The “see-food” Diet for Bulking up

Do you eat a ton of food but still find it impossible to bulk up? Before you nod your head yes, first see if you eat as much food as this sample meal plan specifies. If you don’t, you need to eat more

Are you one of those skinny guys who claims that you can’t gain weight, no matter what you try? Except in rare cases, as long as a physician has cleared you to work out, you simply are not eating enough. You are undernourished.

When you want to bulk up and gain muscle mass, you need an excess of calories. To create this type of eating plan for gaining muscle mass, do these three things:

• Increase your calories so you gain around a pound per week.
• Increase your protein intake to fuel muscle growth.
• Reduce your empty calories to make room for nutritious foods.

In how to design a bulking diet, I show you, in an abstract way, how to eat while lifting weights with the intention of adding muscle mass. But for the purposes of this article, I’m throwing those plans out the window. Here, I’m going to show you just how much food you have to eat to gain weight. If you lift weights but you can’t get above 145 pounds of body weight, you need to start eating and lifting. Until you eat this much food every day, you will not increase your body weight. 

The odds are you’ll put on a bit of fat if you eat meals similar to the ones detailed in this article. But don’t let that worry you. As a skinny Ectomorph, you will be able to lose the fat easily once you start eating a maintenance diet with no excess calories.

Unless your circumstances are special, you do not need:

• protein supplements
• weight-gainer “supplements”
• Bizarre egg white omelets or other contrived meals
• Unnatural low-fat diet schemes

This diet (if you want to call it that) consists of normal, everyday meals. The major change entails increasing the amount of food until you are no longer undernourished. Remember: you can’t gain muscle mass until you start to gain body weight.

A sample bulking diet

The following is a typical day’s worth of meals for an underweight man who is lifting heavy weights with the intention of packing on muscle mass. It is divided into 5 portions: three main meals and two snacks. There are no tricks or shortcuts; all the meals consist of everyday food that you might already eat on a regular basis.

 

Here, at a glance, are two charts detailing the caloric breakdowns and the ratio of macronutrients provided by the sample day’s worth of food:

Most skinny guys don’t eat enough

That is a lot of food. Most skinny guys are not capable of eating that much food. Although a lot of skinny guys claim to eat a lot of food, the reality is that most of them don’t eat anywhere near as much as they think they do.

If you have trouble gaining weight, you will have to increase your food intake. You can literally stretch your stomach by eating more and more each day. The total amount of food you are capable of eating will increase if you work at it the same way you work at lifting weights.

This bulking diet is not for everyday use

There are some differences between a see-food bulking diet and a typical healthy diet that is suitable for everyone:

• The calories are increased so you gain a pound of bodyweight per week.
• There is a lack of fiber. A healthier diet will include more fruits, vegetables, and whole-grains.
• The high-GI carbs. Eat low-GI carbs when you are on a normal, maintenance diet.

Track your nutrition online or on your computer

You do not need a degree in biology or nutrition to create a sample bulking diet. All you need is an online nutrition database or diet tracker, or a standalone program on your computer that gives you the nutrient values of common food items.

In this article, I show you how to begin tracking your diet. Without good data, you will be at a serious disadvantage when it comes to reaching your goals.

Don’t skimp on the hard work; keep accurate records and you can’t help but succeed.

It took me ten minutes to detail the sample diet in this article. That includes the time needed to type it into Microsoft Excel and create the charts. Once you get in the habit of using a nutrition tracking service or program, you will find that the time it takes is negligible. Don’t be lazy: be successful!

What should I eat after working out?

Good question. It is to your advantage to have a snack immediately after working out. Your body is in an anabolic state for about an hour after you engage in a full-body workout. This means that it is taking amino acids from the blood and incorporating them into your muscles. If you supply your body with protein and carbohydrates after your workout, you set up an optimal situation for muscle growth.

Surprisingly, research has shown that it is calories (in the form of easily-digested sugars) that are most important after a workout. While it’s fine to drink a protein shake, make sure you get your post-workout carbs. Some chocolate milk is a perfect recovery meal; a tin of tuna fish would be less effective.

Wait! What about the whey protein?

If you want to drink a whey protein shake, go right ahead. But first, take a moment to realize that the sample diet outlined above provides more than enough protein for even the most enthusiastic weight lifter. Unless you are a 250+ pound Mr. Universe, you should get your protein from nutritious food instead of “dietary supplements” whose main claim to fame is the high profit margins they bring to their manufacturers.

And if you are a lactose intolerant individual, you can still bulk up. Just use meat instead of protein shakes. A chicken breast or a piece of steak is full of high-quality protein.

Final thoughts about the “see-food” diet

For skinny guys, eating enough food to bulk up is not an easy task. Most people laugh when a slender individual complains about not being able to gain weight. But for some of us, the problem definitely exists.

You can bulk up by eating potato chips and french fries, but you will short yourself of the nutrients you need to build quality muscle mass

Fortunately, the solution also exists. There is no secret to it. Simply eat more good-quality food. Yes, you can bulk up by eating potato chips and french fries, but you will be shorting yourself on the nutrients you need to build high-quality muscle mass. Fries and soda are fine in moderation, but when you use them in excess, you may stunt your progress.

I included a McDonald’s meal in the sample diet to demonstrate that calories are calories. You need calories when you bulk up. Get them wherever you can. You don’t have to eat that way for the rest of your life, but when you are lifting heavy on a bulking phase, you need massive quantities of food. Don’t shortchange yourself; commit to eating big and you will get big.

Oh, and if you haven’t figured it out by now… It’s called a “see-food” diet because when you see food, you eat it. If you are skinny and you think you can’t gain weight: cram as much calorie-dense food into your mouth as possible, then repeat.