard for 28p for 150g which has about 20g pro.

i did the whole entering www.bulkpowders.co.uk into the my protein site.

120 quid for 20kg of whey.

thats a fucking awesome deal, only prob is it aint flavoured… :frowning:

Go to a farmer’s market for vegetables. Much, much cheaper than anywhere else because there is no middleman and little transit cost.

CostCo is a no brainer. I’m sure you must have the equivalent in England. Probably called “Waddingthorpes” or something regal-sounding like that. I don’t know.

Since money is a huge issue you need to be looking at every single nutritional label. “What provides me the most bang for my buck…err…quid?”.

There’s canned tuna of course. Cheap ground beef is another good one. Basically, at your meat shop, if it died and its cheap buy it. For fats…bulk nuts are great, as are avocadoes.

Costco is in the UK you just have to be aware of the products that have lower nutritional value ie water pumped chicken.

Protein g/£ is going to be my new thing :smiley:

[quote]mikee55 wrote:
Hi guys, had to pause training. Can’t provide enough food intake. The cost of eating in the UK is getting ridiculous.

I’d like to be able to keep going through these costly times. I can’t be picky now, so I want to know, should I eat pasta all day, find my self a hen, and are frozen veggies ok? The missus says it looks like I’m shrinking. Can I cheat with pizza and things.

I am over 35, but felt it better to post here. I’ve been training for a year and half, so a long way to go yet.

Thanks

Mike:)[/quote]

Going back to your OP

“should I eat pasta all day”

Probably one cheapest carb sources if you go for the supermarkets own brand but own brand oats are about 59-79p/kg from ASDA/Tesco-Waitrose. Pretty cheap

, “find my self a hen”

Expensive

, “and are frozen veggies ok?”

Yes, if you get the 1kg bags. Avoid the invidual plastic bags that come in one big bag. Generally you should be looking to spend no more than £1 on 1kg of Frozen mixed veg (Iceland price).

“Can I cheat with pizza and things.”

If a pizza has about 1200 kcals they are going to come from mainly carbs and fat but not much from protein. If you have a small pizza then sure but you need to keep in mind that you aren’t going to get protein for pizza.

It depends what the “things” is; you can get a kg of dry roasted peanuts from ASDA for £1 I think, mix in a pinch salt and like one tablespoon of sunflower oil and blend for 1kg of PB. Own brand malt loaf is pretty cheap and generally has the same macros as more expensive soreen.

Also consider own brand wheetabix, which from what I seen has exactly the same macros to the decimal point as normal wheetabix.

Look at moneysavingexpert.com for more info on supermarket stuff.

trueprotien.com has some really cheap whey. i just bought 25lbs for $99. (67 euro)

there are all sorts of places to buy dry foods in bulk online if you don’t have a wholesale place around ya. oats, beans etc…

Tuna is nice and inexpensive; but chicken is more calorie dense.

I’m bulking too…good luck man!

Dont’ stop training. WOrk hard.

thosebananas - if you are buying 20kg of whey at a time it would be worth contacting “the whey consortium” they pretty much supply most of the stongmen in the UK with bulk whey

also all in one at sports-nutrition.net have awesome products and will price match any online deal if you phone them