My Bulking Diet

I’ve always been a huge fan of this website and Biotest, and its made a big impact on my life. This is the third time I am trying to put on some mass, so first I’ll briefly outline the first two times.

The first time I was in 9th grade,and weighed in at a whopping 95, but at only 5 foot 1 and i started in slowly, and went to eating 4-5 meals a day, 2-3000 calories, and put on twenty pounds in two months, and based on definition, lost bodyfat. After that, the eating got to be to much for me and it wore off, but the weight didnt.

I gradually increased, mostly through height increases and muscel gain from gymnastics, and got up to 150 at one point, then I caught mono and went back down to 140. I started to bulk again, but jumped in really quick and did not stick with it.

I recently got sick again, and got down to 133 to finish out this last cheerleading season. This was a low point for me, mainly because I prided myself on weighing more than my skinny tall friends.(I am still only 5 5 and thats pushing it.)

I have started to bulk again, and have quickly put on 17 lbs. I know alot is fat, because as soon as I started I hurt my back and just now was able to start lifting and stunting again, and alot of that gain was water. I decided to ease into it, and not make any drastic changes overnight, and tried to follow most of the seven rules.

The only one I do not worry about, is carb intake, and I try to get it mostly from fruit and vegetables, but I love breads and pasta, and at my size i am not worried about fat gain at all.

I try to drink 1/2 gallon of milk per day, and supplement my protein intake with 4 scoops a day, of wal-mart brand that I had left over, I’m going ot use it up before I choose between ordering Metabolic Drive or ON’s 100% whey.

I also take 6 grams of BCAAs a day, and 10 gr. of creatine, and starting tomorrow cutting down to 5 grams. I am also about to start taking Vit. C along with my multi, and fish oil capsules.

I drink around 1 gallon of water a day, accounting for a lot of the weight gain.
I read a post not to long about getting in calories on a small budgets and stomachs, and someone suggested pop-tarts, as they are caloricaly dense, cheap, and not totally empty. So I eat 4 a day, two for my second meal, and two later in the day as a snack.

It is the only thing I could think of otehr htan some homemade protein bars, which I have yet to refind my recipe for, that I can eat at school, in class, while not getting caught. I eat the school lunch, since I am on free lunch program anyway, i have to suffer through the soyburgers, I wish i could bring another lunch, but money comes in somewhere too.

I never woudl eat lettuce before, and now I eat a salad whenever I get the cahnce, and eat several pieces of fruit or sliced canned fruit daily. I’m more worried about my totally calorie and protein intake than the individual micronutrients for now, so I also don’t try to match up P+f and P+C meals, i’m just tryign to get big for now. Fine tuning will come in time, but now I’m just tyring to stuff as much in as I can, as cleanly as I can.

I’ve logged several days of food, mostly random days when I go back over exactly what I ate(I do have an exceptional memory, and find that I add more just to add to a log if I write it down as I go along) and, without accounting for school lunch which I have no idea of the caloric content, average at 3000kCal Per day.
800 from the poptarts, 440 from protein powder,900 from milk, and the rest from my othter food sources.

I feel alot healthier having added fruits and veggies, and can feel the differnce in my stunting.

I’m now looking on advice on where to go from here, to cheaply improve my diet.

My ideas are as follows:

  1. Ditch the poptarts for something with higher protein and less sugar
  2. Pack a pre-lunch, since my 5th period teacher is nice, and has a microwave in his room. It could be a small amount of pasta, and a small salad and apple or banana. the spring mix frozen salads aren’t terrible tasting are they? I know its not as good as fresh but i’m on a limited budget.
  3. Improve Pre and post workout nutrition, I lift in 7th period, then have 8th period, then go home. I just bought a “blender ball shaker cup” from GNC, and it seems that it is the only thing worth their inflated prices or cheesy salesmen. I’m thinking of getting one more, and having an identical pre-workout shake and postworkout, with 5 gr of glutamine, 5 of creatine, and one scoop of protein. I can’t really fit much more in, as I eat only 1 horu before my workout.
  4. Improve my carb intake, by starting to eat a whole wheat PB sandwhich or 2 every day.
  5. Eating more whole food lean protein, somewhere along the lines of cooking 2 lbs of lean beef at the beginning of the week, and having it finished at the end.
  6. Supplementing, a recap from up above,
    4-6 Scoops of protein powder, either Metabolic Drive or ON
    10 gr of creatine
    6 gr of BCAA
    10 gr of Glutamine
    3 gr of Vit. C.
    Possible ZMA
  7. I’ve thought of the new v8 fusion drinks as source of fruit and veggies. any thoughts on this?

I know this is a lot, but any comments, suggestions, or ancedotes would be appreciated.

BTW i never mentioned my goals.
I want to be a lean 170, and am willing to get to a not so lean 180 first.
I want to be a collegiate level cheerleader, as far as stunting goes, since my tumbling is already there ( standing full from drew pate - YouTube).

I am not doing college cheer this next year, even though I’m graduating HS(I need to focus on my grades my first year, it is really hard for freshman to cheer at UCA), but I have another year of all-star level cheerleading to go.

no thoughts at all?

Thoughts? Sure! (grin)

I don’t have a problem with the Pop-Tarts, believe it or not. Just make sure you’re having protein to go with it.

Same thing with eating school lunches. Eat the lunch, but bring some quality protein to supplement the meal.

For protein powder, I’m going to recommend Metabolic Drive Complete. You need the calories.

It sounds like you are in school and that you’re on a limited budget. If that’s the case, forget the supplements and put your money into food. Personally, I consider protein powder food, not a supplement.

Buy nuts and dried fruit and jerky and carry 'em with you to school.

For PWO nutrition, drink chocolate milk.

Track your food and weigh each and every week. Decide on bare minimums, like 3 servings of fruit per day no matter what or protein every meal, say a certain number of ounces.

Add oatmeal (cooked) or ice cream to your protein shake.

Eat a bit lighter on days you are less active and a bit more on days you are more active. Always pack you food and take it with you when you leave the house. It’s the only way you’ll be able to get your calories in.

When you get back home, make sure you’re getting in your good fats (flaxseed oil or flax seed ground and also olive oil).

If you get up in the middle of the night to nit the restroom, make sure you raid the refrigerator. Have a protein shake. Midnight runs to the restroom are highly underutilized feeding opportunities! (grin)

Hope some of that helps. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask!!! And good luck. I can tell you’ve been doing some reading. Keep it up!!! (grin)

Wow.

It seems that all there is to do now is do it. You have this down to the “t” obv.

I suppose all that’s left now is to get under the bar and do it.

-chris

Oh yeah, uh… fuk poptarts. eat oats, large flake or steel cut or both. more oats = bigger you.

Oats and animals amigo. Just get some cute little containers and pack your oat meals around with you. Quick easy, just rock some milk or protein shake (chocolate is killer) and you’re off.

BTW props for being a cheerleader. those guys get lots of flak but tumbling and gymnastics floor work take more balls than anything Ive ever done before I did those. But now Im addicted to rings and flips etc. Being in the air upside down is worse than being in a fight easily. I find my greatest opponent is typically me.

make sure to log your food intake too. make sure you are eating what you think youre eating.

-chris

thanks for the thoughts guys, I’ll keep it in mind definitely, Its hard on a limited budget, with limited transportation, school, but htere are people who have done better in worse conditions.

My biggest problem was that the only person who would hire me without my own transportation’s restraunt closed down, and I don’t have enough money to afford a car, so my g-ma has to drive me everywhere. But we make it work.

And about being a cheerleader, flipping upside down is definitely one of my biggest fears, right behind heights and falling. some say I chose the wrong sport considering that, oh well. I just get over it and do it anyway.

After two years its just now that a simple standing backflip that I land literally 100% of the time doesn’t scare me.
Rings was my fav. event, i got so close to an Iron cross before I had to stop gymnastics that I couldn’t stand it.

Thanks for ya’lls help, and I’ll keep my progress posted. Also, one more question, I have 4-5 practices a week, what kind of pre/during/post workout nutrition would be the best for this? I can most closely describe the practices at this point in the year as HIIT, with untimed intervals, sometimes long, sometimes seconds, but all movements are highly intensive.