Bulk Up: 10 Foods That Will Help You Gain Clean Muscle

1. Steak

Packed with protein, fat and the amino acid creatine (which many bodybuilders take in supplement form) steak is pretty much the best muscle-building food there is. It should be at the top of your shopping list.

Don’t limit yourself to beef though – pork, lamb, veal and even venison, buffalo and elk steaks are all good additions.

2. Whole Eggs

Only skinny guys throw away the yolks. When bulking, you need all those calories the yolk brings. It is true that the yolk contains all the fat and cholesterol, but you need both of these to grow big and strong.

Plus, the yolk also contains all the vitamin A, D and E – essential for optimal health.

Eggs are the ideal breakfast, whether you scramble, poach, boil, or fry them. Just don’t go the Rocky route of drinking them straight from the glass – you digest the protein better when the egg is cooked.

3. Salmon

Much like the first two foods, salmon contains both protein and fat. The other benefit salmon has is the essential fatty acids, known as omega 3.

These are an anti inflammatory fat, so help repair damaged muscle cells and tissue after training. They also regulate your fat burning genes, and manage your insulin sensitivity, meaning you use carbohydrates better, putting them more towards muscle growth and repair rather than storing them as fat.

Salmon (along with other oily fish like mackerel, kippers and trout) is a much better choice than tuna, cod or tilapia, due to its higher calorie content.

4. Chicken Breast

Despite the benefits of fattier proteins, sometimes you want a lean meat.

Chicken breast is versatile, relatively cheap and a great way to get protein into your diet. Have chicken breast when you’re also having a different fat source such as avocado, cheese or olive oil in a meal.

5. Rice

Carbs are your friend when bulking, and they don’t come much 'carbier' than rice. It cooks quickly, is inexpensive and goes with anything. Try brown, white, wild, basmati or jasmine rice. There’s very little between them, so choose your favorite.

6. Green Vegetables

Popeye lived off spinach, and look at the guy’s forearms! Do you need any more reasons to eat your veggies?

In all seriousness, vegetables are a really important part of any clean muscle diet. All too often, bodybuilders and strength athletes overlook vegetables as they focus more on protein, carb and fat-based foods, all of which contain more calories.

Veggies help keep you healthy though, with their high concentration of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. If you’re healthy you can train harder, get ill much less often and generally feel and perform better.

Be liberal with broccoli, asparagus, peppers, the aforementioned spinach, kale, zucchini and non-green stuff too. Mushrooms, onions, cauliflower, eggplant and tomatoes are all great choices.

7. Fruit

Fruit is synonymous with dieters, but it’s probably better suited to muscle-gaining guys and girls.

Many fruits are surprisingly high in calories (mainly from sugar) but calories are the building blocks of mass. Low-carb fruits like berries and grapefruit work well for dieters, but when gaining muscle, look to bananas, dried fruit, apples, pineapple and mango.

8. Oatmeal

Like rice, oatmeal is a great carb source. But rice can be a little hard to stomach at breakfast time, so go with oats instead.

9. Almonds

Any nut could have made the list, but almonds take the space due to their higher fiber content.

10. Peanut Butter

Need an easy way to get in more calories?

Make friends with Mr. peanut butter jar and Mr. spoon.

Top 10 Considerations

So what made these foods “the best” for building clean muscle and bulking up?

In truth, these foods are no better than any others, and a whole host could have made the list. In fact, I struggled deciding what to cut out.

What most of the final list have in common though (vegetables aside) is that they’re high in calories.

“Calories” tends to be a bit of an evil word in the health, fitness and nutrition industry, and we’re constantly being told to cut them, given advice on low-calorie foods, or seeing warnings about how eating too many can be detrimental.

This is true to an extent, but when it comes to bulking up and gaining muscle and strength, you need calories.

Think of Calories as Fuel

And think of your body and muscle cells as an engine. In order for them to run optimally, they need fuel.

Every time you hit the weights, you create tiny microtears in your muscle tissue. For these to repair and build back up bigger and stronger, your body requires an adequate calorie intake. Without enough calories, you simply won’t recover from workouts and will make no gains whatsoever.

The Calorie Conundrum

This is where you can look at the bigger picture. These foods may be high in calories, along with muscle building protein, energy providing carbs, healthy fats and disease fighting antioxidants, but as individual foods they are redundant.

It doesn’t matter if you start eating steak every day if you’re still only consuming 1,000 calories, or you add veggies to every meal, yet don’t get enough protein to sustain a hamster. You simply won’t bulk up.

To build muscle, you need a surplus of calories. To work out roughly how many you need, multiply your body weight in pounds by 20. So if you weight 160 pounds, you need around 3,200 calories each day to bulk.

Aim to hit this number (or even slightly over) every day without fail. The top 10 foods will help you do this, and they should form the foundation of your diet plan, but don’t be afraid to include your own too.

As a guide, try this plan, tweaking the portions to suit your daily calorie target –

Breakfast – Scrambled eggs cooked in coconut oil with two different veggies, a bowl of oats and a piece of fruit.

Lunch – Large mixed salad with salmon, a sweet potato and a handful of almonds.

Post-Workout – Chicken breast with a baked potato, and rice cakes with jam.

Dinner – Steak, mixed veggies, brown or white rice and peanut butter on oatcakes for dessert.