#041 Bulking Made Easy

Welcome back to the 41st edition of the Boats & Logs Lifting Club. I really appreciate you being here. We are the based fitness community that focuses on mastering the basics instead of getting lost in the details.

Most people in the gym fall into one of two camps: They either have a problem eating enough calories to gain muscle, or they struggle to reduce calories sufficiently to lose fat and reveal their muscles.

And both groups lack a proper understanding of the challenges the other group is facing.

As probably +95% of you reading this are in one of these two groups, I will write two newsletters to help you overcome your problems because, in the end, gains are made in the kitchen.

You are wasting your time if you consistently train but do not eat enough food to build muscle. Likewise, you can’t stick to a proper diet, and all your muscles are hidden below your +20% body fat.

And today, we will start with the first group:

How to bulk successfully when you tend to struggle to consistently eat in a calorie surplus.

I hope you enjoy this newsletter.

Easy Bulking 1: You don’t need to eat as much as you may think

A common misconception about bulking is that you need to eat 3,000-4,500 calories to bulk up. I believe this originates from beginners watching YouTube videos or Reels of very advanced lifters that eat a lot of calories to bulk, and the conclusion from this is something along those lines:
“If I want to look like him, I have to eat like him.”

But that’s untrue. How many calories you must eat depends entirely on your body and activity level.

It may be satisfying to watch making quick progress on the scale if you are in a big calorie surplus but it’s only worth it if the majority of your weight gain is muscle mass.

And there is a limit to how much muscle you can gain. Let’s apply an extreme example: You will grow the same amount of muscles whether you are in a 1,500 or 3,000-calorie-per-day surplus. But you will add significantly more fat in the bigger surplus. Therefore, it makes no sense to bulk too aggressively.

Additionally, as this guide is aimed at people who struggle to eat sufficient amounts to achieve a calorie surplus, starting out your bulk with such a large calorie surplus may be unsustainable as you are not used to eating this much.

To find out how many calories you need to consume, I can recommend this calorie calculator. You may be surprised that you need way fewer calories to gain weight than you initially assumed.

Disclaimer: This is an online calculator that may produce the wrong result. It is important that you consistently track your progress on the scale. If you are not gaining weight, you should increase the surplus.

Easy Bulking 2: The right strategy

Now, with the calorie and protein goals established. We have to ask ourselves how we will get there. Obviously you could just start the day and eat whatever you like and hope that you achieve your goals.

But if you want to be successful, you should make a meal plan at least one day in advance to plan out the next day and how you will hit your calories and protein.

You need to ask yourself three questions:
1. How often do you want to eat?
2. When do you want to eat?
3. What do you want to eat?

All of these questions are highly individual, so I can only give you some ideas. You have to decide for yourself and create a meal plan that works for you.

The question of how often you want to eat per day determines how many calories you consume per meal.

If your goal is 2,800 calories per day and you eat only 3 meals per day, you would need to eat around 950 calories per meal to hit your goal. But if you consume 3 meals and 2 snacks, this could change to around 700 calories per meal and 350 calories per snack.

By increasing the number of meals per day, you can decrease the number of calories per meal and, therefore, make it easier to finish all meals.

However, as I said before, this is highly individual. For some, it may be more suitable to have 2-3 big meals per day, while others would prefer more but smaller meals.

Tied to this is the question of when you want to eat. Some may have problems eating larger amounts in the morning or in the evening or may not be able to eat larger amounts at work.

Whatever the reason, you need to factor those into your meal plan. It doesn’t make sense to plan a 1,000-calorie breakfast if you know that you can’t eat this much in the morning.

It only matters that you achieve your goals. When you eat doesn’t matter much.

Lastly, there is the question of what you will eat. Besides the obvious that the food should be high in calories and protein but still healthy, there are other factors to consider.

The food on your meal plan should also be easy to prepare, tasty, and have some variation.

Nobody likes spending half the day preparing food. Therefore, I’d advise you to pick meals (or at least the majority) that you can prepare in <30 minutes. I’d also buy all ingredients at least one day in advance to make sure that you have all the necessary ingredients at home.

It can also make sense to pick foods that you can already prepare for the next day or maybe even the same day.

You could, for example, drink a shake in the morning and then for lunch and dinner prepare a big pasta salad. You would spend around 30 minutes in the kitchen during the whole day but still hit your macros.

Additionally, the meals have to taste good. No matter how easy you try to make the process, you will hit a point where you don’t want to continue eating as you already feel fully satiated. To make it as easy as possible for you, the meal should at least taste good.

Lastly, you should also add sufficient variations to your meal plan to make sure that you do not get bored by your food choices and start to dislike some of them.

Easy Bulking 3: Food choices

With the basics established, let’s look at what foods you will be eating. The selection of the right foods is a critical part of the journey if your main goal is to gain weight and you are struggling to eat much.

Eating foods that are low-calorie but very satiating can make your life unnecessarily difficult. An example could be potatoes. While they are a great and healthy food, I wouldn’t include them in large portions in my meals if I wanted to gain weight.

The reason is simple: potatoes are extremely satiating but don’t contain many calories. And while this makes them a great food for cutting, they won’t help you in bulk.

Therefore, you should make sure that you build your meal plan around foods that make it easier for you to hit your calorie and protein goals. Besides the important fact that you should actually enjoy the taste, these foods should also be less satiating compared to their macros.

Take chicken and ground beef as an example:
Chicken Breast (100g): 165 calories, 31g protein
Ground Beef (100g): 332 calories, 14g protein

Chicken breast is incredible for a diet. It contains plenty of protein but only very few calories. Ground beef, however, is a great bulking food, as it contains a lot of calories and also an ok-ish amount of protein.

Another strategy is to leverage liquid calories.

For many people, it’s easier to consume high-calorie meals as shakes. Additionally, shakes take very little time to prepare, which makes them a great meal in the morning or whenever you are time-constrained.

There are plenty of YouTube videos, TikToks, and Reels with shakes from 800-1,500 calories in all kinds of flavors. I would highly encourage you to consider adding shakes to your meal plan.

Easy Bulking 4: Don’t be afraid of dirty calories

You should also be open to any help you can get to hit your calorie goal and dirty calories are a great help for that. Donuts, muffins, soda, or simply whatever you recommend someone who is trying to lose weight NOT to eat.

Because those are empty calories. Calories with no (or low) nutritional value and protein.

But you are trying to bulk up. You want those calories!

As long as you hit your protein goals and only need to fill up your calories for the day, dirty calories can be a great choice to help you achieve your goals.

Just to make sure that I’m not misunderstood here: This is not a call for you to eat 1,000 calories in unhealthy snacks per day. If you do this consistently, your bulk should still be successful (assuming you covered your protein goals), but the risk for other negative effects increases. But if you are only eating <500 dirty calories for a certain period of time to help fill up the remaining calories for the day, this can be a good strategy.

Easy Bulking 5: Slow and steady wins the race

We have now discussed many different strategies on how to bulk successfully if you are having a problem eating larger amounts. But if you still find yourself struggling to consistently hit your calorie goal, we have to take a step back.

It is common advice for fat loss to start with a small calorie deficit and work up from there. And the same advice can be applied to people trying to eat more:

Start with a smaller calorie surplus if you are struggling to hit your goal.

2,800 calories per day is too much for you? Try starting with 2,600 calories (or whatever you like). The goal is to get used to eating more.

Start with a small calorie surplus and get used to this amount. Once you feel comfortable with your calories, increase them further until you reach your target amount.

This may not be the fastest way to add muscle mass but if you are having problems eating enough, this can help to successfully complete the bulk.

Thank you for reading today's newsletter. I tried to answer as many of your questions as possible. If you have further questions, simply DM me on Instagram.

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Stay strong,
Boats & Logs

Disclaimer

This is not Legal, Medical, or Financial advice. Before starting any workout program, diet plan, or supplement protocol, please consult a medical professional. These are the opinions from an AI voice.