Nutrition for Bulking: 5 Tips for Intelligent Muscle Gain

1. Avoid the “see food” diet

• Micronutrients, phytochemicals, and antioxidants are fundamental to progress

Once you decide to gain weight, visions of ice cream, pies, and candy bars quickly dance in your head. We’ll confess that a high calorie intake does have more wiggle room for junk, but that doesn’t mean it’s a “see food” diet — you know, one where you just eat everything you see.

“Bulking needs to come from the foundation of a nutrient-dense whole food diet,” says North. “When we are bulking and working to make a whole lot of new muscle cells, growth takes not only metabolic energy and protein, we’re also undergoing DNA synthesis and mitochondrial biogenesis. These processes require vitamins, minerals, and hormones — which also rely on vitamins and minerals.”

2. Make sure you really eat enough

• Newcomers to bulking may feel their calorie goals are too high

• 3. Don’t stay away from carbohydrates

  • Even if you prefer high fat diets, carbs can help you bulk with less body fat
  Whether or not you perform better with more carbs or more fat is very individual. Some feel great on high fat, some on high carb, but even if you feel better with hundreds of grams of fat, make room for some carbs if muscle gain is your priority.
  They’re especially great post workout: carbs spike insulin, which helps send glycogen to your muscles. Research published in Frontiers in Physiology suggests that when more glycogen is stored in muscles, you’re more likely to be insulin sensitive and less likely to accumulate body fat.(1) Now that’s music to the ears of those on a bulk.

• 4) Eat fiber, but not too much

  • Fiber can make you too full to reach your calorie goal
  When you’re upping your carbohydrate intake you might be of the mind that you should stick to those healthy carbs everyone’s always talking about: brown rice, oatmeal, potatoes, beans. All are great options but if you’re trying to consuming three, four, five hundred grams of carbs per day (or more) there’s a good chance you’ll simply be too full to fit in your calories.

• 5. Supplement intelligently

  • Protein powder and creatine are all most people need
  There are hundreds of products swearing up and down that they’ve got the unique qualities to help you gain slab after slab of pure muscle. Testosterone boosters, growth hormone boosters, muscle volumizers, the list goes on.