Let's talk about bulking. It's easy to think that all you have to do is eat more and exercise, but it's not that simple. You need to eat more calories than you burn to gain weight, which isn't just about eating more food. What is almost NEVER communicated to people is how a person's metabolism tends to "speed up" when they eat more food. Its true! When you eat more food, your body burns more calories and the opposite is also true, eat less food and your body burns less calories. This is an adaptive response that our bodies evolved with in order to become more efficient with calories during times of famine and to be less concerned with efficiency when food was in abundance. This logic only applies to someone who is active and consuming real foods the body is adapted to eating.
A hardgainer like myself adapts to higher calories MUCH MORE than the average person. Most muscle building articles will suggest that you figure out your maintenance caloric requirements (how much food you need to eat to simply stay the same weight)and add 500 calories to it. This is good advice for the average "easy to get fat and gain weight" person, but if you're someone who struggles to put on weight, you need to consume about 1000 more calories than you burn every day to see results.
But how do you know how many calories you need to eat? You need to track your food intake to get an accurate number. When I started tracking my food, I was on a vegan diet and it's crazy how low your calories can be when you purely consume plants. I thought I was consuming a lot because I was satiated, but I was way off. That's why it's so important to track your food intake if you want to gain weight.
Start out by getting yourself a free food tracking app like My Fitness Pal which is what i used, totally free. Enter in all the food you eat on a daily basis for at least a week or two. Make sure to do this during a regular week so you can get a real average. Once you have your daily average, add 1000 calories for your new muscle building target.
Once you know how many calories you need to eat, most youtubers tell you that you need to focus on your macronutrients. These are the proteins, fats, and carbohydrates in your food. I never did this and still got the results I wanted. It's about eating the right food and the right amount of it. So, if you're a hardgainer, don't just assume that eating more will solve your problem. Take the time to track your food intake, and focus on eating enough protein and high quality calories.
Protein
Let's talk about the one macro nutrient that plays the biggest role in building muscle: protein. You've probably heard that you need to eat a lot of protein if you want to gain muscle. And it's true! But how much protein is enough? I recommend aiming for 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight. So if you weigh 150 pounds, you should try to eat 150 grams of protein every day.
The supplement companies would have you believe that the more protein you consume the better (this way you buy more protein powder). This is FALSE. Eating TOO MUCH protein will hinder your muscle gains by making it VERY difficult to eat enough calories. This is because protein is very satiating. And if you focus too much on eating too much protein, you might not be getting enough calories from other important sources like fats and carbs. So once you hit that 1 gram per pound of body weight goal, focus on getting extra calories from carbs and fats. At the same time, no one needs to consume more than 200 grams of protein, if you weigh over 200 pounds just aim for 200.
Carbs
Carbohydrates have been getting a bad reputation lately, with many blaming them for causing obesity, diabetes, and even Alzheimer's. However, it's not that simple when it comes to nutrition. There are many societies that consume a lot of carbs and still maintain excellent health. And good health is beneficial for building muscle and consuming lots of carbs is not necessarily unhealthy.
When it comes to building muscle, carbs are almost essential. While it may be suitable for some individuals under certain circumstances to attempt to build muscle on a lower carb diet, this is not the case for everyone.
Personally, for the first year of my bulk I built muscle on a lower carb diet because of my focus on consuming as much nutrients as possible. I was mainly eating vegetables and meat. Whilst I gained quite a lot of weight, my muscles still looked small. When I started adding more carbs I looked a lot bigger within a few months. This is geezer science but I think this was because carbs cause the body to store extra water. When we eat carbs, the energy that we do not use right away is stored as glycogen in the our muscles ready for use later. Each gram (g) of glycogen comes with 3 g of water attached. So I gained more water weight rather than actual muscle but it made me look bigger regardless. I've got progress photos in the physical health guide so check that out if you want to see the difference.
When it comes to building muscle, it's critical to lift heavy and hard, so avoiding low carb diets could benefit you if you feel sluggish in your workouts. Despite upping my carbs, i'm still fairly low carbish and haven't seen much difference in my energy levels but play around with what works for you.
Good sources of carbs include:
- Rice
- Potato
- Quinoa
- Buckwheat
- Fruit
- Oatmeal
- Starchy Veggies
Fat
You might have heard that fats are bad for you, but that's not entirely true. In fact, fats are essential for your body to function properly. They help with hormone production, cell integrity, and can even contribute to muscle building. Back in the day, bodybuilders would eat high amounts of fats, especially animal fats, to help build muscle. Saturated fats from well-sourced meats can have muscle-building effects in most people, but make sure you're healthy and have a good lipid profile before increasing your saturated fat intake.
Don't be afraid of dietary cholesterol either. Some studies have shown that it positively influences strength and muscle growth. Eating a whole egg with all its cholesterol is far more effective at producing a muscle-building environment than consuming an equal amount of protein without the cholesterol.
The common recommendation is to make fat account for about 15-30% of your daily caloric intake. For example, if you're a 160-pound male consuming 3000 calories a day, you should aim for about 50 to 100 grams of fat per day. But I actually regularly eat closer to 50% of fat a day. As long as it comes from healthy sources, it doesn't really matter.
When it comes to good sources of fats, think grass-fed beef, lamb, pork, chicken, full-fat organic dairy, eggs, fatty fish, olive oil, avocado, nuts, coconut, and seeds. Try to avoid heavily processed vegetable fats like canola oil or safflower oil, as they can promote an unhealthy inflammatory response.
Always remember, you were born to be the hero of your story.
Free you outlaw.