Do you need to follow a strict diet to bulk?

[medium sized]

Hey guys, i've been trying to simply eat everything that's in sight inside the fridge, but can't seem to put any weight on, not even one pound. I was wondering if i should track and have a diet to help me eat more ??? or to find a way of adding more calories into my present diet??
Thx

[TALO]

Yes u should track your diet....good place to start is here.

Tell us what you r eating and we can go from there.

[mac]

There's a good way and a bad way to bulk. You can eat everything in sight but most of your bulk would be just fat. That's not good. You need to eat good whole foods. Good protein, good carbs, and good fats too. Check out the stickies they can be a good help. All the info you need is there right in front of your eyes. Good luck bro

[medium sized]

well i eat lets say 4 apples, 3 oranges, 1 sandwich, 2 chocolate bars, 1 big bowl of yogurt with granola, oatmeal, bananas and apples mixed in. Chicken breast for supper and then for breakfast, the biggest bowl i can find of select's cranberry cereal. Maybe 1-2 vector bars and yeah that seems to be a normal day for me, i try and eat continually, but its very hard when your not hungry lol. I've been staying exactly at 170lbs so i'm guessing its just enough food for me to cut even.

[Iron]

Originally Posted by medium sized

well i eat lets say 4 apples, 3 oranges, 1 sandwich, 2 chocolate bars, 1 big bowl of yogurt with granola, oatmeal, bananas and apples mixed in. Chicken breast for supper and then for breakfast, the biggest bowl i can find of select's cranberry cereal. Maybe 1-2 vector bars and yeah that seems to be a normal day for me, i try and eat continually, but its very hard when your not hungry lol. I've been staying exactly at 170lbs so i'm guessing its just enough food for me to cut even.

Bottom line here is not enough calories. Fruit is fine and actually desirable from a health stand point but low in calories. An orange about 80 calories; apples even less, maybe 60 calories, banana = 120. Oatmeal, granola, etc. 200-250 at most. Even a chicken breast has no more than 150-200 calories.

Actually you're eating very healthy but not enough calories. I estimate maybe 2500-3000 calories here. I'm assuming you're young so your metabolism is higher anyway and depending on your size and how active you are that may be close to no more than your basal metabolic rate.


Iron

[TALO]

Sure there is lots of calories in fruit (you do eat alot of fruit) but there's alot of sugar(fructose). Chocolate bars have zero nutriental value to them just more sugar.

As I see it you are only getting protein from 1 chicken breast, I think that's like 20g of protein. The yogurt and milk do have protein, but more fat than anything else.

You need to eat more protein and carbs. If you find it hard to eat, well then maybe get some shakes and drink the calories.

Red meat (steak,hamburger) have a lot of protein / fat. Eat that with a potatoe or rice and veg.

Chicken, fish or turkey are very lean, but high in protein. Always have some type of carb with your protein.

Vegtables are good to eat. So is fruit, but you can have too much of one thing and not enough of another.

this might help, you decide.

Originally Posted by 0311

Most publications, studies, and fitness experts talk about Fructose being a carbohydrate that should not be a bodybuilder’s first choice when it comes to a post-workout shake. Why is that?

Lyle M: Well, intensive training depletes liver glycogen quickly because of the hormonal response. That means that, depending on diet, length of your workout, etc. you are entering a systemically catabolic state as you come out of the workout because of the shift in liver metabolism. Correcting that and returning to an anabolic, state is part of overall recovery and growth.

Now, while glucose is the main fuel for muscle glycogen (quite in fact, fructose can't be taken into the muscle cell, there's no transporter), it doesn't do a very good job of replacing liver glycogen. 80% or more of ingested glucose goes straight through the liver, to get to the muscle. Fructose, on the other hand is primarily liver fuel. Now, I know that a lot of people have made an issue of how *excess* fructose converts to triglycerides and this is an issue with massive amounts (which you see in the general public because of too much sucrose and high fructose corn syrup intake). But you don't see problems until you get to like 50-60 grams per day, which is actually quite a bit (an average piece of fruit may have 7 grams of fructose). It's simply a non-issue for most people.

[EricT]

^^^Couple that with this:

Originally Posted by Eric

Jamie Hale: The fear of fruit comes from studies suggesting 50 gms or more of fructose per day can upregulate de novo lipogenesis (fat synthesis in liver), increase blood triglycerides, and induce insulin resistance. Keep in mind fruit generally contains 6-7 gms of fructose. That means it would take a bunch of fruit to get 50 gms of fructose. The high consumption of fructose seen in most studies is generally due to the consumption of high levels of high fructose corn syrup (processing where varying portions of glucose are converted to fructose). Another consideration is fructose causes minimal insulin secretion. Even if fructose consumption was high enough to elevate fat synthesis lack of insulin would probably result in increased fat oxidation. Assuming calorie deficit it probably all evens itself out at the end of the day. Eat fruit - it's nutritious and generally low in calories.

[Dr X]

You should lay out your diet if you want to be successful. You can eat everything in sight but come short on protein and take in two much fat and not even know it.

[medium sized]

ok so if i started taking in more calories, in forms of carbohydrates and lots more protein i "should" be fine?? hey can i ask another question in this thread instead of posting a new one??

[TALO]

you just did....