New person looking for advice on 'Clean Bulk' diet

[axleNZ]

Hi everyone, this is my first time posting on this forum.

I will say a bit about myself first,

I am 19 years old and a student, i started training in the gym at 18 beginning at 77kg, I am now 19 and standing at 6ft 2 inches.

My goal is to bulk cleanly to 90kg and end up with as little body fat as i can manage at that weight with lean muscle. This is for aesthetic purposes.

Would someone help me confirm if these figures and foods are correct for a 'clean' bulk? I am working on forming a diet for myself.

The information I have collected is as follows...

Daily Lean gains intake:

3000 - 3,300 Calories

260- 280g protein

340- 380g carbs

90- 95g fat

Ratios roughly at

39 cal/kg

(3.3 g/kg) protein

(4.4-6.6 g/kg) carbs

1.1 g/kg) of fat

I do take a whey protein at the moment also. 25g serves after every workout.

I am also after suggestions of what foods to eat on this lean gains diet, what i have seen on the internet so far seems to suggest these....

Food suggestions:

Rough list:

Broccoli

Asparagus

Green Beans

Zucchini

Spinach

Low Fat cheese

Nuts

Beans

Yoghurt

Chicken

Beef

Eggs

Oats

Tomato

Cucumber

Brown Rice

Lentils

Wheat Bread

Whole Milk

Olive Oil

Cottage Cheese

Peanut Butter

Tuna

Salmon

Salad Lettuce

Fish oil capsules

Avocado

Please add any comments you have if the information I have gathered is invalid or correct.

Cheers for any help,

Alex

[Merlin]

Lean Beef mince is also a good one. Easy to prepare.

The thing most of those food lists don't tell you what to buy are herbs and spices. You're going to need some to make the food taste good.

I'd suggest starting with the following =P~

Garlic Salt

Moroccan

Cajun

Cayenne Pepper

Paprika

Tarragon

Mixed Herbs

[jimmybro1]

It doesn't matter what foods you eat not really clean and dirty foods.

A clean bulk is one where the calories are controlled whereas a dirty bulk or a dreamers bulk is when you eat everything in sight.

You can eat what ever foods you want as long as you are counting your macros which you have stated above. Use apps like myfitnesspal to help you with this.

Your food intake sounds alright but as you are extremely light for you height at the moment you must have a fast metabolism and your reasonably young. Just track your progress on the scales you would want to aim for about 0.5kg fortnight.

[mattypyuu]

If it fits your macros, eat it.

[axleNZ]

Lean Beef mince is also a good one. Easy to prepare.

The thing most of those food lists don't tell you what to buy are herbs and spices. You're going to need some to make the food taste good.

I'd suggest starting with the following =P~

Garlic Salt

Moroccan

Cajun

Cayenne Pepper

Paprika

Tarragon

Mixed Herbs

Thanks for the cooking advice, luckily i had most of these herbs already and have been using them in my cooking. Makes things taste great.

It doesn't matter what foods you eat not really clean and dirty foods.

A clean bulk is one where the calories are controlled whereas a dirty bulk or a dreamers bulk is when you eat everything in sight.

You can eat what ever foods you want as long as you are counting your macros which you have stated above. Use apps like myfitnesspal to help you with this.

Your food intake sounds alright but as you are extremely light for you height at the moment you must have a fast metabolism and your reasonably young. Just track your progress on the scales you would want to aim for about 0.5kg fortnight.

Oh yes that makes more sense to me now, what i initially did last year was a 'dreamers bulk' and yes i put on a bit of fat too with that.

I have started using my fitness pal, i agree with everything it says but it only reccommends 110g of protein per day, is this enough?

[jimmybro1]

Not IMO. If you go to goals you can adjust your macros to what you want.

I use 30%/50%/20% Protein/Carbs/Fat in terms of calories.

Just enter the amount of calories you want to consume which can be found by going to http://www.freedieting.com and adding the amount of surplus calories to your maintenance calories that you want.

[xyanide]

It doesn't matter what foods you eat not really clean and dirty foods.

A clean bulk is one where the calories are controlled whereas a dirty bulk or a dreamers bulk is when you eat everything in sight.

You can eat what ever foods you want as long as you are counting your macros which you have stated above. Use apps like myfitnesspal to help you with this.

Your food intake sounds alright but as you are extremely light for you height at the moment you must have a fast metabolism and your reasonably young. Just track your progress on the scales you would want to aim for about 0.5kg fortnight.

just downloaded that myfitnesspal app you said, omg its so awesome, i love it =D hoping this is going to help with my cutting =D gonna get those abs now..

[tomsammce]

Wrong. A dirty bulk is getting your calories from low quality sources such as fast food and foods high in sugars or unhealthy fats a clean bulk would be getting your calories from nutritious foods that have value to your body and aid it in high performance.

Getting your calories from shit foods if you can get them from good foods is just lazy. If you can eat well and get the macros you want or think you need then why wouldn't you.

I went thru a phase of following IIFYM and found it good at the time. As soon as I changed my training and lifestyle where a higher energy expenditure was required... It's noob as f*ck.

Seems to have a massive cult type following now where everyone's answer to everything is "IIFYM". But once you start doing anything longer or more intense than 60 mins in the gym where your resting for almost halve if it, you will discover that meal planning is quite important and that the idea of it doesn't matter what or when I eat as long as I get it in me within this window of 24hrs and hit this magical number (which was dreamt up on the Internet and isn't even accurate) I'm sweet, is pretty dumb.

You should eat clean food over shit food wherever possible.

[jimmybro1]

Wrong. A dirty bulk is getting your calories from low quality sources such as fast food and foods high in sugars or unhealthy fats a clean bulk would be getting your calories from nutritious foods that have value to your body and aid it in high performance.

Getting your calories from shit foods if you can get them from good foods is just lazy. If you can eat well and get the macros you want or think you need then why wouldn't you.

I went thru a phase of following IIFYM and found it good at the time. As soon as I changed my training and lifestyle where a higher energy expenditure was required... It's basically shit and flawed IMO.

Seems to have a massive cult type following now where everyone's answer to everything is "IIFYM". But once you start doing anything longer or more intense than 60 mins in the gym where your resting for almost halve if it, you will discover that meal planning is quite important and that the idea of it doesn't matter what or when I eat as long as I get it in me within this window of 24hrs and hit this magical number (which was dreamt up on the Internet and isn't even accurate) I'm sweet, is pretty dumb.

You should eat clean food over shit food wherever possible.

If it fits your in Micros perhaps...?

There is always a balance but ppl always seem to take things to extremes. I agree having a balanced diet is important but I don't agree with your definition of dirty bulking.

[tomsammce]

Ok, how I am 'dirty bulking' when I eat clean, eat when I'm hungry apart from my planned pre workout meal and my planned post workout meal, don't count my calories. That's not dirty.

Bulking is eating in a calorie surplus to your bodies requirements.

Dirty is the opposite of clean. Clean food is low in sugar and low in the undesirable/unhealthy fats... So dirty is the opposite of clean??

So that is my understanding and the logical meaning of dirty bulking unless its just some misc term in which case it's meaning is what ever you want it to mean lol

[nate225]

Tom's right on the mark on this one bro! His definition of clean vs dirty is what the majority agree with.

I like the term you came up with (if it was you?), "Dreamers Bulk", which could be achieved by using either a clean or dirty bulk.

[jimmybro1]

Dam out voted

I think of it this way a dirty bulk has dirty gains i.e. majority fat gain and clean bulk has clean gains minimal fat gain. This can be done by either eating a lot of good food or a lot of bad/unhealthy foods.

I think the actual meaning is pretty vague, did a Google search and all kind of results came up.

I guess everyone looks at it differently.

Nate I didn't come up with the term "dreamers bulk" heard it at a seminar.

[nate225]

^^ Its a good term none the less!

I think I'm on a perpetual dreamers bulk all offseason! :grin:

[Riccardo]

In terms of body composition, whether you get your calories from health or unhealthy foods doesn't matter. for example if you are on a 4000cal bulk of 3 meals of maccy Ds and KFC or a bulk of 8 meals chicken breast and brown rice. your fat gain will be roughly the same. But is it optimal? No, of course not. the micronutrients, energy, satiety and overall health benefits of eating "clean" make it daft that you would choose otherwise.

Like Tom said, to preform at a high/elite level you need good quality food, not shit. Sure you can maybe get down to low body fat levels eating "dirty" but along with that can come fatigue, cramping, becoming weaker, less energy in the gym, acne, bloating and poor health/immunity

Atm I would say I get the majority of my calories from nutritious foods with a few dirty meals here and there. Having the base of your nutrition made up of good, unprocessed, whole foods is important. Plus I actually enjoy cooking these days, Its satisfying finding ways to make good quality meals from scratch that taste good too.

[Lunchie]

totally agree with the above, I almost always eat the same number of calories but when it comes from good lean protein and heaps of fruit and veg I find I can push myself way harder at the gym

[sheldoncooper84]

Yeah, I have been searching such a diet for years. But the sad truth, there ain't such. You either have to eat a lot to gain weight or to eat much less to loose it. It is so obvious, it sounds idiot, but I have always tried to cheat that rule. No success...

[Cam0505]

Pretty much already been summed up by previous posts, however one thing that needs to be pointed out is the importance of micronutrients. Not just deficits but excessive amounts can be just as negative. Granted to consume an dangerous excess of the vitamins that can be stored (fat soluble vitamins) on a balanced diet would be quite difficult, however a lot of you probably take a multi-vitamins which amps up intake of common dietary vitamins (just make sure your not getting a MASSIVE excess, esp in Vit D). Also a common probably with some bodybuilders is that they are reliant on a few main sources of each nutrient eg carbs from oatmeal, which seems all well and good but lets say your on 380g of carbs with a 150g from oats. That would result in a 25g+ of fibre, just from oats! add in all the veges etc (which should/need to be in large quantities) and you could have a problem with digestion.

Just saying eat a variety, eat what you enjoy(prevent cravings) and meet your daily requirements without deficits or large excesses.