How to Bulk Up on a Budget (eat like a King for less than $40/week)

Alternate title: How to Make Massive Muscle Gains Without Spending a Fortune.

So you’re broke but still what to make some gains?

Well my friend, you are in luck.

Today, I will show you how to make incredible gains with a shoestring budget.

There seems to be an idea that all bodybuilding meal plans are expensive. But I’ll prove that is completely false.

Even a broke college student can eat well by spending less than $40 a week on food.

I’ve been there. I wanted to make gains but didn’t have the cash to buy steaks and salmon. Protein powder was an absolute luxury for me.

I lived off of the money I made working in a pizzeria during the summer.

So, I had to stretch my dollars across two semesters. 

That being said, I was able to put on 20+ pounds during college. Most of it muscle mass.

I could have added 20 pounds in a year if I took my bulk more seriously. And it wouldn’t have costed me much money at all.

So, if you’re broke and want to bulk up, here is what you need to do.

How to Bulk Up on a Budget

To get big, you must eat big.

Eating big means you must consume a lot of calories.

You need to eat a lot of protein, carbohydrates and healthy fats.

The goal of this cheap meal plan is to maximize each dollar spent.

The two things that matter most are protein and calories.

You need protein to build muscle and you need a lot of calories for energy and sustainable weight gain.

Everything you eat has a macronutrient (macro) profile. The macro profile shows the amount of the three macronutrients, protein, carbs, and fat, contained within the food.

The most important of the three macros is protein. But all macros must be consumed in large quantities in order to bulk up.

Focus on What’s Most Important

The two most important nutrients are calories and protein.

Your meal plan will make calorie dense and high-protein foods a priority.

There are two rules for this bulking plan to work:

Eat anything in the meal plan in unlimited amounts.

Make sure you maximize your protein intake.

Everyday, you need to eat above your maintenance calories to gain weight. 

Maintenance calories is the amount needed to stay the same weight, given your metabolism and training routine.

In addition to eating above maintenance, you need to get at least 1-1.5 grams of protein per pound of body weight.

I don’t need to write out everything down to a ‘T’ here, but I’ll provide you with concepts for you to use as guidelines to make your own decisions.

This gives you flexibility to succeed your way, depending on your unique circumstances and food preferences.

Just remember:

#1) Get at least 1-1.5 grams of protein per pound of your bodyweight.

#2) Eat as many carbs and healthy fat as you can for energy and easy calories.

#3) Stick to the foods in the list below to stay within budget.

Cheap Bulking Meal Plan Food List

This bulking diet emphasizes protein, clean carbs and healthy fats.

I’ve tried to keep this diet as clean as possible. Since one of my philosophies is health. Not just gains by any means necessary. 

You’ll notice that the best foods you can eat are actually quite cheap.

Compared to dining out or packaged meal, fresh foods are the best for building muscle and stretching your dollars.

Protein Sources

We’ll start with protein since it’s the most import nutrient for building muscle and bulking up.

The best protein sources are animal sources such as:

Beef

Whole eggs

Fish

Chicken

Turkey

You can find Chicken Breast for $1.99 per pound, and ground beef for $2.99 a pound. I’ve had good luck buying in bulk at Costco or Sam’s Club.

Even your local butcher might have a good deal on fresh meat.

Whole Eggs are cheaper than dirt. Eggs are also the best source of protein on planet Earth.

Eggs are 99 cents a dozen. Stock up on eggs. You will be eating a lot of them.

Tuna fish is getting more expensive but you can still find deals at 50 cents a can.

Beans, lentils, and peas are all super cheap sources of protein.

Buy them dry and in bulk you can get each of them for less than $1 per pound.

Keep and eye out for deals on peanut butter. You can find bulk generic brand jars for $1.50-2 if you shop at the right place at the right time.

Whole milk, cottage cheese and yogurt can be pricey. But if you like these foods and find a good deal, get them.

However, dairy foods are inferior to the other foods listed in this section.

Carbohydrate Sources

Rice can be bought very cheap at a bulk food store. Costco and Sams Club sell 50 pounds bags of rice for cheap. Or you can buy 15-pound rice bags from Amazon. Also, for cheap.

Oatmeal is just as cheap as rice. Steel cut oats can be bought in bulk.

Pasta is insanely cheap, and can also be bought in bulk.

The beautiful thing about rice, oats, and pasta is that they last forever. So, as long as you store them properly, you buy them once and they last you a very long time.

Barley is a good source of carbs for bulking. It’s also a wholesome and filling food.

Potatoes are a great source of carbohydrates. They are very easy to cook, versatile and require no clean up in most cases.

Sweet potatoes are the best potato because of their nutrition profile. They are also natures candy. They taste delicious.

Any potatoes are fine if you’re trying to bulk up. Sweet potatoes are the best taste and nutrition wise. But any cheap potatoes are fine as long as you’re getting essential nutrients elsewhere.

That sums up the starchy carb sources. Vegetables are also sources of carbohydrates, just of a leaner variety.

Vegetables like broccoli, kale, cabbage, carrots, spinach, asparagus, and lettuce are important to any diet because of the vitamins and minerals they provide.

Try to work a lot of vegetables into your diet. Eat something green 2-3 times a day.

Fix your salads with olive oil, vinegar and salt (just like they do in Italy). No need to spend money on overpriced, and fattening, soybean oil based dressing.

Healthy Fat Sources

Fat gets a bad wrap, but healthy fat is essential.

Fat from animal meat and eggs is the best for a variety of reasons:

• Fat provides fat-soluble vitamins
• It lubricates joints and covers cells with protective membranes
• Is calories dense and provides a lot of energy
• Helps optimize your hormones, especially testosterone, which is Critically important to heath and adding lean mass

You need healthy fats to provide fat-soluble vitamins and minerals. Without these nutrients you’ll become malnourished and weak.

Eat your fat!

If you eat fresh meats and whole dairy and whole eggs and peanut butter, you will get enough healthy fats.

Real butter and extra virgin olive oil are the best cooking fats.

I always cook my eggs and beef in real butter.

Skip the vegetable oil. It’s poison. Pay a little extra for olive oil. A little goes a long way so it lasts forever.

The Ultra-Cheap Bulking Food List for Bodybuilding on a Budget

Ok, so just to be clear, here’s what you want to eat, in order of importance:

• Beef (85% lean)
• Whole eggs
• Fish
• Chicken and Turkey
• Beans
• Lentils
• Peas
• Rice
• Potatoes
• Pasta and bread
• Assorted green vegetables (fresh leafy greens and others)

Bonus Round! – Spices

Salt, pepper and garlic are all you need to get started. You can get creative with spices as time goes on and as your budget allows.

Or you could always raid your mom’s spice cabinet for a little extra flavor.

Stick to the food items listed above and you can do some serious damage with $40 a week.

The Cheap Bodybuilding Meal Plan

Let’s put it all together and see what a sample bulking meal plan looks like.

This a cheap bulking meal plan I used as a 200-pound man:

Breakfast: 6 whole eggs, 1/2 cup of oatmeal with a big heaping scoop of peanut butter.

Morning snack: two toasted bagels with peanut butter

Lunch: 2 large chicken breasts, bed of rice and green vegetables

Afternoon snack: Two bagels with butter or peanut butter, or 3 hard boiled eggs with olive oil and pepper

Dinner: Roast Beef, rice, green vegetables

Dessert: 3 doughnuts – Boston creme

Bed-time snack: Choose between scrambled eggs with cheese, yogurt, cottage cheese, or a peanut butter protein shake

Eat each meal to fullness, then a eat little more.

Bulking is Simple:

The bigger you want to be, the more you need to eat.

You need to treat your diet like you treat your training.

Never miss a session, and never miss a meal.

Even if you don’t feel like eating. Eat anyway.

I know from personal experience that it’s not always easy to choke down food all the time.

That’s why it’s critical to workout hard and to workout often.

Training hard gives you a crazy appetite.

After a good training session, I eat anything and everything in sight. A massive, workout induced appetite makes even the blandest food taste fantastic.

Remember:

Progress takes time. Consistency over time gets results.

You won’t notice changes every day, but looking back after a month of consistent work and you’ll see a positive change.

Are Supplements Worth it?

Supplements are hit or miss.

Most are a waste of money. But some do actually work.

Either way, supplements are a luxury for the broke college kid, but if you have cash to spare, buy a quality protein powder for extra muscle building potential.

I recommend the following brands, ranked in order of quality, lowest to highest:

• • Optimum Nutrition 100% Whey Protein Isolate
  • BSN SYNTHA-6 Protein Powder
  • Transparent Labs Grass-Fed Whey Protein powder – It’s pricey but a nice luxury from time to time.

You can find cheaper protein at your local pharmacy or grocery store but who knows what you’re really getting.

Liver Tablets

If you can afford liver tablets, they are the best bodybuilding supplement money can buy.

Liver tablets give you energy, endurance and provide protein for recovery.

I take a dozen before training and feel unstoppable.

Bodybuilding Grocery Shopping Tips to Save Money

Take the shopping list I mentioned earlier in this article and add your favorite food items to it.

When you shop, only buy what’s on sale. If you have a list of 40 items, at least 15-25 will be on sale at any given time.

Stock up on items when you see a good deal.

Different grocery stores offer different perks.

A grocery store around me does ‘Double Ad’ Wednesdays. Every Wednesdays you save double on advertised items. 

Shop around, ask around

Buy in Bulk, Order on-line, you can find great deals on can goods and other nonperishable food items.

Ask your family for Costco or Sam’s Club gift cards. $100 at one of these places will get you a month worth of food.

I’ve heard a gift card to one of these places allows you to shop there without a membership. Fact-check before you do this though.

I shouldn’t have to say this but I will – Do not go out to eat. Eating out is expensive and the food is low quality.

Buckle down and commit for a while and your progress will be well worth the sacrifice.

Both your body and your bank account will get bigger.

If you want to get lean then cut out the carbohydrates. Steeply reducing my intake of carbs, especially refined carbohydrates, is how I get shredded fast.  Reducing carbs in your diet means you won’t buy carb based foods either. Meaning you will save even more money on groceries and get leaner in the process.

Don’t let your bodybuilding pursuits drain your bank account. Getting your money right should be a top priority.

Cheap Bulking Snacks

Snack on bagels with peanut butter, Yogurt, Cottage Cheese, and Protein Shakes with Whole Milk.

Go ahead and buy frozen pizza’s if you see them 4/$10. Just concentrate on training hard, building muscle and don’t stress out about a little extra fat. You can always cut fat later.

Egg Drop Soup made with Ramen Noodles is a cheap and tasty snack.

Hard boiled eggs with olive oil and pepper.

Now that you’ve got all the good foods, you need to learn how to cook it. That’s where meal prep is a God send.

You need to eat calories to grow. But the macronutrient profile needs to be right so you don’t get fat.

Go Forth and Bulk

To bulk up you must eat enough of the right stuff to get big and strong.

I realize if you’re a youngin’ you’re probably not flush with cash.

That’s no excuse to waste workouts because you’re not eating properly.

If you’re short on cash and trying to make ends meet while preserving your gains, keep this guide close by.

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