Bulking is a phase in a bodybuilder’s, athlete’s, or recreational exerciser’s fitness cycle where they eat more and strength train with heavier weights in a bid to gain more muscle mass. As diet plays a significant role in the success of the bulking phase, ensuring you consume the right foods is essential.
To do this, many people choose to meal prep for bulking, which reduces the stress of what to eat, calorie counting, and ensures that they always have food available to help fuel their workouts and muscle hypertrophy. But how do you come up with the optimal bulking meal prep plan?
Read on for some of the best tips to help you create the best 7-day bulk meal plan for you and your goals.
An efficient 7-day bulking meal plan is one that provides you with all the nutrients and calories that your body needs to fuel your workouts and feed your muscles for increased muscle mass and strength.
Some key points to help you make an efficient 7-day bulking meal prep plan include:
According to recommendations by scientific researchers, you should consume 10% to 20% more calories than normal. For novice and intermediate bodybuilders, this increase in calorie intake should be enough to help you achieve a weight gain of 0.25-0.5% of bodyweight per week (1).
As previously mentioned, the bulking phase is a period to grow your muscle mass and strength. Protein is the building block of muscle, and therefore, this goal cannot be achieved without ample protein. It is often recommended that you opt for a high-protein diet and increase your consumption of this macronutrient to 1.6-2.2 g of protein per kg of body weight per day (1). However, some research has suggested that more than around 1.5 g of protein per kg of body weight is not additionally beneficial. You may need to experiment to find the amount that works best for you, but don’t waste your money by overshooting it (2).
Don’t know how to make high-protein foods? Our article on high-protein meal prep ideas can give you useful tips on how to go about this.
Most bulking meal prep recipes pay attention to protein and tend to forget about carbohydrates, which are just as important for an efficient bulking meal prep plan. As previously mentioned, bulking requires intense exercise. Carbohydrates are the fuel behind such a workout routine.
When you consume carbohydrates, your body turns them into glucose, which is used directly to fuel your everyday bodily functions and activities or stored as glycogen in the muscle and liver for later use, e.g. a workout session (3, 4).
Without enough carbs in your meal prep for muscle gain, you won’t have enough glucose and glycogen to help you lift as heavy as you need to during the workout session. To prevent this, it’s recommended that you consume 3-5 g of healthy complex carbs per kg of body weight per day (1).
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Healthy fats are essential for a good bulking meal plan. The recommended intake is 0.5-1.5 g per kg of bodyweight per day (1), and the best sources include avocados, olive oil, nuts and seeds, eggs, and fatty fish.
As you’re consuming more calories than normal, it can be difficult to fit all your caloric needs into the standard 3 meals a day. To help evenly distribute all the calories you need to consume daily, you can eat up to 6 times a day instead of the usual 3 times. Do whatever works best with your lifestyle and routine.
Read more: Meal Plan for Bulk: Macro Split, Meal Timing, and All You Need to Know
The following table shows a variety of some of the best bulking foods that should be in your fridge/pantry to help you meal prep and plan effectively:
| Lean Animal Protein | Healthy Fats | Plant Protein | Starchy Vegetables | Dark Leafy Greens and Cruciferous Vegetables | Other Non-starchy Vegetables | Fruits | Grains |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Eggs Skinless poultry Lean beef and pork Fish and other seafood Protein powders Greek yogurt Milk Cottage cheese | Fatty fish, e.g. salmon, tuna, mackerel, herring, sardines, trout, and anchovies Avocados Olive oil Nuts and nut butters Seeds, e.g. chia, sunflower, hemp, and flax seeds | Plant-based protein powders All bean varieties Lentils Soy products such as tofu, soy milk, miso, and edamame | Potatoes Sweet potatoes Corn Yams Peas Butternut Cassava Parsnips | Broccoli Spinach Cauliflower Collard greens Brussels sprouts Cabbage Swiss chard Kale | Peppers Green beans Asparagus Eggplant Mushrooms Radishes Tomatoes Zucchini Okra Carrots Cucumber Celery | Apples Papaya Bananas Mangoes Peaches All berry varieties Pineapple Watermelon | Brown/wild rice Oats Quinoa Couscous Whole-grain breads and pasta Buckwheat Amaranth Farro |
Points to note:
Yes, meal prepping is a great and effective plan for bulking. Here’s why:
When you meal prep with your calorie intake in mind, you’re able to plan out all meals in advance to help you hit your macros and required daily calorie intake. This ensures that you’re eating in the required surplus and also removes the hassle of always counting your calorie intake at every meal.
Meal prepping takes time, often hours, on the day that you have to batch cook your meals. However, this saves you time down the line when all you have to do is reheat a meal before going back to doing other things that require your attention.
We’re all human and often crave junk foods. The temptation to order/turn to junk food is even higher when we’re hungry and don’t have readily available food to eat. Having healthy foods readily available will help you stick to a healthy bulk plan, which will save you effort when it comes to the cutting phase of your fitness cycle.
Eating out/ordering in can get rather expensive over time, and when you’re trying to follow a 7-day clean bulk meal plan, the cost can be crippling (healthy foods are always more expensive than junk foods).
Meal prepping and buying your pantry foods in bulk can help you save some money in the long term. Meal prepping ensures that you don’t overspend at restaurants or through delivery.
On the other hand, bulk buying can have a higher initial cost, but the per-unit cost can be less expensive over time. It also reduces your number of visits to the store, which can prevent impulse buying, and if you have to drive or take public transport, it saves on gas money or bus fare. Our previous post goes into great detail about meal prep for muscle gain.
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It can be. Experts recommend consuming all your bulking calories in 3 to 6 meals a day (1). If you can fit all your calories in 4 meals, and it works well for you, then you can stick to that.
Read more: 50 Grams Of Carbs Per Day Meal Plan: What Will It Do To Your Body?
Meal prepping can help you in your goals to gain, lose, or maintain your weight. What matters most is the amount of calories you consume in your meal-prepped meals. If you’re eating in a calorie surplus through the meal prep, then you’ll likely gain weight. If the total intake of the daily meal prep is in a calorie deficit, then you should end up losing weight.
Yes, you can, but it isn’t recommended. Eating a lot of junk food while bulking is known as ‘dirty’ bulking and is preferred by some as it helps them reach the desired weight faster than if they were doing clean bulking, i.e. opting for healthy and nutritious foods.
However, an unfortunate side of dirty bulking is the increased fat in the body. Bulking generally comes with an increased risk of gaining body fat since you’re eating in a calorie surplus. So-called “clean” or healthy bulking helps reduce this risk as the foods you focus on are high in lean protein, fiber, and other important nutrients, which helps you meet all your nutritional needs without gaining excess fat.
Dirty bulking involves consuming junk foods, which, while delicious, lack the necessary nutrients to fuel your body or keep you satiated. This eventually makes you eat too much (and also increases your consumption of unhealthy fats), which can lead to increased fat stores in the body.
It should be noted that when it comes to cutting, those who choose to do dirty bulking and eat junk food may have a much more difficult time trying to lose all the excess fat that could be avoided if they stick to a healthier 7-day clean bulk meal plan.
Yes, it is. Rice is a good source of carbohydrates, which help fuel your workouts. Instead of choosing white rice, opt for brown or wild rice, as they are higher in fiber. Other whole grains, such as farro, bulgur, and quinoa, are also great alternatives if you like to mix it up. Some people say that 3 months (12 weeks) is enough for a bulk, while others say that you can go up to 6 months (24 weeks). As there is no consensus on how long a bulking phase should last, we can’t say if 20 weeks is too long or ideal. Yes, you should, but in moderation. Remember that cardio is beneficial for your health, and it plays a huge role in reducing the risk of type 2 diabetes, some cancers, falls, osteoporotic fractures, and depression. It has also been shown to improve physical and cognitive function, enhance quality of life, and decrease mortality (6). Yes, they are. Eggs provide high-quality protein and other important nutrients, which are essential in a bulking meal plan.Frequently Asked Questions
Is rice good for bulking?
Is a 20-week bulk too long?
Should I do cardio while bulking?
Are eggs good for bulking?
A bulking meal prep plan can be the secret sauce you need to help you reach your desired weight goal healthily. We hope the above tips will help you plan well and pick the right, clean foods to help fuel your intense weightlifting workout sessions. Remember, while dirty bulking may be easier in the moment, it will cause you regret later, so stick to the clean bulking tips mentioned above.
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