Critique my bulking diet please.

[Doctapeppa]

Hi. Beginning a slow bulk after a long cut. 35 y/o male, 183 lbs 12 % bf; maintenance is ~2800 (actual maintenance, not calc). Will probably ease into this bulk over 2 weeks. Been IF'ing for a while so eating 6 meals will take some getting used to again.


m1
2 scoops isopure
40g Oats (blended)
10g BCAA

weights about 1 hour.

PWO
10 oz cooked chicken breast. bnls, sknls
1 serving chickpeas
6 oz sweet potato or white

m3
8 oz 90% ground beef
8 oz broccoli,
1/2 c onions
2 flat outs

m4
7 oz cooked chicken breast. bnls, sknls
5 cups lettuce.
15 ml evoo

m5
8 oz 2% cottage cheese
40 g natty pb
20 grams almonds
5 oz strawberries.

pre bed,
2 scoops Casein
14 grams milled flax seed


supps:
fish oils 10 capsules, multivitamin tab


Totals:
Prot 390 47%
Carbs 180 22%
Fats 115 31%
Total Cals 3300

Too little carbs or can I get away with this?

[Blaz Kavlic]

If you're bulking I think you need more carbs by perhaps adding some brown rice, especially in meal 4 or 5. I'd probably add some egg whites into meal 1 as well. But as you said, you're transitioning from a cut to a bulk so you could add more calories slowly over the course of a couple of weeks. Do you currently have whey post workout? I'd probably take the BCAAs pre-workout and move the isopure to post workout. Just my $0.02c.

[Doctapeppa]

If you're bulking I think you need more carbs by perhaps adding some brown rice, especially in meal 4 or 5. I'd probably add some egg whites into meal 1 as well. But as you said, you're transitioning from a cut to a bulk so you could add more calories slowly over the course of a couple of weeks. Do you currently have whey post workout? I'd probably take the BCAAs pre-workout and move the isopure to post workout.

Actually, right now I have one half scoop before and one half after. I can do one before and one after, that better? I'll add some rice and take out some of the protein, maybe swap it for a scoop of casin?

[Blaz Kavlic]

Actually, right now I have one half scoop before and one half after. I can do one before and one after, that better? I'll add some rice and take out some of the protein, maybe swap it for a scoop of casin?

If you're bulking and going hard during training, you're going to need more than half a scoop post workout. For my morning fix, i'd opt for something along the lines of oats, 6x egg whites, BCAAs and 2 caps fish oil, then have my workout, then 2 scoops of whey and 5g creatine post workout. An hour or so later i'd have the chicken and brown rice as my post workout meal.

[Doctapeppa]

Sounds like a plan. Now. You don't mix all this breakfast together into some kind of weird shake, right? What is it? egg white scrambles with a bowl of oatmeal on the side or is it an eggs and oats kind of thing?

[Back In Black]

How long have you been maintaining on 2800cals? And what is the macro split of that 2800? ANd your bodyfat as well as weight are maintaining at the same levels?

Can you advise the times of the planned meals?

Blaz's pre and post wo suggestions make complete sense althou I'd add carbs to my post wo shake.

As it stands I would say your protein is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too high. I would cap it at 300g max. Also I would have your fats ALOT lower and max them about 70g. That said, have you bulked like this before?

[Sgt. Hartman]

That's good advise by Stem - I was gonna say the same thing about the protein and fats being too high. If you figure protein at 2g per pound of LBM (which is too high for off-cycle IMO) then that would be 325g so that is the absolute max I would have it at. 250g of protein would probably be fine (1.5g per pound of LBM).

Regarding the fats, remember that dietary fat is the most likely macro to be stored as BF so when you're already eating at a caloric excess, it's even more important to keep dietary fats reasonable. Yours are over 30% which is too high to begin with but when eating at excess cals the fat % in the diet should go down even further than the usual 20% IMO, ie. as total cals go up well above maintenance, dietary fat % should go down.

Are you deliberately figuring your carbs that low for a reason or is that just how your proposed diet turned out? Some people do have issues with insulin or are carb sensitive, but unless you know this to be true for yourself from past experience, DON"T BE SCARED OF CARBS.

[gbrice75]

I didn't read the other comments so my apologies if i'm being redundant, but your macro split immediately stood out for me.

Protein - way too high - unnecessary, and a waste of useful calories. I'm heavier than you, leaner than you (no offense), and gain at 250g protein/day. 300g max for you imo. People tend to overdo it on protein SOOO much.

Carbs - way too low - knock down protein and make up those lost calories here. On a bulk, I like the carb macro higher than protein actually.

Fats - For a lean bulk, too high imo. I'd stay below 80g tbh. At 3300 calories, my macros would look something like:

300g protein
375g carbs
70g fat

Hope this helps, again sorry if this has already been worked out - i'm kind of in a rush and the baby is crying again!!!

[Doctapeppa]

Thanks a lot guys. I was keeping carbs low because they tend to make me bloated but if it makes a big difference I'll up the carbs and drop the fat and live with the bloat for a while. Right now I'm doing Leangains and my macros are not anywhere near this. I have about 200 g protein everyday and I cycle my carbs basically as low as possible on rest days with fats higher and then on lifting days I have lots of carbs and keep fats low. I keep my diet clean every day. I am not maintaining right now almost done cutting. My goal was 180 with this cut and I'm 183. I know my maintenance is 2800 because my intake is about 2300 (averaged out) a day and I consistently lose exactly one lb a week. It was maybe 2 or 300 higher before my cut.

Last time I bulked I was still doing leangains and I just had the same 200 g protein and higher fats and carbs but cycled as well. It went ok but I'm going to do it the old fashioned way this time around and see if it works better. When I've got it dialed in I might add some AAS but not yet.

Going to crunch some numbers and re-do the diet with the macros gbrice suggested and post it .

Thanks for helping guys!

BRB

[gbrice75]

How do you like Leangains? I've run the diet myself in the past, but I fvcked it up, lol!

Re: bloating - likely due to your choice of carbs and not necessarily carbohydrates themselves. What do you normally rely on for carbs, and what would you be willing to try substituting with that you don't normally eat?

[Doctapeppa]

I love leangains, It's very easy for me and it works well. I can't say I gain much strength like some people do while losing weight but I don't lose strength much either. Big meals are satisfying and I'm not hungry while I fast. For carbs I have sweet potato, white potato, healthy harvest ww pasta, flat outs wraps, quinoa, rice white or brown, oats..lots of oats. milk. That's pretty much it as far as carbs. You know what though? Now that I think about it I'm not bloated when I have these carbs on leangains. I get bloated when I have a cheat day and eat pizza or sushi or ice cream or some shit, so you are absolutely right, it must be crappy carbs that make me bloated. When I have a cheat day I need like a week to lose all the water I soak up. making diet now..

[Blaz Kavlic]

Great advice as usual from all the boys.

I get bloated when I have a cheat day and eat pizza or sushi or ice cream or some shit, so you are absolutely right, it must be crappy carbs that make me bloated..

I'm very similar. As i've been getting closer to my goal, i've begun to phase out cheat days. There's some good recipes floating around using lean meats, spices, veggies, and clean carbs and once I got a few of these in my cook book, I was quite satisfied with my meals and no longer felt the need to gorge on pizza etc. There is such massive difference between how I feel after a meal of chicken and brown rice seasoned with spices, and a New Orleans Special from my local Pizza Capers, but thats a no brainer! The pizza is good when its actually going down, but after its gone down, not so good.

[Doctapeppa]

Ok. Here goes. I think I nailed it.

m1
Egg beaters 160g
oats 50g
skim milk 8 oz
1/2 scoop whey
10g BCAA.

Workout.

m2 PWo
isopure 2 scoops
oats 60g

m3
chicken 4 oz
rice 1/3 cup
chickpeas 1 serving
flat out 1 each

m4
lean ground beef 4 oz
broccoli 6 oz
onion 1/2 cup
flat out 1 each

m5
chicken 4 oz
rice 1/3 cup
chickpeas 1 serving.
lettuce 5 cups
evoo 15 mL

m6
Cottage cheese 2% 6 oz
natty pb 25 g
strawberries 5 oz


Totals.
Protein 292
Carbs 353
Fat 74
Calories 3230


Better?

I'm not putting the times because my schedule varies because I work nights sometimes, but I'll eat m1 as soon as I wake up and m6 just before bed and spread the rest out evenly through the day.

If I need more calories because I'm not gaining enough I'll increase carbs throughout. Going for about .75 lb a week gain.

[Back In Black]

Total macro's MUCH better, textbook in fact.

Any chance you could list the macro's for each meal? Not the individual foods just the meals themselves. I guess I'm not quite sure where all your carbs are coming from.

[gbrice75]

Total macro's MUCH better, textbook in fact.

x2, looking great!

[Doctapeppa]

Protein Carb Fat

m1
Egg beaters 160g 15.7 2.6 0
oats 50g 6.2 33.8 3.1
skim milk 8 oz 8.3 12.2 0
1/2 scoop whey 12.5 0 0.2
10g BCAA. 9.1 0 0



Workout .

m2 PWo
isopure 2 scoops 50 0 1
oats 60g 7.5 40.5 3.8

m3
chicken 4 oz 32 0 4
rice 1/3 cup 4 42 1.3
chickpeas 1 serving 7 22 2
flat out 1 each 9 17 5
Sweet Potato 3 57 0

m4
lean ground beef 4 oz 29 0 13.3
broccoli 6 oz 6 7.8 0
onion 1/2 cup 0.9 7.5 0.1
flat out 1 each 9 17 5

m5
chicken 4 oz 32 0 4
rice 1/3 cup 4 42 1.3
chickpeas 1 serving. 7 22 2
lettuce 5 cups 2.9 7.7 0.7
evoo 15 mL 0 0 14.3



m6
Cottage cheese 2% 6 oz 22.5 4.5 3.8
natty pb 25 g 6 6 13.8
strawberries 5 oz 0.5 13 0


Totals.
Protein 292
Carbs 353
Fat 74
Calories 3230


Wow, good catch. I had forgotten to add a sweet potato to this list that was in my calculations. I put it in bold. I'll add the totals per meal in later.

I have this on "Loseit!" which is what I use to track my meals.

Gah. The formatting doesn't stick. little hard to see. Sorry

[Back In Black]

138g of carbs in meal 3? Or am I reading it wrong? If it's right, first what are your reasonings for this many and have you tried eating it yet? If so, how did you feel after?

[Doctapeppa]

Reasoning is because it's PWO. I eat more than this right now since I do intermittent fasting. If it's not a good idea I can spread it out to other meals.

Edit: Oh hand thank you very much for looking at this. This is very helpful.

[Back In Black]

Strictly speaking it's PPWO but I understand your reasoning. However, this isn't an IF diet and your body will react a little differently as it will only fast the hours you are asleep. It will also react a little differently to the next man; we are all different.

Personally, I would take the 350g or so and split them equally either thru meals 1-5 or, indeed, all 6.

Though you need to work out what is ultimately best for your body I would go with the equal spread first and adapt it as you see fit.

[gbrice75]

Strictly speaking it's PPWO but I understand your reasoning. However, this isn't an IF diet and your body will react a little differently as it will only fast the hours you are asleep. It will also react a little differently to the next man; we are all different.

Personally, I would take the 350g or so and split them equally either thru meals 1-5 or, indeed, all 6.

Though you need to work out what is ultimately best for your body I would go with the equal spread first and adapt it as you see fit.

^^^ this (bold)

[Doctapeppa]

Will do, thanks a lot guys!