Thread: Help with increasing bulk

Looks like a good meal plan.............just needs some fresh vegetables added to it.

Originally Posted by weid34

Hey all. Havent posted in a while but have been reading some interesting threads. Well, its time to up the cals again on my bulk. been at the same weight fot the last few weeks because of work. But now its time to refocus. I was previously at 2745 calories and weighed b/w 134 and 136. But this is what i weighed 1 month and a half ago too. Now I upped it by adding a tbsp of olive oil to dinner and another 1/4 cup of oatmeal to my pwo shake, making it 2950 calories. would appreciate if anyone can offer any advice or criticisms to what i' added or to my diet in generel. like does my pwo shake now have too many carbs?
I would really like to see some solid gains already. Oh and im 5'6", and 25.
Heres the updated plan:

Diet Meal Protein Carbs Fats Calories
Breakfast -7:00 2 eggwhites 12 2 0 60 ( make this 4-5 eggwhites)
1 whole egg 6.5 0 5.6 80
1 cup oatmeal 10 54 6 300 (if you make this 2/3c. + 1/2c. it comes to 360)
1/2 cup c.ch. 15 0 0 80
2 fish capsules 0 0 2 20
total 43.5 56 11.6 540

Post Workout - snack 1 10:00
1 scoop whey 24 3 1 110
1 Whole banana 0 25 0 100
1 cup oats 10 54 6 300
1 cup skim milk 8 12 0 80
total 42 94 7 590

Lunch - 1:00
1 can tuna 35 0 2.5 175
2 WW slices 8 34 1.5 180 (make this 1/2 brown rice (dry) to make it 300cals)
2 tblsp light mayonaise 0 1 4.5 50
Healthy cheese 3 0 0 25
salsa 0 3 0 10
2 fish capsules 0 0 2 20
1 apple 0 23 0 85
total 46 61 10.5 545

snack 2 - 4:00
1 scoop whey 24 2 1 110
3/4 cup oats 7.5 40 4.5 225 (make this 1c. oats 310)
1 tblsp PB 4 3 8 105
1 cup skim milk 8 12 0 80
total 43.5 57 13.5 520

Dinner - 7:00
1.5 Chichen breasts (cutlets) 30 0 3 165
3/4 cup brown rice 6 51 2.25 255
1tbsp olive oil 0 0 14 120
(def. need some veggies in here: broccoli, caul., something like that)
total 36 51 19.25 540

Snack 3 - 10:00
1 scoop casien whey 24 1 1.5 110 (either up the amt. or switch to like 1c to 1.5c. cott. cheese. 160-240)
1tbsp peanut butter 4 3 8 105 (make this 2TBLS. 210)
total 28 4 9.5 215

Total 239 323 71.35 2950
Macro Ratios 32.407% 43.797% 21.768%

sorry its so cluttered, i have no idea how to use the damn post new thread thing.
Props for the help - again.

my suggestions are in (). W/ all those additions it's around 580 more cals. So pick some of them out and see what you would like to do.

oh i misread I though you said you needed more cals. sorry. All in all I'd say your diet looks pretty good. maybe get some more efa's in there and some veggies.

no problem dude. If you think i need to add more calories than i did to it, then i will. Good suggestions. Just concerned if thats too much pb, not too much fat? you also wrote 1/2 rice is 360, how is that, did u mean 1 cup?

Originally Posted by weid34

no problem dude. If you think i need to add more calories than i did to it, then i will. Good suggestions. Just concerned if thats too much pb, not too much fat? you also wrote 1/2 rice is 360, how is that, did u mean 1 cup?

Increasing cals is all up to you. But you could keep those suggestions in mind when it comes time. i put 1/2 c. dry rice at 300 but if you do 1/2c. + 2/3 of OATS then you get 360. you could do 1/2 + 1/3+ 1/4 cups and you get 335. I played around w/ cal. amounts on a lot of foods to help add cals at each meal. Like w/ rice. 1/3 c. of dry rice is 200 cals. so you could have 400 cals worth of rice w/ 2/3c or a 1/4 + 1/3 is 350.

Originally Posted by weid34

I was previously at 2745 calories and weighed b/w 134 and 136. But this is what i weighed 1 month and a half ago too. Now I upped it by adding a tbsp of olive oil to dinner and another 1/4 cup of oatmeal to my pwo shake, making it 2950 calories. would appreciate if anyone can offer any advice or criticisms to what i' added or to my diet in generel. like does my pwo shake now have too many carbs?
I would really like to see some solid gains already. Oh and im 5'6", and 25.

Ok - at your weight I would not up your protein content any more than it is. 230g is plenty for you and if you want to get serious about adding mass then you would be better off getting your energy from fats and carbs. So you could increase your carb in most meals to ~70g and also increase your fat to ~15g in most of your meals.

So, what I would suggest:

Meal Protein Carbs Fats Calories
Breakfast -7:00 2 eggwhites 12 2 0 60
1 whole egg 6.5 0 5.6 80
1 cup oatmeal 10 54 6 300
1/2 cup c.ch. 15 0 0 80
2 fish capsules 0 0 2 20
total 43.5 56 11.6 540

You could add more carbs here - either some more oats or something like some blueberries would be a good option.

Post Workout - snack 1 10:00
1 scoop whey 24 3 1 110
1 Whole banana 0 25 0 100
1 cup oats 10 54 6 300
1 cup skim milk 8 12 0 80
total 42 94 7 590

Ok... technically speaking... yeah - the carbs are a little high here. Generally you want to aim for ~0.5g per pound body weight in carbs and 0.25g per pound body weight in protein (~70g carbs and 35g protein)... If you took out some of the carb here and added it pre-workout it might be a better way to go. Pre-workout is just as, if not more important, than post-workout.

But with that said, if you want more carbs in this meal then have more.....

Also, if you are having trouble gaining then you might want to consider swapping some of the oats for something like dextrose. Although I am not a fan of using processed foods - sometimes this type of this is needed. So using 0.5 cups of oats and 2 tbs of dex (30g carb) could be a way to go.

Another option could be a shake that you could sip during your workouts - something with some carb and a little protein (eg: 30g carb, 15g protein)

Lunch - 1:00
1 can tuna 35 0 2.5 175
2 WW slices 8 34 1.5 180
2 tblsp light mayonaise 0 1 4.5 50
Healthy cheese 3 0 0 25
salsa 0 3 0 10
2 fish capsules 0 0 2 20
1 apple 0 23 0 85
total 46 61 10.5 545

1. Add vegetables!!!
2. Swap the light mayo for a healthy mayo or for avocado. Something that will give you a little more healthy fats (you could aim for 15-20g fat).
3. I agree with the suggestion to use brown rice instead of bread. You could get away with increasing your carb content here (once again, I would aim for ~70g) and that would be a good way to do it - 1 cup cooked will give you ~44g carbs which would add another 10g of carb.

snack 2 - 4:00
1 scoop whey 24 2 1 110
3/4 cup oats 7.5 40 4.5 225
1 tblsp PB 4 3 8 105
1 cup skim milk 8 12 0 80
total 43.5 57 13.5 520

Pretty good - as it was suggested you could increase to 1 cup oats. You could also add 2 more fish oils here.

Dinner - 7:00
1.5 Chichen breasts (cutlets) 30 0 3 165
3/4 cup brown rice 6 51 2.25 255
1tbsp olive oil 0 0 14 120
total 36 51 19.25 540

Add vegetables!
You could also increase brown rice to 1 cup to increase carb content. Otherwise it is great!

Snack 3 - 10:00
1 scoop casien whey 24 1 1.5 110
1tbsp peanut butter 4 3 8 105
total 28 4 9.5 215

You don't need to increase protein here - but you could increase fats. However, I would be careful about adding more peanut butter. You might want to use something that has more omega-3 fats in it because it will probably cause your omega-fat ratio's to go a little wacky. So think about walnuts or linseeds as a better option.

Total 239 323 71.35 2950
Macro Ratios 32.407% 43.797% 21.768%

I think this is a good ratio - as I said, you don't need more protein so if you increase your carbs slightly to 350g (~2.5g x body weight) and your fats to ~80-85g (to ~0.6g x body weight) then it will increase things to ~3100 cals (45% carbs, 30% protein, 25% fats) and that is probably adequate for what you need.

awesome emma, I was hoping yuo'd take a look. quick question, how many almonds or walnuts would be adequete to have at night? also, can i put some of the carbs (oats) at night in my last meal?- by the way, i don't have any clue how you have any room in your stomach to drink water all day after these huge meals! - i felt like exploding after lunch.