Basic Nutrition Advice for Bulking
Recently I've been trying to figure a way to write something for you guys that would be beneficial, and help everyone, well this is what I came up with. As a guy who was very very tiny (<17.5 bmi) when I started eating, and had/has a few eating disorders, I've found out a lot of information on diet, and nutrition. All of this will be mostly from my own research, personal experience, and the advice of some highly regarded bodybuilders.
First thing is first, a lot of you eat, and eat, and aren't gaining any weight you aren't sure what you're doing wrong, and you don't know what to do to gain weight, I will try to address some of these issues, and give advice on what to eat, and how to cheaply get the food you need. Many people think that eating healthy is very expensive, but in reality it isn't.
First the best thing to do is set a calorie goal, if you are trying to bulk, and you are serious about your training you are going to need in my opinion over 3,000 calories per day, pretty much at minimum. So, how much of that should be from what sources, and what types of food should you eat.
I like a 40% fat, 30% carb 30% protein mix, so those percents are the percents of your calories that come from what sources, this works well for me, but with everything you need to find what works for you. You can modify the fat down if you find you are gaining too much fat for what you want to do, you can modify the carbs up if you don't feel you have enough energy, the protein can come down, but I would suggest not going below 20%. Most people will modify the carbs much higher, and if that works for you good, do it.
Ideas of what to eat, I know some people like myself when I started hate eating the volume of food required for growth, or simply don't have the stomach volume to handle as much food as is required for the growth. What you can do is use meal replacement shakes, or things like Milk, egg nog, chocolate milk, ETC. I use milk, with oats, and protein powder for my morning meal since I don't have time to cook a proper meal in the morning.
What to eat: Eggs, Milk, Bacon, Sausage, Chicken, Ground Beef, Steak, Fish, Mashed Potatoes, Asparagus, Salad, Cheese, Pasta, Breads and Rice.
On this subject your go to protein sources needs to be Meat, and animal products. I understand some choose to not eat meats, or animal products, and that's perfectly fine, but if you eat meats, and animal products that's where you need to get your protein.
Carb sources are pretty much Mashed Potatoes, Rice, and Pasta, or Yams.
Fat sources, there's an unholy amount of these, but keep them clean, unprocessed sources of fat like olive oil, or coconut oil things like that.
Why am I not gaining? The two biggest reasons I see for people not gaining is:
1: Undereating
2: Lack of food quality.
When it comes down to it for the most part if you aren't gaining, you just aren't eating enough damn food, I only say damn because it sucks sometimes having to eat more, and I've been there, but if you aren't gaining, and you are eating quality foods the reason you aren't gaining is probably because you aren't eating enough.
The second reason is lack of quality food, some people don't respond well to trying to bulk on cheese burgers, and junk. The reason is because the nutrients in these foods even though high is of such a poor quality that they barely qualify as food. If it comes in a box, or the center of the store you probably don't really want it. I am aware pasta and tuna is in the center of most stores, but the perimeter of a store is where most the stuff you want is. Don't eat boxed processed foods. The best way to gain is to eat as whole of food as you can, and eat it consistently.
Consistency
I'm guilty of it, and I've seen many people who are guilty of it too, they try to eat more for a few days, say they are doing it the whole week, and then give up when they don't see results. Look, if you aren't committed to doing whatever it is that you have to do to get larger you won't have terribly good results. It takes probably a good eight months to a year to truly understand the little workings of your body, even longer to understand how your body reacts to different types of food, and what works best for your body. So don't give up when it seems like it isn't working for a few weeks, or even a few months.
Along with consistency you need to be eating pretty much every 2.5 to 3 hours for the ENTIRE time you're awake every day, the best way to gain is to never allow your body to go catabolic, or even think about being catabolic. Always be in anabolism, and make your body use the nutrients you are giving it. Some guys will cram all their food into 2 meals, well after a certain point your tripping certain biological levers and you just start storing fat.
Edit: I hope that this is useful information, I know a lot of it most of you know, this is to try and help new guys, or people who may be confused. Please let me know if I butchered some stuff, or something. Hope you all are well.
Stay healthy.
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