First time making a bulking meal plan. Critique

[Arcânn]

As some of you know, even though I've been lifting for a while, I'm fairly new to PROPER dieting (I'm lucky my metabolism/carb sensitivity is what it is). I've learned a ton about it with your help in a very short time. I was making a TON of mistakes. There's no way I should even look the way I do. I should be much less lean. I just made my first meal plan for a day. Obviously there will be more.

I would like your critique on this. I've got the macros about right, but who knows what I might be missing or just not thinking of.

My TDEE is 3091 so I was shooting for 3591 cal to bulk. I ended up with 3535 which is close enough I feel.
I was going for 30% protein (269g) - 35% fat (140g) - 35% carbs (314g). I actually ended up with 269/135/311. Here's the breakdown:


Before workout: Shake made of:
1.5 servings Skim Milk
2 servings Peanut Butter
2 servings Special K Protein Cereal
1 serving Strawberries
1 serving Banana

Post workout: Same shake as before workout

Throughout the rest of the day:
4 servings Chuck Roast
3.5 servings Lentils

Last meal:
2 servings Peanut Butter
1 slice Whole Grain Bread
1 Egg
1 Slice American Cheese


I tried to get the majority of my carbs in around my workout. Pre and Post-Workout combined was 213g of carbs. The rest are spread out throughout the day.

What are your thoughts? Any advice, if needed, would be greatly appreciated.

[Windex]

- Add vegetables to atleast 3 of your meals micronutrients are just as important (if not moreso) than macronutrients

- Replace american cheese. The only cheese I think is worthwhile to use is real cheese but it's very expensive and often hard to find. Everything you find at a supermarket/grocery store is going to be heavily processed/refined.

- Whole grain bread should be Ezekiel bread if you want to use bread, otherwise swap for a better carb source

- Too much fruit. Replace preworkout meal with all food and no fruit/creal. This is a great opportunity to get in another meat protein besides chuck.

- Cereal is heavily processed, replace the cereal in postworkout with a better carb source (oats, rice, potato, etc)

- When you have two big calorie shakes like that you are conditioning your body to drink calories. It sets your body up for failure in the long term because every time you want to add calories you will want to drink them which is not sustainable or healthy. In general, you want to avoid drinking your calories unless you have a unique lifestyle circumstance or you reach a plateau and cannot / do not want to force feed.

- I don't see 269g of Protein

- Get bloodwork done to address any deficiencies that can be resolved either via supplementation or diet. For example, I recently found out I'm Vitamin D deficient and have sky high calcium, so I added in Vitamin D supplement and removed greek yogurt.

[Arcânn]

So for a preworkout meal would you suggest something normal like chicken, rice, and vegetables? Just something normal in that range?

I definitely meant to take a look at Ezekiel bread since I've heard that's about the best choice for bread.

I'll need to go to the store and see the nutrition facts on chuck roast since I got the information for that particular thing online. That's obviously where I was getting a lot of the protein but I could see if the number on that were wrong.

On days where I train and work, shakes might be my best bet since I work 12.5 hours and only have about 4 hours from the time I get up before I have to be at work. And that's if I'm up early. But on other days I can definitely do something other than the shakes.

[Windex]

So for a preworkout meal would you suggest something normal like chicken, rice, and vegetables? Just something normal in that range? Yes

I definitely meant to take a look at Ezekiel bread since I've heard that's about the best choice for bread.

I'll need to go to the store and see the nutrition facts on chuck roast since I got the information for that particular thing online. That's obviously where I was getting a lot of the protein but I could see if the number on that were wrong.

On days where I train and work, shakes might be my best bet since I work 12.5 hours and only have about 4 hours from the time I get up before I have to be at work. And that's if I'm up early. But on other days I can definitely do something other than the shakes.

Ezekiel is kindof expensive relative to other carbs but you can try it. Atleast in Canada, its $9 for a loaf whereas you can buy a giant bag of oats for $2.00 that lasts over a month

[Windex]

P28 is another bread option.

[Kay kay]

Winded I’m curious why sourdough bread isn’t on your list of accepted breads? IMO it’s a great carb, it may seem like a “white bread “ but if you look into it, thanks to the millions of yeast and billions of lactobacilli it has a wide variety of vitamins and a nominal amount of phytic acid, amongst other things.

[Windex]

Winded I’m curious why sourdough bread isn’t on your list of accepted breads? IMO it’s a great carb, it may seem like a “white bread “ but if you look into it, thanks to the millions of yeast and billions of lactobacilli it has a wide variety of vitamins and a nominal amount of phytic acid, amongst other things.

I normally don't recommend specialty breads like sourdough, original pumpernickel, rugbrod, desem, etc because :

If you buy it from a bakery it's going to be fairly expensive and have a 2-3 day shelf life before going stale or hard. The alternative is to buy from a chain like Walmart. From experience working at a chain grocery store when I was younger, the dough comes in frozen and premade or precooked, so the "bakery" only has to nuke the bread at 450 for however many minutes. I cant imagine much nutrition remaining between the mass manufacturing, freezing, and cooking processes.

If money is no obstacle with a local bakery it can be used, but not everyone has both of those criteria.

[Kay kay]

Ah I hadn’t considered it from that angle, makes sense.

[Kay kay]

However please keep in mind that freezing food does not always damage nutrients, and in some studies has increased vitamin/nutrient content.

[Windex]

However please keep in mind that freezing food does not always damage nutrients, and in some studies has increased vitamin/nutrient content.

This is true for flash freezing produce. Not sure if that would apply to dough though - not familiar enough with it.