Bulking with healthy foods?

[Sukhpaal]

Hey guys, I have had problems bulking lately. I find it hard to get in the calories I need with most healthy foods because the calories are just not enough. So I find myself having to eat junk food to meet my caloric needs daily. But I find myself becoming depressed and anxious when I go this route. What kind of foods do you guys eat when you bulk?

[Sahil Pandit]

@Sukhpaal Why are you bulking? You tryna hide something? You tryna fill the void? 

Haha, im kidding (Not really)

Add some sweet potato and perhaps some tea to keep you full in between meals. 

Hope this helps. 

[Sukhpaal]

hahahahahaha, I know it's weird I am super insecure about my physique. Sometimes I question if its even worth it because bodybuilding feels like a distraction from consciousness work well for me at least, it might not be the same for someone else. I will try that thanks bro!

[pluto]

Nutrient Density + Calories

Clean Bulk takes longer but is more permanent.

[Sahil Pandit]

@Sukhpaal Perhaps do yoga the first 20 minutes before you work out, and then see how it effects your lift. 

[Slade]

A gallon of raw milk and 8oz raw steak per day is like 3200 calories which is what I eat for bulking. I’m not sure how big you are but milk and meat should do the trick. 

[d0ornokey]

Nuts are super high in calorie. A good number of nuts can get you 500-600 calories easy. 

Avocados are pretty calorie dense too. It's like 300 an avocado 

There are lots of healthy oils that are high calorie. Get a solid serving of oil in your veggies/meat. You can also find a recipe with shakes that include oils 

Google it! You can find tons of recipes for healthy bulking foods  

[Sukhpaal]

@Slade I will do this even though milk gives me the runs LOL

@d0ornokey Had no idea avocado had that many calories! thanks bro

[Michael569]

Legumes, Wholegrains , sweet potatoes, yams. 

You can pretty much eat these without limit and without fear of gaining weight. They contain protective phytonutrients for your whole body, provide clean source of energy and do not destroy the planet in the process. 

Junk calories will do you a lot of long term damage

[Hardkill]

On 3/10/2018 at 10:10 PM, Sukhpaal said:

hahahahahaha, I know it's weird I am super insecure about my physique. Sometimes I question if its even worth it because bodybuilding feels like a distraction from consciousness work well for me at least, it might not be the same for someone else. I will try that thanks bro!

Bodybuilding or any sort of weight training regimen is always worth it. Don't ever think otherwise. I know that it can feel frustrating because you don't think that it's changing your life as much as you thought it would or feel like it will be a waste of time and energy to start committing to weight training seriously, if you haven't already. I started as a skinny ectomorph and eventually worked my way up to looking not just more athletic, but also relatively muscular.

Nevertheless, bodybuilding or weight training isn't just about looking good, it's about vital for your healthy and overall physical strength in life. It also trains your mental toughness for life in general. Also, people will start to notice you more and compliment you the more you get buff. As long as you're a natty and you manage your time effectively then it worth doing.

Ideally, each workout session should last no longer than 45 min. to an hour. If you are training primarily for strength and working on perfecting your lifting technique, then you can stay at the gym longer than an hour if u want and have the time to do so because each heavy working set can take up to 10 min. in between sets and it may take more time to work with lighter weight to working on honing your technique. If you are training primarily for bodybuilding then the workout that is specifically tailored for that goal should really be no longer than a hour. Otherwise you will just be burning up too much glycogen stores and can cause unnecessary catabolic on the muscles. Remember, when perform weight training exercises for bodybuilding you have much less recovery time in between sets compared to when you are doing your main heavy lifts. Also, if you stay longer than an hour or hour and 15 min. doing bodybuilding exercises then you start getting into the zone of training for conditioning/endurance. 

Having said all of that, healthy foods that are cheap to buy in bulk would be sweet potatoes, brown rice, chicken breasts at the supermarket, peanut butter sandwich, breads, and other grains. If you're a vegan, then unfortunately I won't be able to help you out with that since I am not a vegan weight training. However, look up Youtube vids on vegan bodybuilders like Vegan gains or Clarence Kennedy. Those vegans are fucking beasts, especially Clarence Kennedy, who is 100 kg (220 lbs.) and can ATG PAUSE back squat 300 kg (660 kg). Plus, the guy looks as built as Clark Kent/Superman. He calls himself Harry Squatter. I am not sure, but those guys and other vegan fitness Youtubers may have some useful tips for economically purchasing healthy foods for building mass.

Oh yeah look up AthleanX on buying healthy foods and enjoying your meals. That guy is a legit DPT and personal trainer for weight training. His methods are a little unorthodox, but they make sense and work.

Btw, buy lots of seasoning and salt to make your foods taste better.

lastly, having a cheat junk meal once a week is absolutely acceptance, especially for a skinny guy like you. 

Edited March 12, 2018 by Hardkill

[Sukhpaal]

Thanks guys I will put everything into practice!

[molosku]

ALWAYS bulk with quality foods, and do count your macros and calories. Use myfitnesspal. Bulking as a "just eat a lot, no need to be too picky" is horrible advice. Yes you will gain WEIGHT but what you are after is muscle, so you should not be that interested in weight. Track your weight every morning, and make sure you are not gaining over 0,5kg a week. Dont stare at the figures, they dont really mean anything as your weight varies a lot for multiple reasons, but if your monthly data shows that you in average gained >1kg a week, you are overeating. Plan strategic cheat days once a week that ideally consist of a cheat MEAL and a decently portioned dessert if you wish. Cheat days are not eat whatever days.

If you can't stuff enough solid food into your face to meet your caloric needs, get a blender and blend bananas, quark, whey, yogurt, peanut butter (low sugar), oats,  berries and water,  thats easy 1000kcal right there. Tastes great also! There is no reason to eat low quality food to get hueg and sronk. 

Meme bulking leads to big guys who look bad without a shirt, you propably dont want that. I used to be like that. Now I'm much much stronger in relation to my bodyweight, and feel and look much better. All the strongest guys in my gym don't pack a lot of fat, for a reason: it's unnecessary. 

Also as a side note, and advice:

You propably know that you should log your lifts each training session. But what rarely gets spoken of, is that its really usefull to also log your total training volume and intensity. 

That means:

sets x reps x weight = total volume

Sets x reps x intensity = total intrnsity

And make sure that both of those go up monthly. I wish i knew this earlier. 

Also:

If you feel you are going to wreck yourself if you attempt that last rep, it totally is not worth it. Healing from injury <<<< 5% less volume than you planned on one set of one lift. 

If you have more questions, pm me, im happy to help

Good luck! 

Source: my greatness, experience and valor

Edited March 15, 2018 by molosku

[Kisame]

To bulk with quality food, you have to drink your calories, not eat them. You should get a blender if you don't have one. You don't need a high-end Vitamix, but make sure it's decently powerful.

Some good staples for your smoothies:

1. Dried fruit are very high calorie. 
2. Nuts and nut butters are also excellent here. 
3. Some fresh fruits are decently high in calories too. For instance tropical fruit, like bananas and mangoes. 

Personally I don't like milk, but I love cheese. Also super calorie-dense. You said milk gives you problems, so maybe do cheese instead. If it's a lactose issue, as a general rule of thumb, the harder the cheese, the easier it'll be for you to digest. 

Go get those gains, bro.

Edited March 15, 2018 by Kisame

[Max_V]

Quinnoa, rice, buckwheat, other gluten-free grains, fruit, beans, lentils, leafy greens, nut’s and seeds

This is how I get my daily caloric intake + a medium sized surplus.

This is basically 2800 calories and on some days a little more.