Bulking diet advice for beginners

[Protax]

Hi all,

Sorry for the somewhat lengthy post, English isn't my first language so I may explain things a bit more than what's necessary. Fair warnings to the Americans, I'll be using the metric system here.

Desperately looking for someone to point me in the right direction in terms of what to eat. Trying to get after it after multiple life-changing experiences this year. Got single in December, and my best friend died in May. Needless to say, It's been a ride.
Figured I wanted to do this for me, and for him as we often discussed the topic of getting bigger. He had huge forearms, and he's the one who showed me the zottman curls.

I've signed up a gym with another friend of mine who's been there for years. Thing is, I don't yet have a specific workout plan nor a diet plan.
I was a fan of Ronnie Coleman's deal with chicken, rice, bbq sauce. Little did I know, this is what he used for weight loss / getting super lean (Please correct me If I'm wrong here. This is something my friend told me, and therefore told me that I was eating wrong).

He told me to not care what I eat, and just stuff my face with pizza, burgers, and general fast food. Thing is, shit gets expensive real fast. I'm already blowing $500 a month on food because I live in a country where everything is ridiculously expensive. I also know fast food makes you feel shitty at the gym, so rather not deal with that too much.


Right now I'm sitting at 60kg at 183cm tall. If I am to trust the BMI calculators out there, I'm sitting at 17,9 which obviously is underweight. I remember reading somewhere that my ideal weight at these stats should be 80kg. I used different types of calculators for calories and found a formula that gave me answers. The formula was my body weight in kg (60kg) times 30-35 kcal/calories. The result of this is 2100 calories, which will be my maintenance level. Then it said to add 500-1000 calories on top of that for the bulking part itself.

I'm then sitting at 3100 calories that I need daily. This brings me to my end goal question:

What's the cheapest, most simple, and meal prep-friendly food that I can do? I don't mind repetitive eating. I already just eat salmon, rice, and sauce. And I also do chicken, sauce, and rice. But now not even knowing if this is a good idea or not, I'm getting second doubts on what I'm eating.

For reference, if it matters, I'm trying to end up somewhere between Zyzz's shredded but Eddie Hall's mass/figure

All replies and any push towards any right direction is more appreciated than ever. Thanks!

 

[CJ]

First off, I never would have known that English was not your first language, so you've done well learning it.

As for simple foods for gaining weight, both the salmon and rice, and chicken and rice meals that you currently eat are fantastic. I'd choose chicken thighs over breast though, as it's more calories per the same volume of food. Another good option would be ground beef and rice.

I wouldn't just eat junk food, as you stated it makes you feel like crap. I'd keep it to a minimum, only to get in extra calories after your nutritious whole foods.

Whole fat milk is another good choice for getting in extra calories easily. As is adding butter or olive oil to the meat and rice meals that you currently eat.

Not sure if you have these in your country, but American style kids cereals are a great post workout meal. You can eat a lot of these, and it digests fairly easily and quickly.

II'd start off at 300 Cals above your maintenence level, stay there for as long as you are gaining, then bump up another 300 and repeat the process.

Eventually you'll start to feel like you're getting a bit too fluffy. At that point, stay at that weight/Cals for awhile and grow into that weight before pressing on again.

 

[Keepy77]

Hi Protax,

I am 185cm and currently 84kgs. I am "lightly active" everyday (office and manual labour Job) I am eating at maintenance at the moment which which puts me at 11,000kjs (2750 cals). When I diet I go down to 2400 cals, when I go into surplus I eat around 3000 cals. This might help you to compare.

My diet doesn't change alot regardless of what my goal is, just the amount I am eating. However I will do little things that will determine if I'm in a calorie surplus or deficit such as peanut butter in my oats if I'm trying to gain weight or only have 2 whole eggs and the rest egg whites if I'm trying trying lose weight or milk in my protein shake instead of water, larger serves of rice or meat to get the cals in but still it generally stays as just a protein source with every meal and a carb source with most meals, fruit a couple times a day and some veges in amongst a meal or 2..

Meal prep, I just cook a shit load of chicken on the Webber and a bunch of rice.. weigh it all out, bang it into tubs and then it's so easy to track on my fitness pal

hope this info helps

 

[CJ]

Hi Protax,

My diet doesn't change alot regardless of what my goal is, just the amount I am eating. However I will do little things that will determine if I'm in a calorie surplus or deficit....

^^^^This!!!!

 

[FearThaGear]

Not much to add to what has already been said above but I definitely agree that your diet doesn't need to change much, if at all.

Bulking only requires eating slightly more than your maintenance calories and cutting only requires eating slightly lower than your maintenance calories.

The most important thing in my opinion is making sure that you're getting in enough protein. Everything else from that point is just filling in to get to the calorie numbers that you need to achieve your current goal.

Good luck to you.

 

[mark18T]

Right now I'm sitting at 60kg at 183cm tall. If I am to trust the BMI calculators out there, I'm sitting at 17,9 which obviously is underweight. I remember reading somewhere that my ideal weight at these stats should be 80kg. I used different types of calculators for calories and found a formula that gave me answers. The formula was my body weight in kg (60kg) times 30-35 kcal/calories. The result of this is 2100 calories, which will be my maintenance level. Then it said to add 500-1000 calories on top of that for the bulking part itself.

I would definitely get closer to ~ 85 kg. And it's not about a diet, I simply eat almost everything I want, but simply trying to eat less than I want, and always prefer to end up my meal-time while I'm still hungry. That because brain is too slow, and simply cannot react fast on how full my stomach is.

 

[ATLRigger]

Hmm, don’t forget cheese and potatoes, but don’t fry anything.

 

[GSgator]

RED MEAT AND POTATOES every meal throw in some spinach and broccoli here and there your grow like a weed.

 

[wotmeworry]

Agree about limited the processed (crappy) food ... you will be pushing your body to grow so better to minimise any extra stress on it having to filter out toxins too.

One thing that I think helped me gain after a period of struggling to put on mass was a digestive enzyme (Excellacor enteric coated was my choice after googling options). If your digestion is fine, these will do nothing, but mine seemed to need help.

Another thing I had to correct was meal timing discipline (not going too long between meals).

So, at 62, I went from 83kg to 88kg (vs 91kg when training at age 23) over ~8 months. Have since cut down to 86.5 and feel pretty good.

 

[mark18T]

Protax, can I ask what online tools do you use for kinda controlling your body mass? I could find dozens of resources with free calculators, but this BMI Calculator is maybe one of the most accurate body mass calculator I've tried on my own mass and on my brother's and our nephews as well. We train together, and every person's age is different so it's pretty interesting to calculate everything and to monitor all the physical changes that happen during workout programs.

 

[Bromber]

Thanks for your recommendation! Is it necessary to calculate calories? Calorie counts aren't accurate. https://unimeal.com/blog/how-to-lose-weight-fast-in-2-weeks-naturally-67 - I just follow my diet. Everything is already calculated

 

[JuiceTrain]

Gonna make this a simple and easy 3step process...

1) Make and eat home cooked meals for nutrients

2) Eat some quality takeout food for cals
Ex. 5guys over McDonald's or Supermarket buffet over takeout buffet...idk where I was goin with that one but I made it work

3) Lift heavy weights...
none of those b/s cable/resistance machines... straight iron

You ever here the saying "Iron sharpens Iron"
-Notice how there's no cables in it.....
Unnecessary equipment

 

[Skullcrusher]

Eat a lot of food...that will be all.

 

[CJ]

Thanks for your recommendation! Is it necessary to calculate calories? Calorie counts aren't accurate. https://unimeal.com/blog/how-to-lose-weight-fast-in-2-weeks-naturally-67 - I just follow my diet. Everything is already calculated

If you're following your diet, which is already calculated, you ARE counting calories, at least in some fashion.

Portion sizes, macros, etc... That's all just counting calories.