Need a sample bulk diet (Help!)

[hawks55]

Hey everyone. I've lurked and posted on this board in the past (a few years ago) and I'm now back after a long lifting hiatus. I'm 23 (weird saying that I feel old, lol) about 165lbs and starting to get back in the lifting groove again. I need help on a solid bulking diet. In the past I would just eat like crazy and not make the best choices on the food I was eating. This actually worked for me, but I'd like to have a "clean bulk" this time around.

A little information:
My maintenance calories are around 2300 calories per day. About 2-3 years ago I was a strong and lean 145, now I'm an out-of-shape skinny-fat 165 thanks to beer. I'm looking for a solid bulking diet as it's hard to sift through all the info out there and create my own. Any help would be appreciated, thank you all!

 

[FMJ]

Hey hawk,
I did the same thing as you and the guys here advised me I was going about it wrong so let me try to save you a few weeks right from the start. If your BF is on the high side, in the neighborhood of 16-18% or more, start by cutting down first. At 5'8", 164lbs, I was "skinny fat" too. I held it well but was at 18% BF. I started on a bulk and after 6-8 weeks went up to 169. Then I was told that bulking at higher BF percentages puts higher ratios of fat than lbm. I reverted to a cut and for the last couple weeks, I'm a half pound away from 164 again. I basically wasted a couple months.
Check your bf and if it's greater than 12-14%, don't bulk yet.
However, if you are lean enough, start bulking by adding 500 calories to your maintainence and check back in a couple weeks to see if you're gaining. If not, add more calories. Repeat until you start gaining.
Use something like Fitday to track your calories as well. Don't skip this step as knowing exactly how much of what you're eating is important.
There's lots of ways of dividing up your macros to get good results. Some common ones are 40%c, 30%p and 30%f or 50%c, 25%p and 25%f, etc. Read the Stickies in the Diet & Nutrition forum to figure out what'll work best for you. Lastly, make sure you're training is squared away. You'll need both training and diet dialed in to make the right gains. Hope this helps.

 

[Jodi]

http://www.ironmagazineforums.com/diet-nutrition/21113-guide-cutting-bulking-maintenance.html

Just some sample diets. However, you should use these tools to make your own.