So, I finally dived into the bulking concept and I’ve upped my eating quite a bit. Let me give you a rough idea of a days meal plan:
Breakfast (7AM):
Big bowl of cereal w/ milk or big bowl of oatmeal
piece of whole wheat bread with a large amount of peanutbutter, honey, and handful of raisens
small bowl of cottage cheese
glass of milk or orange juice
Meal 1 (9AM)
chicken thigh
yogurt
serving of brown rice, chicken pieces, green beans, black beans
Meal 2 (1030 - 11AM)
serving of brown rice, chicken pieces, green beans, black beans
Lunch (12-1230PM)
-turkey and cheese on whole wheat
-carrots
serving of brown rice, chicken pieces, green beans, black beans
Meal 4 (2 - 230PM)
chicken thigh
serving of brown rice, chicken pieces, green beans, black beans (usually finishing it up)
Post Workout
protein powder (usually mixed w/ water, sometimes milk)
some kind of snack (maybe a cheese stick, or some trail mix, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, whatever is around until dinner)
Dinner
Whatever mom is making…
(always some form of meat with vegetables, always given good size portions)
…
So I’ve done this all week along with my daily 3 day (M/W/F)Rippetoes. I weigh myself every morning, and it seems I either take a shit and have lost a little weight, or maybe by the end of the week I’ll have gained 1lb., 2 at the most. I’m eating a LOT more than I ever did with the intentions of putting on some healthy weight for building some muscle mass, but it seems like maybe I’m going about this wrong. I’d say, oh I can just eat more, but the fact is, what I eat is filling. I need more calories, but less filling I guess. I didn’t think it was too healthy to just sit here with a spoon and eat peanutbutter by the jar full though.
Am I getting worried about not gaining weight too soon since it’s only been a week or should I be working on adjusting my food regime and finding my calories in something else?
At what rate should I be gaining weight? 3lbs a week? 5lbs? I mean, with all the food I’ve eaten this week, you’d think just from the friggen volume I’d weigh more.
Forgot to add, I was considering investing in a weight gain powder to help me out. If you have any suggestions for a good brand, or any reason for/against a weight gain supplement, I’m all ears.
You want to be gaining at a rate of about 3-5 pounds every 4 weeks, or every month.
The way you’re eating it looks like you’re trying to diet down. I understand the desire to eat as healthy as possible, but honestly… you need to loosen up a litte. haha
The staples of a bulking diet are things like beef, eggs, pasta, veggies and protein shakes. People don’t get big from chicken and yogurt, and a diet like the one you have above isnt just counterproductive to building muscle very quickly, but it’s also extremely hard to stick with.
It’s just no fun! And it’s not necessary to be that strict, so don’t be afraid to throw some cheeseburgers and pork chops in there.
Well, if I use the Cytogainer on just my work out days, I can get away with two servings a day which would stretch a bucket out for 3 weeks. That’s not too bad.
I have seen others that seem to have a much higher calorie number. But, maybe this’ll be a good start. Thanks for the heads up.
We eat steak, cheeseburgers, baked chicken, BBQ ribs, etc. during dinner. It’s hard to bring a steak to work with me. Also, my food budget isn’t huge. I definitely got home a couple days ago and said “this isn’t working, I’m full but I’m not getting all the calories.”
So, I’m basically agreeing with you. I guess I need help with high(er) calorie foods, that are fairly healthy, and also not super filling so that I can keep eating them. Rice is very filling, and I can tell that from the amount I’m eating and not gaining much weight, I’m just filling my stomach with not enough worthwhile ‘weight gaining’ food.
like i said, beef steak pasta and protein shakes. haha
A few other staples would be whole milk, and peanut butter.
75 grams of peanut butter (on really big scoop) is about 400 calories and 14 grams of protein. Eat it as a snack or right after every solid meal to add good calories.
Add 1 or 2 tablespoons of olive oil to your protein shakes.
There lots of little tricks you can use but you need to start by eating more hearty foods in general.
Good advice so far. The nuts at your workdesk, and adding oil to your food will work very well to get calories quickly. Not sure how you feel about Flax oil, but I bought a big thing of it yesterday and about 1 tbsp is about 130 calories, mostly omega-3’s too.
I just started using Cytogainer last week, I only have about 1 serving a day with milk (broke up into two half servings) to add about ~500 extra calories a day. So far, so good. Seeing about 1lb/week gains like Mr Popular mentioned above. Lifts and measurements increasing as well.
Pasta is cheap and plentiful, and as an Italian guy I cook this all the time with homemade sauce. Look up some sauce recipes and use liberal amounts of oil and meat (pork or whatever) for extra calories if necessary.
For cooking, olive and coconut oil are great. Butter in moderation also isn’t bad when it comes to cooking. Olive for dressings and what not, and coconut oil or butter if you’re going to heat the oil.
[quote]ninjaboy wrote:
For cooking, olive and coconut oil are great. Butter in moderation also isn’t bad when it comes to cooking. Olive for dressings and what not, and coconut oil or butter if you’re going to heat the oil.[/quote]
By “what not” I assume you’re talking about being able to mix Olive oil into a protein shake?
One more question… for now… hah. When doing big eating, should I be eating my 3500 calories everyday or just on my work out days? I’ve read that on lifting days, obviously it’s crucial to get the high calories, but on off days to eat normal, or at least not as much. Any thoughts on that?
It’s got a higher calorie count than the Cytogainer and was a little less expensive. Lemme know what you think. Worse come to worse, I don’t have to buy it again.
You should eat enough food every day, including rest days. Rest days are when your muscles grow, why would you ever think to NOT have plenty of nutrients then??
[quote]mr popular wrote:
You should eat enough food every day, including rest days. Rest days are when your muscles grow, why would you ever think to NOT have plenty of nutrients then??[/quote]
Well, I wasn’t suggesting that I not eat well, I was just not sure if I needed to eat as much.
[quote]mr popular wrote:
You want to be gaining at a rate of about 3-5 pounds every 4 weeks, or every month.
The way you’re eating it looks like you’re trying to diet down. I understand the desire to eat as healthy as possible, but honestly… you need to loosen up a litte. haha
The staples of a bulking diet are things like beef, eggs, pasta, veggies and protein shakes. People don’t get big from chicken and yogurt, and a diet like the one you have above isnt just counterproductive to building muscle very quickly, but it’s also extremely hard to stick with.
It’s just no fun! And it’s not necessary to be that strict, so don’t be afraid to throw some cheeseburgers and pork chops in there.[/quote]
Everytime I see someone in the RMP section that talks about their diet consisting of 3 Bic Macs a day and milkshake, I see that they’re just tubby and there’s no visible muscle definition.
Plus they get ragged on by everyone that replies about how their diet is disgusting. I thought the trick was to gain weight (mostly muscle) and continue eating healthy. I can easily eat shitty food to get the calories, I just figured the purpose was to eat a lot of healthy food, for the most part.