Good Bulking foods

I am going to play football, and I would greatly benefit from some hypertrophy. I am currently 150 pounds. I want to gain about another twenty pounds by September. The problem is that I need cheap foods to do this. I am not going to do paleo because in my current situation it is the opposite of convenient in almost every way except for health. I also handle dairy very well. I would like to do something along the lines of GOMAD, but I don't know if it is really good to do it with milk from the average super market. I need help with ideas for cheap foods that are calorie dense. If I have to I will eat something that does not taste well as long as it doesn't smell bad. So far this is all I can come up with:

Milk

Cheese

Eggs

Canned Tuna and Herring

Dark Chocolate

Thanks in advance for any help.

Chicken by the drumstick or buy a whole chicken. However, chicken is basically only protein and very little fat and no carbs.

Hamburger isn't really the healthiest thing but it is cheap and has lots of calories.

Seriously milk and eggs and some carbs. Potatoes, sweet potatoes, etc.

Those are the essential low budget bulkers. I would add some form of coconut, flakes, oil or milk (or all three) to the list

Some other thoughts, these cost something to buy, but can save you money in the long run --

Though its more expensive to buy because of the amount you have to buy at once, whey concentrate is very inexpensive per gram of protein. Shop around the net and you can fond some excellent deals.

HCL betadine is very inexpensive and helps insure your digesting the food you put in, many forum members including myself have found it to be very helpful.

Glutamine - 80g a day for 5 days - unbelievable bang for the buck!!! Got this from Poliquin

http://www.charlespoliquin.com/Blog/tabid/130/EntryId/295/Three-dietary-strategies-to-blast-through-muscle-building-plateaus.aspx

1.Glutamine Load:

If you have a hard time gaining muscle mass, I would advise you to do this: take 80 grams of glutamine a day for 5 days, yes 80 grams, best is to do 8 x 10 grams. When NHL recruits were at a plateau gaining mass, that was my best quick and dirty trick.

Do I have peer reviewed studies for it. No. Just plenty of clients and students who had had success with it. I find taking 10 grams every two hours diluted in a cup of water works very well. Timing with meals does not matter. How does it work? Many possibilities, including:

A - glutamine is the primary building block on the intestinal lining. Many people suffer unknowingly from leaky gut syndrome. The glutamine overload phase seals the lining, which diminishes food intolerances and inflammation.

B - muscle gains are correlated to how strong the immune system is. Glutamine loading boosts the immune system. Conversely, when you overtrain, your glutamine levels drop dramatically.

Thanks for the suggestions guys. I will have to see if I can afford those supplements. It seems like I will have to try the HCL betadine and see if it helps. I will try glutatamine if I hit a plateau. Thanks again.

Here are some good bulking foods:

- Butter (preferably from grass-fed cows, like Kerry Gold)

- Heavy whipping Cream

- Crème Fraîche

- White Rice

- Potatoes without the skin

Those are all fairly cheap for the amount of calories your getting. 100g of cream has about 350 calories.

It's HCl betaine by the way, not betadine.

Robb Wolf, for example, recommends Now Foods Super Enzymes, which is a blend containing HCl betaine as well. It's not very expensive, so you could give it a try. Get the capsules.

Have your vitamin-D-levels checked. If your low, consider supplementing and/or spending more time in the sun.

If your wondering where to get supplements for a fairly good price, check out www.iherb.com. If you want, you could use the referral code ZIC243 to save 5 bucks on your first order.

By the way, I think if you can tolerate dairy well, there's probably not too much wrong with it.

Here's what Kurt Harris thinks:

The 12 steps remove the neolithic agents of disease in an efficient and practical manner

How do you do it?

Here is a 12- step list of what to do. Go as far down the list as you can in whatever time frame you can manage. The further along the list you stop, the healthier you are likely to be. There is no counting, measuring, or weighing. You are not required to purchase anything specific from me or anyone else. There are no special supplements, drugs or testing required.*

1. Eliminate sugar (including fruit juices and sports drinks that contain HFCS) and all foods that contain flour.

2. Start eating proper fats - Use healthy animal fats to substitute fat calories for calories that formerly came from sugar and flour.

3. Eliminate gluten grains. Limit grains like corn and rice, which are nutritionally poor.

4. Eliminate grain and seed derived oils (cooking oils) Cook with Ghee, butter, animal fats, or coconut oil. Use no temperate plant oils like corn, soy, canola, flax, walnut, etc.

5. Favor ruminants like beef, lamb and bison for your red meat. Eat eggs and fish.

6. Make sure you are Vitamin D replete. Get daily midday sun or consider supplementation.

7. 2 or 3 meals a day is best. Don't graze like a herbivore.

8. Attend to your 6s and 3s. Pastured (grass fed) dairy and grass fed beef or bison has a more optimal 6:3 ratio, more vitamins and CLA. If you can't eat enough pastured products, eat plenty of fish.

9. Get proper exercise - emphasizing resistance and interval training over long aerobic sessions.

10. Most modern fruit is just a candy bar from a tree. Go easy on bags of sugar like apples. Stick with berries and avoid watermelon which is pure fructose. Eat in moderation. If you are not trying to lose fat, a few pieces of fruit a day are fine.

11. Eliminate legumes

12. If you are allergic to milk protein or concerned about theoretical risks of casein, you can stick to butter and cream and avoid milk and soft cheeses.

source: http://www.archevore.com/get-started/

one steaming hot rotisserie chicken from the grocery store is about $7 here in CA. Eat one side of the breast for dinner, refrigerate and it can last you 4-5 days. All for $7

Mr Brady said:

HCL betadine is very inexpensive and helps insure your digesting the food you put in, many forum members including myself have found it to be very helpful.

How has this helped you and what are your experience? I just started this (Digestive Force from Poliquin), recommended from Christian and Razz.

Glutamine - 80g a day for 5 days - unbelievable bang for the buck!!! Got this from Poliquin

Did you gain weight from this? and if/when you stopped did you lose it again?

Thanks

cdx said:

Mr Brady said:

HCL betadine is very inexpensive and helps insure your digesting the food you put in, many forum members including myself have found it to be very helpful.

How has this helped you and what are your experience? I just started this (Digestive Force from Poliquin), recommended from Christian and Razz.

Glutamine - 80g a day for 5 days - unbelievable bang for the buck!!! Got this from Poliquin

Did you gain weight from this? and if/when you stopped did you lose it again?

Thanks

Yes it worked for me. First i have always been a hardgainer, and even after attempting t step up my diet nothing changed for about a year.

I immediately saw a difference in my stool after starting the Betaine Hydrochloride with Pepsin from Solgar (sorry i was hasty with my first post so the spelling was wrong, DON'T eat Betadine!) However the weight didn't change much.

Note that i just used the inexpensive Solgar product, took only one tablet, and not with every meal. However the digestion has remained permanently improved, right now i take the tablets about every other week, because i simply don't like taking tablets, its a sort of ordeal for me! And it seems like there is some carry over without taking them all the time, which starts to give me a metallic taste in my mouth. Razz or Alex may have some thoughts here.

After about 6 weeks into the Betaine regimen, i started the Glutamine. In one week i gained 3kg! For me that is a small miracle, i just weighed my self and have gained two more since, and that's with a diet that i would say is not so great the last couple of weeks due to extreme stress over the future of my studio/livelihood.

All in all, this reporter says its worked. 5 kg in about two months is a good result. Though i'm looking to add another 10 kg before its all over, i don't want to go too fast.

I struggled with gaining weight for years (just couldn't eat enough, always full easily) until I implemented the following things:

- Liquid calories are your friend, I would start the day with my regular breakfast (I was full from breakfast enough that I couldn't fit solid food in anymore) and then make a shake that I would drink on the way to class. The shake was normally milk, scoop of protein powder, 3-4 Table spoons of peanut butter, oatmeal, and some fruit for taste. I also had one with dinner (couldn't do it for lunch as I was usually in school).

- I would also always have some pre-bed foods. Cottage cheese, 2 glasses of milk, or another shake.

- I carried peanut butter with me (much cheaper than nuts like almonds or walnuts) and would just eat it in between my meals with a spoon, some kind of fruit (goes down easier that way) and water.

- I would also try to add calories where ever I could, here are some examples: when making eggs add a slice or two of cheese that's an extra 200 calories right there, if making toast spread of some butter or peanut butter, or make an olive oil dip. When eating chicken I would buy it with the skin on for extra calories. Steak is pretty expensive for bulking ground beef is much more reasonable and you can make hamburgers with it which are just awesome for calorie density. Sausages (pork, turkey or chicken) are pretty calorie dense and fairly cheap. I always had beans, brown rice, sweet potatoes and regular potatoes on hand as they are cheap and calorie dense (I am not a fan of wheat products as they are always highly processed and have sugar added to them and the healthier ones are more expensive). Stay away from things like fish, chicken breast, 2% milk, egg whites, low fat cheese and reduced calorie foods as well as highly processed foods that are calorie dense (they'll just make you fat).

I gained 30 lbs in one semester that way with a relatively minimal fat gain. If I had to guess I'd probably say I went from 140 lbs at 8 -9 percent to 170 lbs at 12-13 percent (the machine said I was lower but I highly doubt it).

Since I was pretty broke at the time I used no supplements save for whey protein and some fish oil. At one point I even remember thinking well this week I can either get more fishoil or buy a lot more peanut butter, the choice was simple hahaha.

Mr Brady said:

Yes it worked for me. First i have always been a hardgainer, and even after attempting t step up my diet nothing changed for about a year.

I immediately saw a difference in my stool after starting the Betaine Hydrochloride with Pepsin from Solgar (sorry i was hasty with my first post so the spelling was wrong, DON'T eat Betadine!) However the weight didn't change much.

Note that i just used the inexpensive Solgar product, took only one tablet, and not with every meal. However the digestion has remained permanently improved, right now i take the tablets about every other week, because i simply don't like taking tablets, its a sort of ordeal for me! And it seems like there is some carry over without taking them all the time, which starts to give me a metallic taste in my mouth. Razz or Alex may have some thoughts here.

After about 6 weeks into the Betaine regimen, i started the Glutamine. In one week i gained 3kg! For me that is a small miracle, i just weighed my self and have gained two more since, and that's with a diet that i would say is not so great the last couple of weeks due to extreme stress over the future of my studio/livelihood.

All in all, this reporter says its worked. 5 kg in about two months is a good result. Though i'm looking to add another 10 kg before its all over, i don't want to go too fast.

Thanks alot for sharing your experience Mr Brady!

I have my whole grown up life weighed 62-64 kilos. So a month ago I just to change things around bit (and very inspired from Razz and Christian when they were in Stockholm) I started to eat the Paleo way. I havent gained or lost any weight but I'm feeling alot better + my stomach is doing alot better.The only pain is that I feel that I have to eat all the time. I been eating oatmeal with milk and applemouse for breakfast for the last 20 years always thinking this would be the best one can eat for breakfast but I now relized that it must have been the oatmeal that caused my "farty" stomach.

i'll try Glutamine and see if I can gain a few kilos.

The kilos you gained was that muscle? and when you stoped with Glutamine did you keep your gain?

Mostly muscle, it stuck, now a whopping 71kg, want to get to 80kg.

Mr Brady said:

Mostly muscle, it stuck, now a whopping 71kg, want to get to 80kg.

I just bought some glutamine and am planning to do the 80 g a day thing very soon. I'm wondering, though, when the five days are over do you stop taking glutamine or do you keep taking it but in smaller doses?

Either is fine, you don't want to do the mega dose for more than 5 days though.

I stopped taking it altogether for a couple of weeks and now add 10g in my morning shake.

Razz or Alex D could have more details.

Svend said:

Mr Brady said:

Mostly muscle, it stuck, now a whopping 71kg, want to get to 80kg.

I just bought some glutamine and am planning to do the 80 g a day thing very soon. I'm wondering, though, when the five days are over do you stop taking glutamine or do you keep taking it but in smaller doses?

You continue with 10g. I can vouch for the protocol as well, although keep in mind there may or may not be additional factors at play. For myself, I didn't see a huge weight gain immediately, but my digestion noticeably improved. Clients generally saw the same kind of results as Mr. Brady, excepting the unfortunate few like myself who had h. pylori or other pathogens.

In addition to the foods, I'd get your sleep in order too.

Helped my asthma a lot too. It's definately good stuff

Thanks for all the help guys.

It turns out that I will only be kicking for football, but I would still like to gain some lean mass. I can now focus on cleaning up my diet as much as possible since hypertrophy is not really my priority. I will not shoot for a particular weight but I would like to be between 150 and 160 at 8% bodyfat.

I will play with some supplements over the summer. HCL betatine and glutamine seem like two I am willing to try first. I don't really need omega-3 and vitamin D supplements because I eat canned fish everyday and get plenty of sun. I also take epsom salt baths every three days or so because supposedly your body absorbs magnesium better through the skin. I don't know how true that it is but they seem to work quite well. My body feels much more relaxed and less stressed after them. My biggest problem is cortisol. My only noticeable storage of fat is around my stomach. So far I found cutting out all sugars and not eating 2 hours before bed works best. After doing that I wake up with noticeably less fat/swelling around my stomach, sometimes I even see my abs. If I can find a way to keep doing that I should get very lean.

Cole Dano said:

Glutamine - 80g a day for 5 days - unbelievable bang for the buck!!! Got this from Poliquin

http://www.charlespoliquin.com/Blog/tabid/130/EntryId/295/Three-dietary-strategies-to-blast-through-muscle-building-plateaus.aspx

1.Glutamine Load:

If you have a hard time gaining muscle mass, I would advise you to do this: take 80 grams of glutamine a day for 5 days, yes 80 grams, best is to do 8 x 10 grams. When NHL recruits were at a plateau gaining mass, that was my best quick and dirty trick.

Do I have peer reviewed studies for it. No. Just plenty of clients and students who had had success with it. I find taking 10 grams every two hours diluted in a cup of water works very well. Timing with meals does not matter. How does it work? Many possibilities, including:

A - glutamine is the primary building block on the intestinal lining. Many people suffer unknowingly from leaky gut syndrome. The glutamine overload phase seals the lining, which diminishes food intolerances and inflammation.

B - muscle gains are correlated to how strong the immune system is. Glutamine loading boosts the immune system. Conversely, when you overtrain, your glutamine levels drop dramatically.

Would it be ok to mix 80g glutamine in 1litre of water and drink about 125ml of the solution every 2 hours? Or will 10g of glutamine need to be prepared with each drink every 2 hours?

I'm not sure if it breaks down like whey over time. Whey when it is dissolved in water, breakdowns over time. Jeff posted about that in Sliz's nutrition thread I think.

http://www.sigmaaldrich.com/life-science/cell-culture/learning-center/media-expert/glutamine.html

From a google, there was one some thought that it takes 45 minutes to break down but that is unsubstantiated.

I would go with doing it every 2 hours. Pack some in a plastic baggie or whatever you're gonna use if you're trying to avoid plastic.

Thanks for the info Blairbob

http://truenutrition.com/p-962-l-glutam ... grams.aspx

Is this L-Glutamine stuff the same type of glutamine that is being discussed? Just wondering because it's about half the price of poliquin's

According to that, it's fermented rather than synthetic. I've never heard of the difference. However, the fact that Poliquin's prices are expensive does not surprise me.

Does anyone have another place to get it that is less than poliquin's ($50 for 500 grams) and just regular glutamine?

chingyvang said:

one steaming hot rotisserie chicken from the grocery store is about $7 here in CA. Eat one side of the breast for dinner, refrigerate and it can last you 4-5 days. All for $7

if you're bulking, or have any reasonable appetite one chicken should not last you 4-5 days.

ts00nami said:

chingyvang said:

one steaming hot rotisserie chicken from the grocery store is about $7 here in CA. Eat one side of the breast for dinner, refrigerate and it can last you 4-5 days. All for $7

if you're bulking, or have any reasonable appetite one chicken should not last you 4-5 days.

One chicken don't last 1-2 days here! HAHA

If you're seriously bulking it might last 1 or 2...meals.