During your Gym life, you will go through several bulks, Using bulking meals to help. Bulks are a great way put on muscle, get bigger and also get stronger. The one thing we always get asked is about bulking diet plans. People are asking us for help with their meals for bulking. Some people struggle to get the most out of their bulking meals. So in this article, we are going to give you 5 tips to help you get that little extra from your bulking meals. Ways to eat more, ways to get more calories into your food and also some little tips and hacks. So let us get into it, with tip number 1.
Tip 1: Liquid Calories
When bulking, it can be hard to eat enough food. Or finding the time to eat enough food. People have lives, people have jobs so not everyone can sit down to eat full meals. This is where you can take advantage of liquid calories. A great place to start is smoothies, you can make smoothies at home, add fruit, nuts (We will get on to these shortly), Protein powders or even oats. Then you blend it all up and you have a high-calorie meal that is easy and convenient to consume.
Liquid meals and smoothies are something that should be in every bulking diet plan. Bulking meals should be high calories but not too filling, as you will be eating a lot and a smoothie is the perfect blend of both. No matter what your bulking diet macros are you can customise a smoothie to fit in. If you find at the end of the day you have some macros left, you can make a smoothie or drink to help reach the goal.
Other options for liquid calories are drinks like Milk or Fruit juice. These both can be high calorie, The calories are coming from Fats or Natural sugars, and will both help you hit your Bulking diet macros. We still recommend trying to eat as much whole food as possible, but there is no harm in having 1-2 smoothies a day to help ramp up those calories and make your bulking diet plan a bit easier. Do you have a favourite smoothie recipe? Let us know over on our Instagram.
Tip 2 - Instant Oats
Our next tip is to utilise oats more, specifically instant oats. Why instant oats? Well, they go hand in hand with the previous tip. Instant oats for those who don’t know are blended oats, it is a fine powder made from rolled oats. Why is this good? Because you can mix it into your smoothies or shakes and add calories without having to prep or cook. Easy, Simple and tasty option.
The best thing about Oats, in general, is that you can fit them into any macros, add as many or as little as you need. You can also fit them into most meals, for example as we said previously, if you are making a smoothie then you add them in, bonus tip if you are going to use instant oats you won’t even notice they are in there. Not only do they add more Carbohydrates to your meal, but they also add some fats and also some proteins, so you will be getting the complete macro package.
We get our Instant oats from MyProtein (We use the gluten-free version). If you want to check them out you can buy them here. They are cheap so are a great way to get more calories into your shakes.
Tip 3 - Low Volume but High Carb
Getting calories in is very important when on a bulk. Except this can be tricky when you don’t want to eat when you have no motivation to eat. The way to get around this is low volume, high calories. These are foods that are perfect in meals for bulking. When designing your meals for bulking you want foods that don’t feel you up, but still provide a high calorie rate.
Now I know what you are asking? What foods do you recommend? Well, the first one that we can recommend is Cereals. Cereals can provide a great way to consume high calories with low volume. A top tip is that if you mix up a protein shake, and use that as milk over your Cereal you can add more protein, but also more calories. It’s a win, win. Plus with the massive variety of Cereals out there, everyone will be able to find one that they like.
However, we are not saying your diet should just consist of Cereals, you still want to get nutritional, whole foods into you, but if you are struggling to eat your daily Bulking diet macros, then Cereals can provide that extra Calorie boost, Great mid-morning, or evening snack. Remember, if you buy the off-brand or the supermarkets own brand, you won’t taste any difference, but you will save a whole load of money! Great when you are on a bulk!!
Tip 4 - Nuts and Nut Butters
They taste great, Full of healthy fats and are high calories! Nuts and Nut butter are a great way to add some calories into even the simplest of meals. Packed full of fats and protein they are a great addition to your Meals for bulking.
You can pick up massive bags of nuts and use them as snacks throughout the day. Obviously, due to their high fat content, you have to be careful to don’t eat too many that you smash your daily Bulking diet macros. However, they can be a great help to consume more calories. If you find that at the end of the day you fats are still a bit low, you can use nuts to help you hit your daily fat macro.
The best way to consume Nuts, in my opinion, is with Nut Butters, Peanut butter and Almond Butter are the to most popular kind. You can use nut butter to add calories, fats and Protein to almost any meal. Having oats for breakfast? Put some Peanut butter in it. In need of a quick pre-workout meal? A bagel with some Almond butter on top is perfect. Also with such a variety of butter available, you will be able to find butter to fit any budget. MyProtein also has a huge selection of Butter for a really good price. Check them out here.
Tip 5 - Bars, Snacks and Shakes
This final tip is aimed at people with full-time jobs or anyone that struggle to find a good time to eat a “proper” meal. Make sure you are utilising Protein bars, Protein Snacks and Shakes to your advantage. All of these can be stored in your work draw and when needed you can grab one.
There is such a variety of protein snacks and Bars available nowadays. Everyone will be able to find their perfect snack. If you want to know our favourites, you can check out an article we wrote about our favourite Protein Bars. Check it out here. We highly recommend you try the protein wafers. They taste so good. You can also go down the route of making your own High protein snacks, There are hundreds of recipes out there, in fact, we might even share our own recipes soon. High Protein Flapjack, Protein bites. Simple yet effective snacks.
Using bars and shakes you can consume extra calories at any point of the day. Easy to keep in your gym bag, Work draw or at home, ready for you to grab when needed. As we have already said you can use your shake to help increase calories in other meals (Cereal or Oats). A great tip is if you have the calories to spare, heat a protein bar in the microwave for a few seconds, then add a scoop of ice cream to the top. Boom! You have a high protein dessert.
Conclusion
Hopefully, this article has given you some tips, and will help you to get that little bit extra out of your bulking meals! Remember a bulking diet plan is just about calories. Find ways to add calories that can be controlled and made to fit your macros. Bulking can be good fun as you get to eat things you won’t normally get to eat, but don’t let yourself slip to much, it’s easy to lose control and start eating everything you see! A good bulking diet plan will allow you to have some flexibility.
If you need to find out how many calorie you need to consume to bulk up. You can use our free Calorie calculator over on our app. Type in your stats and get your daily calories/Macros for your bulk. Pair that with our free weight tracker, you will be able to see your progress as it happens. Download our free app here
Remember if you have any tips of your own feel free to send them to us on our advice page or our Instagram.
Written by Kieran Blacker
Kieran is the CEO and Founder of Sets & Reps. He decided to make an application that helped people get a gym workout when not at the gym. He designed, Coded and built the application himself.