Part 1 – What to eat?

Part 2 – How much to eat?

Part 3 – When to eat?

Part 4 – Simple Take Aways & Tricks of the Trade

Lets begin with the “what to eat” as it is the most natural place to start. First, I don’t like to break my eating into clean and dirty. It reminds me of right and wrong and I prefer the right way to do something. Personally, I never really could comprehend the mass consumption of anything and everything protocol. It just seemed like an excuse for being lazy and eating crap food. If you follow the recommendations laid out here you should not have a problem eating quality foods and adding the necessary bulk.

Protein is a vital part of the diet and will up the focal point of many meals. You ever heard someone invite you over for a salad with a side of steak?

Our proteins sources come from animals, and we have a simple way to classify which of them we should include in our diet.

“If it runs, swims or flies it is good to eat. If it has a mother, a face or soul then it is on the shopping list.”

This includes meat, fish, fowl, seafood, eggs and dairy.

We always recommend these foods come from grass-fed, cage-free, wild caught sources. Not only is it healthier for you the consumer, but also healthier for the planet.

Eggs have been taboo for too long and as a result many have missed out on this muscle builder. If you have some form of autoimmune issues, then I would limit and avoid eggs as they can exasperate the condition. However, if you are healthy and training hard, fire up the stove and lets make my favorite recipe for cooking a dozen egg omelette; which I will share at the end of this write up.

Dairy needs to be separated into two parts: fresh and fermented. Fresh dairy refers to milk. And when I refer to milk, I mean whole full fat milk. Milk is fascinating as it is the sustenance a mother mammal feeds a baby mammal in the first period of its life. It just so happens we are the only mammals that consume the milk of another mammal. Plus we have selected to drink the milk of a mammal that is born at ~150 lbs and grow to over a 1000 lbs in 3 years.

Just for reference humans are the slowest growing mammals on the planet. And the fastest growing mammal on the planet...the blue whale.

So we have selected to drink the sustenance that helps a young mammal grow big and strong. From a larger, robust, stronger mammal with a faster growth cycle. The combination of lactose, protein and fat is a powerful cocktail for growth.

Will drinking whole milk help you grow big and strong?

Yes.

Fermented dairy refers to cheese, yogurt, kefir, Greek yogurt, sour cream and buttermilk. The fermentation process blunts the lactose and individuals who consume fermented dairy will not have the same insulin response as when drinking fresh dairy. Basically, getting the calories, protein and

fat minus the big insulin spike. Another plus for fermented dairy is they contain probiotics that increase gut health.

Will eating full fat Greek yogurt and cheese help you grow big and strong.

Yes.

The carbohydrate is the misunderstood bastard child in this relationship. With the influx of low carbohydrate diets we have lost sight of consuming carbohydrates. While I do not eat a carb heavy diet by American standards, I do eat a decent amount of carbs as training hard will demand it.

The bulk of the carbohydrates recommended here are coming from roots, tubers, vegetables and fruit. Roots and tubers include carrots, radish, yucca, yams, sweet potato, turnips, garlic, onion and shallots and any exotic you can find at your local market. We are looking for starchy and fibrous carb sources to make up the bulk of our carbs.

What about rice and oats as a source of carbohydrates? I can recommend gluten-free steel cut oats and simple white rice cooked in a rice steamer, as long as they are tolerated. If you find you can not consume these foods without stomach or digestive issues, then I would steer clear. Personally, for a long time I had problems with oats. It was not until I did some research and found many types of oats have gluten. Subsequently, I have not had issues with gluten-free steel cut oats. Simple white rice cooked in a rice steamer was the bulk of my diet growing up, during college and many years in the NFL. I have never had issues with white rice and will consume it on occasion. Once again, if you can tolerate it, then it is not a problem for hard training athletes.

Leaving the best for last, I introduce you to my good friend, fat. The worse thing to happen to fat was someone confused the fat on their waist with the fat on their plate. We need fat in our diet for a few reasons; first it allows us to stay satiated longer, as fat takes longer to digest. Second, we need saturated fat for a healthy androgen profile. Third, we can consume more calories per ounce from fat than any other macronutrient. And if the name of the game is calories consumption, then fat is our best friend as fat makes up 9 calories per gram compared to 4 calories for carbohydrates and protein.

Which type of fats should I consume?

You will get your fats from saturated and monounsaturated fat sources. This includes coconut, palm, butter, ghee, lard, tallow and animal fasts for saturated fats. The mono-unsaturated fats coming from avocado, olives, macadamia, almonds, pecans and any oil made from these mono-unsaturated sources.

This concludes the first part of the Bulking Protocol, stay tuned for the second installment.

And as promised...

Dozen Egg Omelette Ingredients:

2 tablespoons olive oil2 tablespoons pasture butter1/2 pound of sweet potatoes, cut into small pieces12 whole eggs1/2 large white onion2 green onion, choppedsalt & pepper to taste

Directions:

In a large frying pan or skillet, heat olive oil & butter over medium-high heat. Sprinkle potatoes lightly with salt and pepper. (If you are in rush it is best to cook the potato in the oven for about 15 minutes before hand. This will reduce your cooking time and get the meal on the table faster.) Cook

until brown and crisp.

Once the potatoes are soft and looking good, stir in the onions. Cook, stirring occasionally, until onions soften and begin to brown.

Meanwhile in a separate bowl, beat eggs together. Add salt and pepper to your taste. Then pour eggs into pan and stir gently to combine. Remember you are going to need large pan for this. Reduce heat to low and cook until eggs begin to brown on the bottom.

Loosen bottom of omelet with a spatula, invert a large plate over the pan, and carefully turn the omelet out onto it. Slide the beast back into the pan with the uncooked side down. Cook until eggs are to your liking. Add some cheese on top and serve.

Battling a 12 egg omelette is no joke. It will take practice and determination.

However, the Harris-Benedict equation will give us a moderately accurate number for the purposes of this blog post.

Male: 66.5 + (13.75 x W) + (5.003 x H) – (6.775 x A) = BMRFemale: 655 + (4.35 x W) + (4.7 x H) – (4.7 x A) = BMR

W = actual weight in kg (weight in lb/2.2 = kg)H = height in cm (height in inches x 2.54 cm/in)A = age in years

Lets examine our test subject Nate A.

Nate A.6’2”220 lbs

28 years old

66.5 + (13.75 x 100) + (5.003 x 187.96) – (6.775 x 28) = 2192 cals

Based on this, Nate’s BMR is 2192 calories a day. This is the minimum energy requirement for Nate to sustain his body’s function while awake. Personally, I find this number to be low. In my experience, most hard charging athletes have a metabolism more akin to a furnace and require 11-12 calories per lbs of body weight sustained function. My BMR was as high as 14 calories and the test I took last month had me at 12.8 calories. Also remember, this does not take into account his activities during the day. If an athlete is lifting weights, sprinting and conditioning he will need a lot more calories.

Therefore, for Nate to bulk up he is going to need to consume between 3750-4000 calories a day. This number can increase or decrease based on individual results, but this is a good place to start for most athletes.

A problem I find happening all too often is athletes becoming obsessed with daily calories. One day they under-eat, then feel they have to over-eat to make up for the deficit. So, I found an easy way to alleviate this problem by counting the calories in a weeklong block instead of day to day.

Nate will need to consume 26,520 and 28,000 calories over the course of 7 days for his bulking. Now the division of calories and macronutrients becomes even more important when our goal is to increase the scale weight and muscle and not add globs of body fat.

The calories and macronutrients are broken into heavy training days and light training days.

I learned this trick from Dr. Mauro Di Pasquale when following the anabolic diet. The anabolic diet asks an athlete to eat a ketogenic diet (no carbs) Monday through Friday, then consume massive amounts of carbohydrates during the weekend. While the effects can be beneficial for body composition, they are not always advantageous during training. My heaviest days of training were Monday through Friday and I found myself hitting the wall while training on no carbs.

The tweak I learned was to use carbohydrates as fuel and consume them on my heavy training days, then go back to a modified keto approach on lighter days. This was my first experience with carbohydrate/caloric cycling.

Nate trains 5 days a week. He lifts weights, sprints and conditions on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. His lighter days of Wednesday and Sunday he walks and moves around as a recovery tool. Saturday is his big conditioning and movement day but we will keep the carbs low on this day.

Nate would match up Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday as his heavy training days and Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday as his lighter days.

Heavy training days called for the Diet of Thirds. This is where Nate will cut his macronutrients in thirds or 33%/33%/33%.

This means he will cut his 4000 calories into 33% protein, 33% carbohydrates and 33% fat. The number wont come out exactly right; so just make up for the extra by dumping the surplus into carbohydrates.

4000 cals x .33 = 1320 calories1320 / Protein (4 calories) = 330 grams of protein1360 / Carbohydrates (4 calories = 340 grams of carbohydrates1320 / Fat (9 calories) = 146 grams of fat

Nate will need to consume 330 grams of protein, 340 grams of carbs and 146 grams of fat on his heavy training days.

On his lighter training days, Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday, Nate will need to switch up his macronutrients by dumping the carbs down to 10% of his total caloric intake, or 100 grams, and up his fat to make up the calories.

1320 calories / Protein (4 calories) = 330 grams of protein400 calories / Carbohydrates (4 calories) = 100 grams of carbohydrates2280 calories / Fat (9 calories) = 252 grams of fat

On the off days, Nate will need to consume 330 grams of protein, 100 grams of carbohydrates and 252 grams of fat.

This should keep you busy for a few days and get you headed in the right direction. Stay tuned for the third and fourth installment of the bulking protocol where we discuss meal timing and tools for success.