Dirty Bulking How to Bulk The Right Way

When embarking on your goals of muscle mass and strength they can seem insurmountable particularly if you’re a hard-gainer. The key ingredient every naïve newbie misses is proper food consumption.

Think of it as the igniting fuel for muscle growth and daily energy to power through muscle pumping workouts. I myself only stayed true to the training part of fitness for several years – which was the fun part after all – but over time, and after much anguish over the progress I wasn’t making, I began to realize there was something missing.

That something missing was proper diet and nutrition.

Many advised opting for bulking by eating a crap load of calories. But common sense made me steer away from the ill-advised dirty bulking. Afterall calories are calories. Calories become fat. And fat doesn’t turn into muscles.

“Dirty bulking” has steered many greenhorn weightlifters, into unhealthy and outright shitty dietary habits, and thus, needs to be addressed head-on and exterminated from your vocabulary.

Here, I’ll take you on a small journey where we’ll go over-bulking nutrition with the intent to show you proper methods to approach your desired physique.

Dirty Bulking

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MYTH BUSTER: CARBS DON'T MAKE YOU FAT. How carbs REALLY work in less than 1 minute. PS: Sorry I talk really fast to get it all in! ? . 1 – as the carbs you eat are absorbed into your bloodstream, your LIVER has first dibs on the carbs and will uptake them as needed to sustain proper organ function, and keep a steady flow of glucose in your bloodstream. Your liver wants to hold approx. 60-100 grams of carbs. NOTE: when your liver stays full of carbs, your metabolic rate stays HIGH! . 2 – What your liver doesn’t use, it flows into the bloodstream where your muscles uptake as much as they can (approx. 250-400 grams). . 3 – When your muscles fill up, the remaining carbs in the system are THEN converted to trigycerides and stored as bodyfat. . So how to we prevent the muscles from filling up and overspilling? We MOVE! Exercise and continuous movement drains the carbs out of our muscles so that we can eat carbs and they don’t overspill into bodyfat! . That’s why the more you move, the more carbs you can eat, and the less you move, the less carbs you should eat. . Another reason why we love carb cycling. By cycling between high and low carb days, we keep draining the muscles (and liver) on low carb days) then fill them back up on high carb days. It is kinda like an ‘insurance policy’ against overspilling!! . Of course there are other influential factors such as glycemic load and response, insulin sensitivity, etc…but this is a very broad stroke at explaining how it all works! . Hope this helps and keep transforming my friends!! #TRANSFORM #transformwithchrisandheidi @thetransformapp @freshbytransform

A post shared by Chris Powell (@realchrispowell) on Aug 18, 2017 at 2:10pm PDT

The wrong way to put on that size is to indulge in dirty bulking.

The problem is nearly everyone who takes this approach overdoes it and in place of monitoring their food ingestion, they throw all the rules out the window and consume an ungodly number of calories. When they should be taking in a daily surplus of 200-500+ calories per day over what is called your Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE).

I know that on your quest for adding size you’ll run into dim-witted bro-science experts out there at the gyms who will suggest that cramming in as many calories into your body as you can per day will shore up your weight, and in turn, translate into muscle mass.

I’ve come across these so-called advisors myself. This idea is lacking in foresight. Instead of transforming that food into muscle and energy, the overflow of calories begins to be packed away into unsightly stored body fat.

One thing that you’re likely to see is a dirty bulker indulging in over-processed meals like McDonald’s cheeseburgers and pizza just to pack on the pounds. These foods are a staple in dirty bulking and are devoid of essential nutrients, vitamins, and minerals.

The increased body fat bulk that comes from such foods will overlap any lean muscular gains earned at the gym. 

Stuffing excessive bile and garbage down your throat for weeks in the form of calories is extremely detrimental to your health. I want you to avoid it at all costs.

Consequences of Dirty Bulking

Clean bulk vs dirty bulk

A reason to steer clear of this regimen is that once you start it becomes disastrously hard to stop.

Most who start dirty bulking find it exceedingly hard to switch it off either because they like their newfound size, or because they fall in love with gorging themselves on whatever pleases their taste buds. They get stuck in a perpetual state of bulk.

If cutting is an end to your bulking means, then doing it dirty can make that increasingly difficult.

Shedding off a few pounds to get that skintight, ripped look is much easier when lean.

Attempting to cut when sporting a spare Goodyear tire around the midsection becomes an all too debilitating process. The fatter you get the more you produce fat cells.

So, every time you balloon up through bulking it creates a cascading effect that will just make it harder and harder to burn this fat up in the long run.

I’ll tell you that in doing some of my research I’ve found some cautionary facts on the overindulgence of carbs. Carb sources that are simple and deficient of fiber throw blood sugar and insulin levels out of whack. The lack of resistance to insulin can eventually lead to diabetes.

Arterial plaque buildup is another concern that can formulate from both saturated and trans-fats in the putrid junk food you consume with this type of unrestricted diet. All this eventually culminate into cardiovascular and heart problems.

Stored body fat screws with the equilibrium of testosterone in your body converting it into the female hormone of estrogen making you accumulate more fat and causing a reoccurring cycle of fat gain.

Less testosterone leads to less muscle mass.

Dirty Bulking Leads to:

• Slowed metabolism
• Storage of bodyfat in unwanted areas
• Cutting becomes a monumental task because of the excess bodyfat
• The risk of high cholesterol, heart disease, and diabetes increase four-fold

Beware of Bad Advice

Whether it’s from a regular gym goer or a personal trainer, be aware that not all advice is created equal. Dirty bulking will indeed pack on the pounds and this is why so many recommend it.

Coaxing you to participate in this ugly bulking trend often comes from youthful trainers who lack experience. Steer clear of novice trainers who have no real explicit wisdom under their belt to be dealing out such guidance. It’s ignorant and idiotic.

Sure, they may advise dirty bulking to get you to see immediate results – making them look like geniuses – however they won’t consider the long-term side effects on your own personal body.

This is not to paint the picture that all trainers are ignoramuses. No, instead my advice to you is to seek out knowledge from trainers with already outstanding physiques and those of ample age and experience level. Best bet is that they’ll have an abundance of wisdom to share that comes from real-life implementation.

Clean Bulking

Clean bulking is eating more and more of good foods than pounding in empty calories.

Bulking the clean way is an assuredly healthier technique to adding on muscle mass. This diet consists of increasing your TDEE by a more limited surplus of approximately 200 – 500 calories.

If you’re skinny, or a hard-gainer, your intake should be on the higher end of that scale. And the fact of the matter is, most of us are hard-gainers.

Packing on herculean muscle mass in a short amount of time typically only happens to a gifted few. So, we must be smart and outright meticulous about our approach to mass gain.

Your aim should be to walk around feeling like a sleek, turbocharged sports car full of gas and ready to go, instead of lumbering around like a fat, overindulged gorilla at a zoo.

You may look big and intimidating, but how well do you feel and how much energy do you really have? Clean bulking helps keep you energized with that attractive V-taper you desire.

A bulking diet consists of a daily consumption of high amounts of protein and an abundant amount of complex carbohydrates, while still maintaining a measured amount of fats, minerals, and vitamins.

Without specific focus on these building blocks, yes, muscle can be built, but never to its full potential. I know some don’t want to hear this, but building the best gains takes counting calories and mapping out a daily and weekly diet plan to achieve the best results.

A thing to keep in mind is that to gain that desired lean muscle mass, your diet must be tilted in the direction of protein which ensures your food synthesizes into pure muscle and not fat.

How to Bulk The Right Way – Clean Bulking

Eat for size.

Muscle cells are made up of fats and protein and it’s imperative to keep them fed.

For bulking you’d need a constant supply of amino acids. You want a constant state of anabolism. You’d have to eat every three hours, protein, fats and carbs. You need an adequate amount of vitamins and minerals (Animal Pak Multivitamin Review) to keep you well nourished.

For that, you’d have to eat every three hours. How else are you going to keep your muscles fed? Having 1.5-2 grams of protein per pound of body weight is optimal. Fat intake is also very important. I recommend supplementing with fish oil even if you eat fish regularly.

Incorporating essential fats in your diet also promote testosterone levels. Sunflower seeds, almonds, avocados, and peanut butter are just a few quality fat sources.

You’d have to plan your meals. Each meal should have adequate protein (20-40 grams), essential fats, complex carbs. Multigrain bread, oats, quinoa, millets, and potatoes(pre workout) are a good source of carbs.

Vegetables and fruits are a must in your diet! They contain fiber, antioxidants, minerals, and vitamins essential for healthy living.

Here’s how my Bulking Diet looks like:

This is to give a general idea of how my bulking diet looks like. I increase my protein intake significantly while bulking. The meals aren’t fixed, they change day to day, but more or less it looks somewhat same. If your diet is high in protein throwing in a Pizza or ice cream once a week won’t hurt but improve your results.

You have to eat same foods over and over. Bulking with protein is different than bulking by eating junk food.

EAT FOR PURPOSE. NOT FOR PLEASURE.

Being eggetarian I double down my egg intake. Eggs are a superior source of protein and I eat lots of them. Those eggs are straight up gains. Drink muscle building protein shake with nuts between the meals.

Muscles won’t grow if you don’t provide the right stimulus. So, don’t pack on the calories with half-assed training.

• Lift heavy
• Learn to engage your muscles
• Feel the load and
• Get stronger

Eating a shitload of food is not easy, you will have to cram yourself with foods. You have to eat foods that aren’t sugary, foods that aren’t spicy, foods that your taste buds might not like much.

But when you know it’s good for your mind, muscle, and gut. You stop making excuses and you get things done.

When should you bulk?

Let me get this straight, you can’t bulk for great lengths of time. So, whoever says bulk for 16-20 weeks probably doesn’t know shit about it. You have to get the most when your will power is the strongest and you can stuff yourself with food every few hours.

I think 5-6 weeks is adequate enough to get visible results. Even better if you can do it for 8 weeks. Then you can opt for a two-week break and start again. Taking break helps by not letting your body adapt.

Everyone wants to put on sculpted muscle, and even though high food intake is the best way to supplement those gains, it’s most appropriate to take it at a gradual pace.

First you increase the frequency of your meals, then you increase the volume/proportion of each meal.

Get those gains!