The Ultimate Bulking Diet Plan For Mass Gain

Whether you’re a recreational gym goer or an advanced bodybuilder, common goals include building muscle, increasing strength, and looking better. Whatever your goal, bulking can help you pack on muscle more effectively than just training alone. 

The goals of a bulking diet are simple enough. You eat in a calorie surplus, perform consistent, well-organized resistance exercise, and start to grow. However, it’s not as easy as just eating more and stepping into the gym.

One of the biggest challenges when bulking is preventing unnecessary fat gain. Common mistakes include poor planning, excessive energy intake, and eating the wrong foods. This makes it much harder to get back in shape when changing to a cutting diet.

In this article, we’ve discussed the main considerations to learn how to bulk without gaining fat. Alongside this, we’ve given some handy bulking tips to help you on your way.

What Is A Bulking Diet?

A bulking diet type of nutritional strategy used by individuals with the primary goal of gaining body weight and muscle mass. It’s commonly used by bodybuilders, strength athletes, and recreational gym goers who want to build muscle and increase strength. 

It involves consuming a calorie surplus, meaning you’re eating more calories than you’re burning. The excess calories provide the energy needed for muscle growth, recovery, and, unfortunately, fat gain. This allows a much higher training volume and intensity, meaning individuals can train for longer and with heavier weights. 

The general idea of a bulking diet is to maximize your muscle gain while minimizing your potential fat gain. This requires balancing your energy and macronutrient intakes while maintaining a consistent resistance training routine. These aspects will be discussed in the sections below.

Once the bulking diet or phase is complete, many people transition to a cutting phase. The aim is to get rid of any excess body fat while maintaining the muscle gained. We’ve done a guide on how to cut in a separate article if you need to know more.

How To Do A Bulking Diet? 

It’s important to implement a clean bulking diet when looking to gain weight and build muscle. This gives you the best possible chance of gaining new muscle tissue without gaining excess fat. If you can do this correctly, you’ll put yourself in a much better position when it comes to the cutting phase.

Implement Clean Bulking

Clean bulking means consuming nutrient-dense, whole foods rather than excessive amounts of overly processed or junk foods. Eat a balanced diet consisting of high-protein bulking foods, whole grains, fruits, vegetables, and healthy fats. This bulking diet plan for muscle gain supports muscle growth, health, and recovery, all vital aspects of a successful plan.

Bulking follows a science-backed plan that implements the important nutritional principles. Throughout the process, you’ll need to monitor your progress, adjust portion sizes as needed, and think about your recovery.

Consider Your Training

Alongside your nutrition, implementing the right training approach is essential for maximizing your potential muscle gain. Your resistance training should focus on the progressive overload principle. This means that you need to change the main resistance training principles to promote an adaptive response.

The most important training principles to vary include your workout volume, workout intensity, and rest periods. These refer to the amount of work done, the difficulty of the exercise, and the rest taken during exercise. 

Some of the best types of training for muscle growth include hypertrophy training and strength training. Prioritize compound movements that use multiple muscle groups at once. Isolation movements (single-joint exercises) can be used to increase workout volume.

How Many Calories Do You Need To Bulk?

To bulk up, you need to consume more calories than you burn in a day. Therefore, your calorie intake should be one of the most important considerations when implementing a lean bulking plan. Before considering anything else, you need to work out how many calories for bulking.

The suggested calorie surplus for a bulking workout plan is approximately 350–475 calories per day. This provides a sufficient amount to gain muscle while limiting the potential fat gain. This number can vary between individuals, but it provides a good starting point.

When learning how to track calories while bulking, you can use a calorie calculator. All you need to do is put in your main physical characteristics and press calculate. 

Macros For A Bulking Diet

While the amount of calories you consume determines your rate of weight gain, your macronutrient distributions affect the quality. Therefore, when following a muscle gain meal plan, your bulking macros should also be a primary focus.

Your macro breakdown for bulking should focus on your protein, carbohydrate, and fat intakes. This is the same whether following a dirty bulk vs clean bulk plan. However, we recommend the clean approach every time.

Protein provides the essential amino acids needed for muscle building. In terms of how much protein to build muscle, aim for 0.7–1 grams per pound of body weight.

Dietary fat provides a large source of energy and supports vital hormone production. It’s also needed to absorb certain vitamins into the bloodstream, making it important for health. Aim for a fat intake of 20%–25% of your overall daily calories.

Carbohydrates provide the primary energy source for movement and exercise. Because of this, you should consume enough to support performance. These should make up the rest of your intake, ideally around your resistance training sessions.

In summary, work out your protein intake, followed by your fat intake, then your carbohydrates. These should follow the suggested calorie surplus discussed above. Use the table below as a general guide.

Best Foods To Eat On A Bulking Diet

Food quality is just as important as the amount of energy you consume when following a bulking diet. You need to eat a calorie surplus to support muscle growth, but this should consist of high-quality, nutrient-dense foods. 

The foods you consume should be energy-dense, high in protein, and contain complex carbohydrates and healthy fats. Alongside this, they should have enough essential micronutrients to support health and performance. These are some of the best foods for healthy bulking recipes:

• Lean Proteins (Chicken, Turkey, Pork, Beef) — High amounts of protein for muscle growth and repair.
• Dairy Produce (Milk, Yogurt, Cheese) — Source of energy, protein, and calcium, all vital for muscle growth.
• Whole Grains And Oats — Complex carbohydrates for sustained energy.
• Potatoes And Rice — Easily digestible carbohydrates for energy and performance. 
• Whole Eggs — Complete proteins and healthy fats for muscle growth and hormone support.
• Fruits And Vegetables — Vitamins, fiber, and antioxidants for digestion, recovery, and health.
• Nuts And Seeds — Energy-dense and full of healthy fats. These are great for adding to different meals.

If you’re looking for a bulking diet for beginners, this provides a good starting point. Here is our suggested full day of eating a bulking diet. We’ve listed each meal alongside the approximate nutritional values.

*ml = millilitres

*g = grams

*KCAL = calories

Other Things To Consider

While a bulking transformation plan sounds simple enough, it can quickly go wrong without the right approach. These are some common mistakes to consider so you can stay on the right track. We’ve ended this section by discussing some of the best supplements for muscle growth. 

Eating Too Much

Eating too much or taking in excessive calories is one of the biggest bulking mistakes. Eating far more than what’s needed for muscle growth can lead to unnecessary fat gain. 

While you’ll still pack on muscle, you’ll make it much harder for yourself to lose the added fat. As we’ve discussed above, maintain a moderate calorie surplus of around 375–500 calories. Regularly track changes in body weight and body composition, making adjustments as needed to stay on track.

Neglecting Protein Intake 

Protein is vitally important for muscle growth. It provides the building blocks, or amino acids, needed for the muscle growth and repair processes to occur. However, many people tend to focus on their total calorie intake rather than ensuring they’re getting enough protein as well.

People think that consuming excess protein leads to kidney health issues. However, this is one of the biggest muscle growth myths. If you’re a healthy individual with no underlying health issues, you have nothing to worry about.

If you don’t consume enough protein in your bulking meal plan, a lot of the energy surplus may support excess fat gain. You want to pack on size, but most of it should come from muscle and not fat.

Aim for a daily protein intake of at least 0.7–1 grams of protein per pound of body weight. This should consist of lean protein sources such as chicken, turkey, eggs, and dairy products. 

You may increase this to over 1.4 grams per pound of body weight if you’re a bodybuilder. This is due to your high training volume and increased requirements.

Ignoring Food Quality 

Most people following a bulking diet focus on getting as many calories as possible without considering their food quality. They think that as long as they’re gaining weight and lifting in the gym, they must be building muscle. While that may be the case, this approach is very inefficient.

Micronutrients such as vitamins and minerals perform several important physiological processes. Fibre can benefit digestion, which should be seen as particularly important when taking in so much food. 

Focusing on your food quality as well as your energy intake can improve your energy levels, overall health, and recovery. Poor food quality can lead to fatigue, bloating, and nutrient difficulties. This can negatively affect the way you look and how you perform. 

Prioritize whole food sources to get enough important micronutrients. Consuming enough quality protein, carbohydrates, and fats can act as useful mass gainer alternatives. Good examples include lean proteins, fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and healthy fats like avocados and nuts.

Not Tracking Your Intake

Following a bulking diet often turns into a numbers game rather than a consistent and organized plan. While you’ll still see initial weight gain, you can’t make the important decisions needed to see continued progress. 

A lot of gym goers tend to guess their portion sizes during a bulk rather than measure them. This may lead to a much higher energy intake than needed. In some cases, you may also not consume enough.

Track your daily energy and macronutrient intakes, making small adjustments as needed to ensure you’re staying on track. This can be achieved by using a diet journal or an appropriate fitness application. 

Using Supplements Incorrectly 

Supplements are common nutritional aids that should be used to enhance a well-rounded dietary intake, not replace it. In fact, 50% of Americans are reported to use supplements for muscle building. In this instance, they should be used to plug potential nutritional gaps and support performance. 

You can follow a bulking diet without supplements if you want. However, if you use them correctly, they’ll only enhance whatever you’re already doing. If you do want to take them, here are some of the best muscle-building stacks to consider.

Some of the best bulking supplements include protein powders, creatine, omega-3 fatty acids, and weight gainers. Protein powder can help meet your daily intake needs, as long as most is made up of whole foods. Creatine can be used to increase strength, muscle size, and performance.

Conclusion

Building muscle isn’t easy, even when using a bulking diet. However, learning how to bulk properly provides a great starting point. It ensures slower muscle growth but reduced fat gain as your body digests the excess energy. You’ll also be in a much better position when starting your cutting workout plan.

Implement a small calorie deficit, focus on high-quality macronutrients, and consistently monitor your progress to make the necessary adjustments. If you can stick to the plan and train hard enough, you’ll be unrecognizable in the mirror!

Frequently Asked Questions