My Bulking Diet
As most of you know, Round 4 for me was about BULKING UP!! I was not wanting to get fat though! I wanted to add about 8 – 9 lbs of lean muscle mass over a 90 day period, and I was willing accept a small increase in body fat to help me get there. When I started my bulking round, I was 208 lbs, with 6% body fat. After 60 days, I was 217 lbs with 7.5% body fat. So it worked! I had to cut the round short due to a filming conflict with P90X2 (wanted to look cut for that so I stopped bulking). But the principles of the bulking diet I used definitely worked, and can be used as a template for anyone else looking to add mass the smart, clean way.
I am attaching my Round 4 Diet, and you’ll notice some changes.
First, my calorie target varies from day to day. I had the following calorie targets:
- Lift days (3x per week) = 3,500 calories
- Cardio days (2x per week) = 3,300 calories
- Recovery/Rest days (2 x per week) = 3,000 calories
This will allow me to fully fuel myself for muscle growth on the lift days, but not overdo it with unneccesary calories on the light days (like the rest day, the yoga day, and the ab only days). With this diet, I expected to be able to add about 1 lb per week. You will have to find the level of calorie surplus to run to enable yourself to gain 1 lb per week (it could be more or less than what worked for me).
Second, I am using a spreadsheet (I’m attaching them so you can use them or modify them for yourself if you like them). I did a spreadsheet this time so that I could simply check off the box as I eat each item each day. I still think My Fitness Pal is an AWESOME app and very useful, and I still use it if I am eating out or if I have a weekend where the diet will vary a bit. But since I planned on eating nearly the same thing every day, and I’m a creature of habit, this worked well for me as well.
Third, I am shooting for a “range” rather than a specific %, so this gives me a little freedom for substitutions. My protein goal is 30-35%, carbs 50-55%, and fat 15-20% on any given day.
Download my Round 4 Spreadsheets here (Excel):
Download my Round 4 Spreadsheets here (PDF):
round-4-diet-cardio-days Sheet1
round-4-diet-recovery-days Sheet1
* You’ll notice there aren’t big differences in these daily diets. The daily meals and snacks are mostly the same. The key differences are:
Lift Days = I used the pre-workout Nano Vapor (because it has some extra sugar to give me some fast absorbing calories and carbs pre-workout). This adds 210 calories to the daily calorie total. If you don’t want to get a separate PWO, then just consider adding some extra calories in the form of a carb food item before your workout (oatmeal, fruit, etc.).
Cardio Days = Just like lift days except that I used 1 MR for my preworkout, which will cut 200 calories off the daily calorie total.
Recovery Days = I skipped the preworkout and the Results/Recovery formula. However, to get enough morning calories, I CHOOSE 3 (instead of just 2) from my breakfast choices. I will also cut some calories from my afternoon and evening by deleting the afternoon snack of Almonds and the evening Yogurt snack.
Explanation of some of the terms on my Diet Checklist:
Reeses Shakeology = This is my Shakeology, using 1 scoop Shakeology, 1 tablespoon natural peanut butter, and 1 scoop of protein powder.
Choose 2 = I can pick any 2 from that list of 4 items. They will change my % slightly, but still within the range I’m shooting for on any given day. These items are all about 100 calories each. (On recovery days, I can choose 3).
Homemade Bread = My wife makes homemade wheat bread which comes out to 100 calories the way we slice it. If you use standard wheat bread, you can do 2 slices (since standard wheat bread is about 50 cals per slice)
PB = natural peanut butter (I get Smuckers brand from Walmart — the only ingredients are peanuts and salt)
Yogurt = I use both Athenos Greek Yogurt (100 cals/ 11 p / 14 c / 0 f) and Dannon Greek Yogurt (120 cals / 12 p / 17 c / 0 f). These are available at Walmart.
Jerky = I use Jack Links Turkey Jerky from Walmart
Cheerios / H2H = For this snack, I use 1 cup of Cheerios and 3/4 cup of Kashi Heart 2 Heart cinamon O’s (mixed together for variety and flavor)
Carrots (20) = This is 20 count of baby carrots
String Cheese = I use Crystal Farms Light String cheese, 50 cals per stick / 7 p / 1 c / 2.5 f
Almonds = I use plain almonds with sea salt (not the kind cooked in oil). I use 1 serving, which is 24 nuts / 160 cals / 6 p / 6 c / 14 f. I split it into a morning snack of 8 nuts and an afternoon snack of 16 nuts (to spread out my healthy fats throughout the day).
P90X Bar = I use the Chocolate, which has 260 cals / 20 p / 31 c / 8 f
Cheerios / GoLean = For this snack, I use 1 cup Cheerios and 1 cup Kashi GoLean (mixed together for variety and flavor)
Dinner items can vary between Chicken, Salmon, Turkey, etc. I will shoot for about 8 oz of lean meat at dinner. The veggies can vary (green beans, broccoli, salad, etc.). I will shoot for about 140 calories of veggies (which is quite a large serving). The rice / beans can vary (brown rice, black beans, pinto beans, etc.). I don’t usually have both rice and beans, but whichever it is, I will shoot for about 1 serving (170 calories).
My supplement schedule for Round 4:
- Pre-workout = 1MR on cardio days, and NanoVapor on lift days (NanoVapor has a lot of calories in it so I don’t want to use it every day, but the pump and strength it gives me is unreal so I just have to use it on those important lift days!)
- Post-workout = Res/Rec with 3 g extra creatine mixed in
- Breakfast = Vit B, Vit C, and Vit D
- Dinner = Multivitamin, Fish/Flaxseed Oil, and Glucosamine/Chondroitin (since I’m old and arthritic LOL!)
- Late = 5 g creatine mixed with whey protein
218 Responses to “My Bulking Diet”
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I’m about to start P90X tomorrow, and I,m planning on sticking to the fat shreader diet seeing that I gained 40 pounds from previous 100 I had lost before… I have been looking to your videos for motivation!!! I have seen so many success stories, and itakes me want to be one of the stories also… I plan on being a success story for my kids also… Heck, I’m even going to have me 17 year old workout with me! ill send pics in a few months!!!! I promise! !!
Awesome Roland!! Bring it!
Coach Wayne,
Thanks to you and Teamripped, I’m now at 5% BF, as I could not believe it. At 159lbs 5’10″, was taking about 1700 or so on the fat shredder and now upped it to about 2900 on the 40/40/20. I have planned out “guideline” meals for the next phase and made all the proper calculations to hit that target. My questions are pros/cons of the 40/40/20 vs endurance maximizer to build muscle. I’ve read “dialing it in” numerous times, but going from 50% protein, to 20%-30% is a big jump. Just your thoughts, as I want to keep my bf% down.
thanks,
Rafael
Hey Rafael, you’ll eventually want to end up at the endurance maximizer % to maximize muscle building, but don’t go straight to it. I love your plan to go 2900 at the balanced %. You may find that you do great there, but you may find after 3-4 weeks that the BF is still super low and you are ready to start inching up the carbs.
Thanks coach!
I love eating like a “healthy” pig now, but the increase of carbs and calories is somewhat of a shock to my body and want to make sure I’m doing things right.
Thanks again!
hey coach, im going into my recovery week during my bulking round, i have been doing great eating 2800 cals a day and im wondering if i should keep it there through the recovery week? thanks
Yes Travis, don’t change the diet on recovery weeks. Keep it the same as the high intensity weeks. The body will use the fuel for recovery.
Coach,
I started trying to add a bit of weight on my last month of this hybrid. I am up to 2700 calories a day and it seems like I am still losing weight. At least that’s what my scale said this morning. But I guess it varies. I usually only weight in on Sundays.
Anyhow, I am having a hardtime eating all these foods. I mean even 2700 cal is a lot. How did you manage to do that? I have been eating late too. About 8:30-9p for dinner.
I am thinking I have to cut the times in between meals to accommodate for that much food.
Hey Marlon, after doing a deficit for a while, it will feel like a lot of food. Just plan ahead so that you eat the right # of cals each meal and snack (so you don’t end up at the end of the day short on cals).
I guess it makes sense. Who would have thought that eating a lot could be hard? LOL.
Hey Coach Wayne,
Im thinking about doing a bulking phase in my next round of p90x. I’m about 5’8” 140lbs and about 4.5% body fat. If I’m looking to gain about a pound of muscle a week as you did in round 4, does that mean I should just run a calorie surplus of 500 cals per day depending on my calculations of what I burn?
Yes Rusty, that is exactly what you should do.
Hey Wayne,
I’m currently in my second round of X2, this time aiming for bulking. I’m 28, 5’8″ at 142lbs with around 8% bf. I’m currently taking in 2800 cals +/- 50ish a day on a 55/25/20 (carb/protein/fat) ratio. Does this sound reasonable to help bulk?
How about trimming out the excess fat near the end? I’m not doing the typical X2 program; rather using a modified routine (2 weeks Foundation, 8 weeks Strength, alternating the VSculpt and Chest/Shoulder/Tri every two weeks, and then finish it out with PAP). Would it be reasonable to drop the calorie intake down to around 2200 and to into a 40/40/20 ratio?
Thanks!
Hey Matt. Yeah that sounds reasonable, but you’ll have to adjust depending on how fast you gain weight. You want to gain about 1 lb per week.
If you want to do some semi-cutting near the end, the 2200 might not be low enough for your size (you might need to go about 1800 to cut at the end).
Coach,
Thanks to your advice I have achieved my goal of getting rid of the fat on my abdominal area; now it’s time to bulk up. I read your articles about how to eat, percentages and lifting more weight while reducing cardio workouts. My problem is that I travel every week so the bands are the only option I have for resistance. You well know that bands, although can provide great resistance, it is only one way. Do you think that I will be able to gain muscle working with only the bands? What would you suggest for my case?
Nice Mario! Way to go. That’s not easy to do. It was YOUR hard work that made it happen.
Honestly, bands make it harder to gain mass, but not impossible. You can do it. Just be sure your bands have a lot of resistance, and push yourself (wider stretch of your feet to make it harder, etc.) so that you really have to strain to get the reps.
You’ve reached your goal of getting ripped. I have no doubt you’ll make this happen too!
CW2,
Trying to gain a little size here. I’ve been tested and my BMR is 1,806 cals. I was at 1800-2000 during X2 and lost around 8 lbs, so it’s accurate. This round of P90X, I upped to 2,8k – 2,6k – 2,2k repectively like your schedule. I’ve been clean and logging, hoping to gain around .7-1.0 lb per week. After 2 weeks, I’m up 5 LB. Crazy. Wondering if I should cut back on the cals or adjust my ratio’s to slow it down? I’ve been at 45C/40P/15F.
Hey Tyler, glad you are bulking, but that might be a bit much (unless it’s water gain, food gain, etc.). Track your body fat as well so you know how your body fat % is doing. If you are gaining body fat, then back it down a bit. Otherwise, stick with what you are doing and I bet you won’t continue to gain that fast (in other words, the gain could be artificial due to the diet change and not be a true gain of 5 lbs of real body weight already).