Bulking: Clean Diet?

[jah7_fsu1]

His post as a whole is horrible advice.

[skunkworks]

Jesus. What the [censored] happened here.

A ribeye, a 6-pack of beer, and a pizza is definitely better than a salad, chicken breast, and water for bulking if someone's having problems putting on weight. To say that as a whole it's horrible advice is silly.

[jah7_fsu1]

Ok, you guys are talking about putting on weight. I'm talking about putting on muscle. If you want to get fat it's a great way. If you want to gain weight it's great. If you want to put on solid muscle mass it's a poor way. I don't know of a ton of guys trying to gain pure fat, but this will do it. See my first post for the right way to "bulk." You will NOT put on muscle with simply more calories, it has been scientifically proven you have a protein synsthesis threshold. Eating calories does not make you gain muscle.

I've always defined bulking as gaining muscle mass...not as gaining fat mass.

Edit: Alcohol alone does horrible things for muscle building including decreasing testosterone and many others. I wrote a paper a year ago on ethanol and bodybuilding.

[skunkworks]

jah7, maybe you've never worked with the types of people that have major problems gaining any sort of mass, but there are plenty of high school kids who complain about not being able to put on weight and they eat like birds. To those people, I recommend they just go ahead and eat anything they can get their hands on, to a reasonable degree. Jugs of whole milk, lots of ground beef (Hamburger Helper, holla), pizza, PB&J sandwiches by the boatload, etc.

[jah7_fsu1]

High school kids are going to need more calories due to faster metabolisms and usually more active lifestyles. While I agree a diet can be "relaxed" when trying to add muscle mass simply saying to pig out for the majority people is bad advice. Most of the high school athletes I've worked with I try to add quality mass to so it's functional (of use) and not a bunch of fat. It is easy to get in enough calories without consuming crap all day long, and a much better way to add quality mass. While I don't reccommend chicken breasts and the like all the time, healthy food should be the norm and soda, alcohol, fried foods, etc, like Thremp reccommends should be used in limited quantities even on a bulk.

[jah7_fsu1]

Also skunk follow your own advice. You said you had poor results on a dirty bulk and many of my clients have as well. For almost everyone, eating basically whatever you want just plain doesn't work and no one is ever satisfied with the results. My advice when I was younger was to "just eat baby" and after many failed attempts, I came up with the advice I reccommend above. It's not that easy unfortuanetly, and even training high school athletes I reccommened restrictions on crap food.

[Thremp]

jah7,

What is a dirty bulk? What is a clean bulk? Are you saying you can put on pure LBM? Cause that is pretty much false, except in absurd circumstances (Juice etc). I'm simply saying if you are having trouble gaining weight and are eating by this commonly considered notion of "clean" start dropping some voluminous foods and adding denser foods to your diet.

Alcohol is not good for you, but a couple drinks a day isn't going to kill you and if you enjoy it and are bulking and it fits within your caloric requirements, it is more than acceptable. Drinking 17 beers and being hungover for days is not.

[jah7_fsu1]

I wouldn't call clean eating over-rated. I would say a clean bulk is where the majority of your calories are coming from "good" foods. I never said you can put on "just muscle." However the idea that you can put on more muscle just by consuming more calories is false and the answer to gaining more muscle isn't as easy as just get calories.

It is very easy to get a lot of good calories in your diet if you know how to eat, if you aren't getting enough calories in your diet I certainly wouldn't look towards beer or pizza first.

I never advocated eating clean all the time during a bulk (which I don't like the terms bulk or cut particularly but that's a different discussion), or during a fat loss period. Hell I just got done eating pizza and drinking beer last night and I'm trying to drop a bit of fat.

Alcohol is acceptable? Hell anything is acceptable, I've trained people who smoked three packs of cigs a day and we're in otherwise great shape. I'm simply saying it isn't OPTIMAL. The way you describe to bulk up, then lose fat is certainly doable...but it is by no means optimal. Ethanol results in significant decreases in testosterone, growth hormone levels, and inhibits protein synthesis. Obviously these are not good for adding lean body mass....so I wouldn't reccommend alcohol to someone trying to add lean body mass quickly. Nothing in moderation diet wise is horrible, but I think you will generally see swifter gains in LBM if you keep it clean the majority of the time and don't make beer, pizza, etc staples of your bulk.

FWIW I dislike bulk because I think it's a misnomer that makes people think they can do what they want diet wise just like cut makes people go to crazy and lose their LBM. Part of the terminology sometimes is the problems in the world of fitness.

[Thremp]

jah7,

So whats your point? Cause you aren't really making one.

[jah7_fsu1]

The point is I think you have some really bad suggestions in your OP. My first post with A, B, C summed up how I feel about bulking and cleared up some general myths. Then I answered your questions.