Dirty Bulking, a.k.a. How to gain size without compromise. In this article I will show you how to gain weight quickly with dirty bulking. You will learn exactly what to eat and how to workout in order to bulk up as fast as humanly possible.

There are two ways to bulk up. You can either ‘clean bulk‘, or you can ‘dirty bulk.’

This article teaches you everything there is to know about dirty bulking.

Affiliate Disclosure: I may receive a small commission if you click a product/service link and make a purchase.

What is Dirty Bulking?

Dirty bulking is a method of maximizing muscle mass by eating as much food as possible.

Dirty bulking allows you to eat anything and everything your heart desires.

There are no dietary rules or restrictions. Every day is a race to consume as many calories as possible. The source of the calories is irrelevant. The sole objective of a dirty bulk is to put on as much muscular weight as possible, and that requires serious eating.

Just because you can eat anything you want doesn’t mean you should only eat ice cream and Twinkies.

You a minimum baseline of nutrition. That is 1.5 grams of protein per pound of bodyweight everyday. And you should be getting enough vitamins and minerals from a variety of food sources. The nutrient profile of your foods should provide adequate nutrients.

Protein is required to ensure muscle growth. Vitamins and minerals keep your body healthy and strong by ensuring it functions properly. The flood of excess calories provide a surplus of building material for bulking up. Your strength will skyrocket when consuming massive amounts of calories.

So, if you like stuffing your face with burgers and pizza you’re in luck.

That is, of course, if dirty bulking is right for you.

Should You Clean Bulk or Dirty Bulk?

Dirty bulking isn’t for everyone.

If you’re already a hefty guy, dirty bulking is not for you. It will only make you fat.

But, if you’re a skinny guy trying to gain weight, dirty bulking is a good way to do it.

If you’ve struggled to gain weight before then you need to try dirty bulking.

Dirty Bulking is Ideal for Hardgainers

Dirty bulking is perfect for hardgainers.

How do you know if you’re a hardgainer?

You’re a hardgainer if it’s hard for you to gain weight. Hard. Gainer.

Hardgainers are typically young, physically active, and have a fast metabolism.

Young guys hitting the weights will burn through calories like they’re nothing.

That is why it’s CRITICAL to become an EATING MACHINE when trying to bulk up.

I don’t recommend dirty bulking for anyone other than young hardgainers. Because to be honest, it is not healthy and most will get fat.

If you’re under 25 and skinny, or have been a twig your whole life then give dirty bulking a shot.

Youth bring resilience, so you can endure eating ‘dirty’ without impacting your health long term.

As long as you’re lifting weights, the extra calories will be absorbed by your body to build new muscles.

But I do not recommend dirty bulking if you’re over 12-14% body fat, unless you want to look like Butter Bean.

How Many Calories Should You Eat While Dirty Bulking?

Like I mentioned before, the objective of dirty bulking is to consume as many calories as humanly possible.

4000-5000+ calories a day is perfectly acceptable for most people. 6000-8000 calories is not out of the question, especially if you’re an active hardgainer.

You’re food bill will skyrocket but you can find ways to bulk up on a budget.

The Challenge for Hardgainers

Most hard gainers simply don’t eat enough.

This is apparent because if they did eat enough they would gain weight. It’s impossible not to gain weight if you consume enough calories.

The solution for hardgainers to gain weight is simple: Eat until the number on the scale goes up.

You should weight yourself first thing every morning. Tape a piece of paper on the wall next to the scale and write down your weight each day. If the number isn’t going up 1-2 pounds a week, eat more.

A small appetite will keep you small. You need to eat big to get big.

The funny thing is, what makes dirty bulking bad for others makes it perfect for newbies. Hardgainers can dirty bulk to build a foundation of muscle without adding too much fat. Whereas a normal gainer would get super fat dirty bulking.

Hardgainers have a unique advantage here. Use it to maximum benefit.

Dirty Bulking Diet Plan

There are two rules to follow if you want to have a successful dirty bulk.

This is less of a plan and more of a simple strategy.

The great thing about dirty bulking is that there are no limits. Just minimum numbers you need to hit each day.

Rule #1. Eat Enough Protein

Eat AT LEAST 1.5 grams of protein per pound of bodyweight.

For example, if you weight 150 pounds, eat a minimum 225 grams of protein each day.

This may be challenging but you can do it.

Aim to consume 80% of your daily protein from whole food sources. The remaining 20% can be from supplements like protein shakes.

Rule #2. Eat Everything in Sight

Eat everything you can get your hands on.

Nutritious, calorie dense meals the best option, if available, but don’t skip a chance to eat.

Snack constantly. Keep crackers, pretzels, peanuts, almonds or trail mix within arms reach at all times.

Eat bagels or boiled eggs during class or between meetings.

Adopt a ‘See food’ diet: If you see food, eat it.

Dirty Bulking Diet Tips

It may take some time to get used to eating a lot. Your body will adjust after a while. You need to push yourself to eat just like you push yourself in the gym. The biggest and strongest guys eat 7 meals a day for YEARS without missing one meal.

This section will provide a meal plan for dirty bulking as well as a list of the best dirty bulking foods.

Dirty Bulk Meal Plan

Bulking Breakfast: 6 whole eggs scrambled with cheese, 4 toaster waffles with butter and maple syrup, 4 strips of bacon or sausage links, 1 Peanut Butter protein shake.

Meal 2: 2 toasted bagels slathered with peanut butter.

Lunch: 1 pound of beef or steak with potatoes and broccoli or side salad.

Meal 4: 2 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on whole wheat bread. Extra peanut butter. Extra jelly. Cut diagonally for enjoyable eating.

Dinner: Beef roast or salmon with rice, pasta, or potatoes, and asparagus/salad

Protein Shake: 2 scoops of high quality whey protein, a heaping scoop of peanut butter, whole milk.

Late night snacks: 3 donuts, a box of cereal with whole milk, full-fat greek yogurt topped with granola, chia seeds, and honey. Those are a few of my personal favorites.

Bulking Snacks

Snacks are a tasty way to get extra calories. Below are some of my favorite snacks for putting on weight. Buy in bulk and take snacks with you everywhere you go.

• Clif Builders Protein bars
• Larabars
• Corn Nuts
• Saltine crackers
• Sardines in olive oil
• Peanuts, almonds, cashews, etc.
• Peanut butter bites
• Graham crackers
• Protein cookies

I also love the combination of cheese, salami and crackers.

Have snacks with you at all times and munch constantly. Take snacks to work, take snacks to class. Eat snacks one the road. Just chow down like there’s no tomorrow.

Best Dirty Bulking Foods

The best foods for dirty bulking are loaded with calories. The best foods contain a lot of protein, carbohydrates and fat.

• Burgers piled high with beef patties and cheese
• Pizza with all the toppings
• Steak and whole eggs
• BBQ Ribs
• Fettuccini alfredo with chicken or veal.
• Full-fat dairy products like heavy creme, whole milk, and greek yogurt
• Potatoes and sweet potatoes with butter or greek yogurt

What about cheat days?

Every day is a cheat day! Moving on.

Eat a whole pizza, crush a box of Bagel Bites, destroy a gallon of cookie dough ice-cream before bed. Do all that and then some. Just eat, man!

When you go to your moms house, eat everything she makes. When you visit grandma, eat a whole plate of her cookies with a tall glass of milk.

Don’t pass up an opportunity to eat, and don’t go more than two hours without a meal.

Dirty Bulking Tips

If you think dieting to lose weight is hard, try eating all the time.

The hardest part about gaining weight is eating when you’re not really hungry.

Luckily there are ways to eat like a horse even if you have a small appetite.

Eat the Blandest Foods First

Eat the blandest foods first. It will go down easier.

You can always eat the sweet stuff at the end of a meal.

If you eat the sweet food first, the bland food will lose all appeal and become harder to eat.

Eat Quality Calories

Make sure you hit your minimum required nutrients.

1.5 gram Protein x BW, all necessary vitamins, minerals, etc.

Eat as many whole foods as possible. Make as many of your meals as possible, but if you can’t don’t let it hold you back. Meal prep to ensure you have food ready to eat at all times.

Workout like an Animal

You must workout otherwise you will get fat dirty bulking.

There’s no way around it. The sheer amount of calories will fatten you up if you don’t move some iron.

If you’re skinny and dirty bulk without working out, you’ll get skinny fat.

Training four to five days a week is a good amount for skinny guys who want to make gains.

Make sure you keep training intensity high. It’s the only way to build muscle.

A 4 or 5 day workout split gives enough downtime to soak up the calories to build muscle, and not burn them all up in the gym.

Meat and Eggs are KING

Eat as much fresh meat and whole eggs as you possibly can each day. This should be a significant portion of your diet.

Then eat as much pasta, potatoes, rice, cereal, peanut butter pie, cake and Cosmic Brownies as you want.

Drink a Gallon of Milk a Day

Wash all the calories down with whole milk or chocolate milk. Try to drink one gallon of milk a day.

Drink the gallon of milk throughout the day. Don’t chug it all at once. The milk will win that game every time.

This is known as the GOMAD diet, and is a tried and true method for gaining weight.

For more dirty bulking tips read my Old School Bulking Secrets post.

Key Points for the Health Conscious Dirty Bulk-er

Dirty bulking for an extended period of time can take a toll on your body. Here are some tips to keep in mind while dirty bulking to preserve your health.

Eat Your Greens

Your body will need the nutrition from the leafy greens. Eat tons of green vegetables too.

Get lots of fiber. You need to keep the plumbing working especially with all the food you’re eating.

Avoid Vegetable Oils

Many processed baked goods and snacks contain vegetable oils.

Vegetable oil is terrible for you. If you’re young you can get away with eating it but try to stay away from it if you can.

Avoid Trans fats

Trans fats are fake foods that kill you.

Do not eat anything with trans fat.

Dirty Bulking Workout

The gym is where the magic happens.

All that food you consume transforms into rock hard muscle when you move the weights.

Follow this workout plan to go from skin and bones to big and brawny.

The best workout routine while dirty bulking has you in the gym 4 or 5 days a week.

A 4 or 5 day split allows plenty of time to recovery from hard workouts. You need to build in recovery time in order to grow muscle.

This workout is a combination of strength, power, and hypertrophy (muscle building).

Every exercise is picked strategically to maximize the effectiveness of each workout. Perform every exercise for the perscribed number of Sets x Reps.

Use the High Intensity Training principle: your last rep of each set should be nearly impossible to complete.

Monday – Leg Workout

• Back Squat 5×5 (use the heaviest weight you can for every set. Go deep and break parallel every rep.)
• Romanian Deadlift 4×12 (RDLs are great for training your entire posterior chain)
• Lunges 4×12 (Hold dumbbells and take long strides. Drop hips as low as you can.)
• Leg Curls 4×12 (lying prone leg curls are best. They work more muscles)
• Calf Raise 5×20 (Don’t skip calves!)

Tuesday – Upper Body Workout

• Bench Press 5×5
• Incline Dumbbell Press 5×8
• Bodyweight Dips – 5x As many reps as possible
• Dumbbell Flyes – 4×10
• French Press 4×10

Wednesday: Off, Rest, stretch, active recovery.

Thursday – Back Workout

• Deadlift 5×3 (Go heavy and reset each rep)
• Bent Over Row – 4×10
• Close Grip Pull Down – 4×12
• T-Bar Row 5×10

Friday – Leg Workout, Hypertrophy focused

• Squat 5×10
• Romanian Deadlift 5×12
• Laying Leg Curl 4×10
• Leg Press 4×20,15,10,10
• Calf Raise 5×20

Saturday – Back and Arms Workout

• Deadlift 5×5,4,3,2,1
• Pull Ups 5xAs many reps as possible
• Standing Military Press 5×10,8,6,4,4
• Preacher curls 5×10
• JM Press 4×10
• Lateral Raises 5×16,14,12,10,10

Sunday: Off

Repeat the whole thing over again starting Monday.

Lifting is mostly mental

It’s mostly mental. If you make up your mind to lift a heavy ass weight 10 times, you will do it.

If you have no doubt in your mind and only determination, the only thing you can do is succeed.

Train Heavy

Train heavy. You should train so that you are scared at least once each session. You should think to yourself. ‘I don’t know if I can lift that. Then you sack up and lift it.’

Even if you don’t lift it, you still win. You’ll get bigger and stronger so you can lift it next time.

Pick a weight you could maayyybe lift 12 times in a row.

By your 4th set of each exercise you should be struggling to complete 7 or 8 reps.

Sleep 6-10 hours a night

Sleep as much as humanly possible each night. Your body and you mind need the shut-eye.

Your central nervous system takes a jolt. Sleeping rejuvenates you.

You need sleep to grow. Some people can get away with 6 hours of sleep a night (I do). Others need more. Sleep as much as you need to. This may take some experimentation.

Lift each rep slowly

Each rep should be slow and under complete control.

Take 2-3 seconds to raise and lower the weight each repetition.

Full range of motion

Lift with Perfect Form

Perfect form ensures progress. the right form keeps tension on the muscles being trained and not your joints.

Weight lifting is a long game. Your goal should be to be in the gym for many decades.

Good form keeps you safe and injury free.

Deploy the Progressive Overload Principle

Small Improvements add up!

Don’t mind what the other guys are lifting. You lift whatever weight is challenging for you.

The best progress is consistent and sustainable. Stay focused on good form and small wins each week. They will add up!

Dirty bulking does not mean eat fast food 4 times a day. It means eat meat, eat potatoes,

I ate a whole box of cereal with whole milk for dessert. Or I’d have 3 Boston creme donuts.

My Dirty Bulking Results

I gained 30 pounds dirty bulking.

My bodyweight increased from 205 to 235 pounds. I definitely got bigger and I got stronger.

I hit personal records on my squat, bench Press and deadlift while dirty bulking.

This isn’t surprising. The strongest men in the world EAT BIG. Eddy Hall is the strongest man in the world. He eats 12000 calories a day.

Obviously, eating 10000+ calories a day isn’t sustainable. It will land you in a box way before your time. (It would be a really big box though)

If I were younger, my lean gains would have been better. because I was already in my mid 20’s my youthful metabolism diminished, so it was easier to store fat.

I wish I would have dirty bulked as a teenager. My results would have been ideal. Especially because I was working out constantly. But I knew nothing about nutrition then so I stayed skinny.

Best Bulking supplements

Not all supplements are created equal.

Supplements can be split into two categories. There’s the best and then there’s the rest.

You want the best.

The rest are a joke. Don’t waste your money on them.

The following supplements are the best I’ve found for gaining weight naturally.

Transparent Labs Mass Gainer

One serving is 740 calories of ‘clean’ carbs and protein.

Each serving contains 53 grams of protein from grass fed cows, and 109 grams of carbohydrates from sweet potato, natural oats, and organic tapioca.

There’s also a few grams a creatine to help with strength and mass increases.

Eat steak and eggs twice a day and drink two mass gainer shakes and you WILL bulk up.

I like Transparent Labs Supplements because they use natural ingredients and tell you everything that’s in their products. They avoid processed ingredients, artificial flavors and harmful food additives.

They are the purest supplements I’ve found.

Liver Tablets

Take 30-50 liver tablets a day for energy, endurance and recovery.

Extremely effective muscle builder and one of two supplements actually worth the money.

Whey Protein Powder

Drink one or two shakes a day for extra protein.

It’s an easy and convenient way to get extra protein and calories.

You can blend up fancy shakes or keep it simple with a Blender Bottle shaker cup.

Old School Secret Weight Gain Formula

Mix 6 ounces heavy creme with 6 ounces of ginger ale and drink it 2 times a day.

This is a ‘secret’ method that the European mass monsters used in the 1950’s and 60’s. It was later popularized in America by legendary trainer Vince GiRonda.

Dirty Bulking Recap

Load up on calories and get plenty of protein.

Eat until you’re full then eat some more.

Hit the weights with a vengeance to make use of all those calories.

You can expect to gain weight and get stronger each week. If you’re not gaining weight or getting stronger then you need to eat more!

Eventually you’ll reach a size and weight you’re happy with. Hell, you might even keep gaining just to see how far you can take it like I did. You can’t bulk up forever though. And once you put on some muscle mass the natural next step is to cut the fat and get ripped.

Now Cut the Fat!

Once you’re done bulking and added some quality muscle mass, don’t forget to cut fat to show the muscle.

I used this 8-week cutting diet and workout to get ripped fast.

You didn’t come all this way to stay puffy, did ya?

You Might Also Like:

Dirty Bulk vs. Clean Bulk: Which is Better? The Skinny Guy’s Guide to Gaining Weight, Size, and Building Muscle The Ultimate ‘Skinny-Fat’ Workout and Diet Guide (2024 Edition) How I Gained 30 Pounds with Dirty Bulking