Perhaps most challenging of all, dirty bulking can be tough to stop once you've started. Ultra-processed foods are engineered to be delicious and easy to consume — and hard to stop once they've become a regular part of your diet.
A dirty bulk can lead to poor health outcomes, both now and (especially) down the road. For instance: if you eat an electrolyte-poor diet, you're asking for low energy, fatigue, muscle cramps, headaches, brain fog, and malaise. And electrolytes are just one class of nutrients.
1> Caloric Surplus for Muscle Growth: To bulk up and build muscle, you generally need to consume more calories than your body burns (a caloric surplus). If you're only consuming low-calorie foods, it might be difficult to achieve a significant surplus without eating large volumes of food, which can be impractical.
Muscle vs. Fat Gain: While a dirty bulk can lead to increased muscle mass, it often results in a higher proportion of fat gain compared to a clean bulk (which focuses on nutrient-dense foods). This can lead to a less favorable body composition.
The general rule is that consuming an excess of at least 2,500 calories per week can help increase lean tissue by one pound of gained mass. This number is derived from several published studies, but it is generalized for the 'average exerciser.
Can I Use the 2,500-Calorie Diet to Gain Muscle? Yes, you can. This is commonly known as bulking – a muscle gaining phase of body building where you intentionally consume more calories than your body needs and work out more through weight training.
A classic bulk usually means aiming to gain about 0.5–1 pound per week. That usually means eating a calorie surplus of 200–400 calories, weighing yourself every week, and adjusting. If you're gaining weight too slowly, add 200 calories.
DIRTY BULK
This is when you eat whatever you want, and as much as you can, to gain weight as fast as possible. Typically this includes a lot of unhealthy junk food. With a dirty bulk, a lot of the weight gained will be from fat, which will not help your situation if you are skinny fat.
“Dirty” Bulking
For people who have trouble gaining weight, a dirty bulk can work wonders. After sometimes years of trying to gain weight on low-calorie foods, many lighter lifters have found that a few Twinkies, French fries, and fast-food burgers are just what they need to get the scale moving.
Processed meats, such as sausages, bacon, and ham, often find their way into our diets, but they are not the best choices for muscle development. These meats are typically high in sodium and saturated fats, which can be counterproductive to our muscle-building goals.
Lean muscle is all about that shredded, sculpted look, while muscle bulk is more about sheer size and power. It's like the difference between a sleek race car and a hulking tank. Both have their advantages, so it all comes down to personal preference.
More challenging: Cutting can be more difficult than bulking since maintaining a low-calorie diet takes more self-control and willpower. Increased hunger: Because you are eating fewer calories when you are cutting, you could feel more hungry. Maintaining your diet and fitness routine may be difficult as a result.
What does “skinny fat” look like? Phenotypically, they look lean and healthy, but when we check them out they have high levels of body fat and inflammation. This ectomorph body build has hidden high levels of body fat. They appear thin and flabby.
Most bulking diets recommend a surplus of 250–500 calories. If your calculator is off by more than that, you won't gain weight.
Many who struggle to gain weight may find dirty bulking attractive because it is easier to gain weight consistently. The portion size of 500 calories of a burger is vastly different from 500 calories of chicken and vegetables. Unfortunately, there are various drawbacks to a dirty bulk.
The recommended ranges for healthy men are between 10-20% body fat, and for women, the ranges are 18-28%. If your body fat exceeds these ranges, but you have a normal weight when you stand on the scale, you may be skinny fat.
Now, for the age-old question: should you do cardio during bulking? The answer is yes, but with a balanced approach. Too much cardio can counteract the calorie surplus you need for muscle growth, making it harder to see progress.
Ejaculation results in changes in prolactin (increase) and dopamine (temporary decrease), but does not result in changes in testosterone. Although prolactin and dopamine are both involved with testosterone, they do not appear to influence testosterone levels acutely.
No, it is not sufficient to build muscles.
We normally recommend gaining 20 pounds over 3–5 months.
While eating a huge amount of food does add up to more calories, for bodybuilders, most of this food turns into muscles as their workout programs are designed to make the most of the extra protein and the carbohydrates in the food help them stay energized throughout their workouts.