Weight Gain Diet Plan

Kitt

New member
Bulking up is a part of bodybuilding. All the pro's and amateurs bulk up and then cut down for a competition. Without bulking up, your progress would come to a snail's pace.
When 'bulking' you should focus on gaining as much muscle as you can, while keeping fat gain at a minimum. Your best judge is you. And your friend is the mirror. Do not base your results on weight, charts and logs.

Sure those are necessary, but are not the prime factor on determining your progress. Before you start keeping a log of all your lifts, and measurements. Record your progress every 2 weeks, that way you can determine if you are heading down the right path.

When bulking up you should keep body fat at a minimum. Gaining more than 2 lbs per week is bad, and it means you are over eating and should cut your calories by 200 or 400 calories to ease off the fat gains. Our goal is to gain muscle and not fat.

A Sad Fact Of Life

Let's be realistic, fat will come but you shouldn't gain more than 4-7% fat on your whole bulk. If you're gaining 10%+ you are surely overeating, or consuming junk food.
Again, the mirror is your best friend. When bulking I monitor my fat gains, and when I gain too much fat I can usually tell why it is. Learn to listen to your body and not the scale.

Don't Over Do It

Do not overbulk, because if you do, you will have a hard time loosing it. In addition, with all the cutting you will do, you will lose more muscle which will lead you to no where.
Like I said, it's not wise to base it on the scale or a program, always determine your progress through looking in the mirror.

Don't Forget Nutrition

Although weight training is necessary to gain muscle, the right diet is needed. Nutrition is about 80 percent of bodybuilding. So no matter how much you train, and how many sets you do, if you don't feed and rebuild your body, it simply won't grow.
I see tons of people in the gym with perfect routines, going day by day, always the same. I know that their diet sucks, but again I see them editing their routines and following the next best workout program.

Get Plenty Of Rest

The other factor that seems to be over looked is rest. You need 8 hours of good quality sleep. Don't expect to grow while you watch TV until midnight and then wake up at 6 for work or school. Your body needs to repair.Human Growth Hormone (HGH) kicks in within 2 hours of your sleep and repairs broken down tissue, or you muscle. That way you get bigger and stronger. When you cut down your sleep, you are taking away 2-4 hours of the main building process, and that is no good in trying to get more muscle. You need training, diet and rest to get big. Once you begin to master these components your gains should be coming in quite nicely.

The Best Type Of Diet For Bulking Up
When bulking up, you need an organized eating plan. Also you have to educate yourself about carbs, protein and fats. You need to know how calories work, and how to calculate your meals.

First off you need to form a ratio. Through years of experience, I've found that 50/30/20 (carbs,protein,fat) works best for gaining quality weight. Now since the body gets used to the amount of food you're giving it, you will have to 'UP' the calories by 300 every 2 weeks.

The first week that you start bulking you will go +500 calories and then 300 calories every 2 weeks from then on. The 300 calories will be the same ratio as your diet. You will bulk up for 14-16 weeks, or until you decide to cut down.

Let's say you were eating 2000 calories before you started. That's your maintenance. First you will add 500 for the first 2 weeks, and then 300 for every other week.

Therefore, it will look something like this. This is only a model, so add 500 calories to your maintenance calories.

Starting at 3,000:
Weeks 1-2 = 3,500 cal
Weeks 3-4 = 3,800 cal
Weeks 5-6 = 4,100 cal
Weeks 7-8 = 4,400 cal
Weeks 9-10= 4,700 cal
Weeks 11-12= 5,000 cal
Weeks 13-14= 5,300 cal
Week 15-16 = 5,500 cal

You can stop at anytime if you feel you reached your goal, or are gaining too much fat. Let the mirror be your judge. Don't follow the scale or a program. It would be foolish if you are happy at week 13 and you continue to week 16 and gain 5 or more lbs of fat. Always look in the mirror.

Having logs and looking at the scale is fine too, it's actually necessary, but always let the mirror be your main source for judging your progress. Now since you know how many calories you have to eat, it's time to see what you will be eating. Carbs, protein and fats are what your diet is made out of. You know the ratio you need; now we need to figure out what each of you will be having and what foods are great sources of each macronutrients.

Carbohydrates

Carbs are needed for energy. You need a lot of carbs, since they make 50% of your diet. Going too high on carbs will result in fat gain. Too little carbs will results in using other macronutrients as energy which is also bad. You need to balance it out, and 50% is exactly what will do the trick.

In the world of carbs, there are simple and complex carbs. Eat simple carbs consisting of dextrose for after workout only, otherwise avoid these carbs as they result in insulin spike and fat again. Feel free to eat a lot of fruits though. Next are complex carbs which are great for bulking. They are slowly released into the body not creating a spike, and perfect for your diet. Now here are some great sources of carbohydrates.

Simple Carbs
Dextrose, Fruits, Sugar, High fructose corn syrup, Sports drinks, Candies, etc..

Complex Carbs
Brown rice, 100% Whole Wheat Bread, Oats, Pasta, Spaghetti, Beans, Veggies, etc..

Protein

Protein is very important. Protein builds lean muscle tissue, and that's how you get big. Without protein, it's like trying to drive a car without gas, or on the fumes. You need 1-2 grams per lb of bodyweight, and 30% of your diet will be just enough to get you big.
With a diet rich of protein, you will grow and feel better. Protein is found in meats and poultry. Be careful and avoid meat with the white stuff on it. That is saturated fat, and no good for your body or health. Red meat is perfect for getting big, but also contains saturated fats. Eat beef only 2-3 times per week and make sure to cut off all the visible saturated fat.

Tuna and other fish are great for lean protein. Since not all of us can eat meat all the time, whey protein is perfect for supplementation. Whey saved my diet when I started my job. It was 8 hours and I had a 1 hour break in between so I was able to eat a big meal. But I also needed two smaller ones in between.

So I got my canteen and put 2-3 scoops of whey and I also had a banana or something to fulfill my diet requirements. I strongly suggest that you pick up a tub of Whey Protein.

Protein Foods
Tuna, Salmon, Chicken Breast, Beef, Pork Chops, Turkey, Egg Whites

Fats

Fats are often overlooked in today's 'athlete' diets. Since the 90's fats got a bad reputation. So in everyone's mind, fat equals fat around your belly. In reality, fat from food and stored body fat are two different things. Everyone needs fat in their diet. From active to non active people, fat is needed.
Since we are trying to get bigger, fat is 20% of our total intake. Don't worry it will not magically stick to your belly. There's different kinds of fat. There is Saturated, and Unsaturated fat. The saturated fat has a sub category of Trans fats, while the Unsaturated fats have Poly and Mono. You should avoid Saturated fats, and avoid Trans fats at all costs, since all they do is clog arteries and have 0 beneficial results in your body.

Avoiding Trans fat at all costs cannot be stressed enough!
Poly and Mono are helpful and help the body and have been proven to raise natural testosterone. Something that every lifter can appreciate. These 'good fats' belong to the Essential Fatty Acids (EFA's) which are needed for your body and are quite good for you. They have little to none bad benefits.

Salmon and fish are excellent sources of protein and the fat that we want. There's virtually no Saturated fat in fish and that is good to keep your bulk diet clean. Be sure to consume a lot of nuts and cook with olive oil.

These will give you pure EFA's and will be very good for your body and healthy for your system. Please don't overlook fat, because it plays an important role in any diet, bulking or cutting.

Good Fats
Nuts, Olive oil, Fish, Seeds
 

milkin

Moderator
Good stuff here Kitt, the calorie scale appears to be a good foundation for understanding how to ratchet them calories into play. Tons of misconceptions when it comes to bulking diets that often lead to sloppy gains w/excessive BF so why bring that into a cutter. Somewhat counter productive if you ask me. You can't be more correct in saying that just because you are bulking, dose'nt mean you can eat like a horse or eat crap either. Lots of folks use this as a excuse to pig out, I know of a few and that why they look like hot air balloon that walks.
 

Dolf

Moderator
If we do we do. If not that's fine as well. Having karma has benefits as well as downfalls. Karma whores who scam and blackmail then leave fake reviews that newbies see is one downfall.
 

lisabaker

Banned
The best foods to help you gain weight or add muscle, the healthy way.
  • Homemade Protein Smoothies. Drinking homemade protein smoothies can be a highly nutritious and quick way to gain weight.
  • Milk.
  • Rice
  • Nuts and Nut Butters
  • Red Meats
  • Potatoes and Starches
  • Salmon and Oily Fish
  • Protein Supplements.
 
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