Building muscle is essential, not only for aesthetics but for long term health, longevity, and resiliency. Resistance training plays a key role in helping increase strength and build lean muscle, and so does nutrition.
When it comes to adding lean muscle though, there are often differing opinions on the “best” (optimal) diet for muscle growth.
There are many ways to achieve this surplus, although in some cases, it may cause you to gain fat instead of muscle, which you may not want. Need help?
Today, we’ll discuss the best ways to achieve a caloric surplus with delicious, healthy foods to help you build lean muscle without adding tons of unnecessary body fat.
First, let’s highlight why nutrition matters for muscle growth.
Why Nutrition Matters for Building Muscle
Nutrition and resistance have a synergistic relationship when it comes to hypertrophy. In other words, without one or the other, your ability to build lean muscle effectively will be severely compromised.
Resistance training provides the stimulus (signal) your muscles need to grow bigger and stronger, while your diet affects whether or not your muscles actually grow. This is because muscle growth doesn’t happen in the gym -- it happens when you’re resting and recovering after the workout.
Think of it another way. Let’s say you have the most perfectly optimized, AI-generated training program money can buy, but you’re not giving your muscles the raw materials it needs to repair the microtears that hard training induces or the extra energy it needs to create new muscle tissue. In this case, if your workouts aren’t supported by a properly constructed diet, you will not gain muscle mass.
On the flip side, if you consume a surplus of calories but do not train consistently or follow the principles of progressive overload, your body will store those extra calories as body fat instead of building new, lean muscle.
Therefore, building muscle requires both hard training and diligent, planned nutrition.
So, what should the nutrition plan look like for someone trying to build lean muscle?
Dirty Bulking vs. Clean Bulking
Bulking is the fitness colloquialism for intentionally gaining weight (hopefully muscle). One of two approaches are undertaken: clean bulking or dirty bulking.
Clean bulking (aka “lean bulking”) is a controlled bulking or massing phase that aims to maximize muscle gain and limit fat gain. A modest calorie surplus is used where the individual gains 0.25-0.5 pounds per week. Regarding food choices, clean bulking diet plans emphasize high-quality foods -- fruits, veggies, lean proteins, healthy fats, whole grains, nuts, seeds, and legumes. A little bit of junk food is allowed (if you’re following an IIFYM diet)
Dirty bulking embraces the “see food, eat food” approach where you’re focused on ingesting as many calories as possible (often force feeding yourself) to gain as much weight as possible as quickly as possible. Whereas clean bulking emphasizes higher quality foods and limits the amount of ultra-processed (“junk”) food in the diet, dirty bulking is the complete opposite. You can pretty much eat whatever you want so long as you get the calories you need. Quality of food is secondary to total calorie intake.
Which is Better: Clean Bulking or Dirty Bulking?
In the vast majority of cases, clean bulking is the way to go. The reason for this is simple -- more isn’t necessarily better when it comes to building muscle.
You see, the body is only capable of synthesizing a finite amount of new muscle tissue in a given timeframe. Any extra calories consumed above and beyond those needed to support the construction of new muscle will be stored as fat.
Research has even shown that gross calorie surpluses don’t result in greater muscle gains...they only result in more fat gain.[1]
One Exception…
People who find it difficult to gain weight (“hardgainers”) may benefit from dirty bulking. Hardgainers typically have lower appetites and/or get full easily, which is why they struggle to gain weight. Consuming less-filling, calorically-dense foods can help these individuals to get in the calories they need to gain weight.
For the vast majority of us, though, clean bulking is the way to go. You’ll build muscle, limit fat gain, and generally feel better throughout the process.
Foods to Eat (and Limit) on a Clean Bulk Diet
When it comes to gaining muscle the right way, it’s critical to emphasize certain foods in your diet while limiting the others. Here are some of the best foods to include in your clean bulking diet:.
Proteins
- Grilled, Baked or Roasted (not fried) lean red meat, poultry, or pork
- Eggs
- Fish/Shellfish (salmon, cod, catfish, shrimp, mussels, oysters, etc.)
- Dairy (Milk, yogurt, cottage cheese, cheese, etc.)
- Legumes
Carbohydrates
- Potatoes (Russet, Yukon Gold, Sweet, etc.)
- Oats
- Rice
- Whole-grain pasta/bread
Fats
- Nuts and nut butter
- Olives and olive oil
- Avocado
- Butter
- Fish Oil and Omega-3s
On the other hand, avoid junk food such as chips, sodas, and candy, as this could cause weight gain, particularly around your belly.
How to Gain Weight the Right Way
Track EVERYTHING
Gaining muscle is hard work…really hard work. It is an endeavor that requires consistency, dedication, and desire. Simply showing up in the weight room and “eating healthy” isn’t enough to guarantee optimal muscle growth.
Without tracking your nutrition and training, you have no definite way of knowing if you’re eating enough calories (or total protein) or if you’re actually progressing in your workouts.
In other words, to effectively clean bulk, it is vital that you log your food intake, record your bodyweight each week, and log your workouts (weights, reps, etc.).
Doing so gives you the concrete data you need to stay on track as well as give you a heads up if you need to increase or decrease things (calories, weights, etc.). If you need help tracking your daily protein intake, download the 1UP Fitness App, which makes logging your workouts and nutrition easier than ever!
Avoid Binging
While bulking, you have room in your diet for some extra calories. But this doesn’t mean you should be downing a pint of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream each day. Clean bulking stipulates a modest calorie surplus, just enough so that you’re gaining 0.25-0.5 pounds per week. This means over the course of a month, you’re gaining 1-2 pounds.
Most individuals start with a surplus of 10% (between 250-300 additional calories per day). Tracking your bodyweight each week under similar conditions (first thing in the morning after using the bathroom, before drinking any fluids, for instance) helps you to see if you’re actually gaining weight or not.
Binging only sets you up for excess fat gain and ultimately slows your progress to building a lean, muscular physique.
Don’t Overdo Cardio
Cardio burns calories, which is exactly the opposite of what we’re trying to do when clean bulking. Doing endless hours of slow, steady-state cardio burns all of the extra calories that you were consuming.
Now, don’t think that cardio isn’t important or shouldn’t be done when you’re bulking. You still can (and should) include some cardio…just don’t over do it.
A few 30-40 minute walks (or short 10-20 HIIT sessions) during the week won’t stunt your progress. In fact, it’ll help keep your bulk clean and lean as well as keep your cardio up so that at the end of your bulk, taking a flight of stairs doesn’t leave you sucking wind.
Get Enough Rest
Muscles don’t grow during your workout. They repair, recover and grow outside of your workouts.
In other words, if you’re serious about gaining lean muscle, then you must make rest and recovery a priority.
Aim to get at least 7-8 hours of sleep each night. If you’re having trouble getting to sleep, consider the following tips:
- Establish a consistent bedtime
- Limit blue light at least 2 hours before bed
- Read/Journal/Meditate/Pray
- Avoid sources of acute stress (news, social media, email, texts) before bed
- Take a warm bath or shower
- Keep your room cool and dark
- Wear loose, comfortable clothing
For added sleep support, you can always look into supplements that help you relax and fall asleep quicker, such as Beauty Dream PM or Recharge PM.
Avoid Alcohol
This might be a deal-breaker for some of you, but the truth of the matter is that alcohol isn’t ideal for building muscle. When you drink alcohol, your body prioritizes metabolizing it first, which puts a halt on digestion and utilization of proteins, carbs, and fats (i.e. the nutrients you need to grow).
Will drinking alcohol completely ruin your gains? Not in limited amounts, but it will significantly slow your progress towards a successful lean bulk.
Prioritize Protein
Muscles are made of protein, so it stands to reason that if you want to build more muscle, you need to consume enough protein.
But, how much should you eat?
Numerous randomized, controlled trials (RCTs) have been conducted on protein intake in combination with resistance training. A 2018 review concluded that “a daily protein intake of ~1.6 g/kg/day or as high as 2.2 g/kg/day, appears to be the most influential factor to consider when optimizing muscle mass accretion with resistance exercise is the goal. This daily protein intake could be achieved via the incorporation of high-quality protein sources at each meal throughout the day and, if necessary, supplementing the diet with high-quality (i.e., whey or casein) protein supplements.”[2].
To keep things simple, aim to consume one gram of protein per pound of bodyweight. So if you weigh 175 pounds, you should consume 175 grams of protein each, from high quality sources, including lean red meat, poultry, fish, shellfish or whey protein powder.
Protein intake should be split up relatively evenly throughout the day across 3-6 feedings, depending on your meal frequency and personal preference.[2]
Are High Protein Diets Safe?
For a long time, it was believed that high protein diets were harmful to the body’s vital organs as well as its bones. Thankfully, a host of research has been published over the past couple of decades debunking this notion.
One study gave healthy, resistance-trained men a high protein diet, consisting of ~2.51–3.32 g/kg protein per day for an entire year and found no harmful effects on measures of blood lipids or liver and kidney function.[3] In addition, despite consuming additional calories during the high protein phase, study participants did not experience an increase in fat mass
Another study gave resistance-trained men a daily protein intake of 4.4g/kg (2g/lb) for eight weeks and observed no detrimental effects to kidney function.[4]
Most recently, a 2024 study had men consume either 1.6 or 3.2 grams of protein per kg per day for 16 weeks and found that high-protein diets had “no adverse effects on bone tissue parameters.[5]
Supplements
Supplements are fantastic, but to get the most benefit possible from them, you must have your diet, training, and sleep on point. Without those three factors in place, supplements really won’t be effective for training hard or building muscle.
That being said, if your sleep, eating, and workouts are dialed in, then supplements can enhance your workouts (and thereby your results).
From there, the next step is to decide where you’re looking for the most help.
If you’re having trouble getting amped up for the gym or delaying the onset of fatigue, a well dosed pre workout, like 1UP Pre Men or 1UP Pre Women, can help.
If you’re having trouble hitting enough total calories or protein needs, then you’ll want to invest in a top quality protein supplement, such as 1UP Whey, 1UP Egg White Protein, or 1UP Vegan Protein.
Last, but not least, don’t forget the king of sports supplements, especially for those interested in performance and lean gains -- creatine monohydrate. 1UP Pure Rebuild supplies a full 5,000mg creatine monohydrate plus betaine anhydrous, glutamine, electrolytes, and essential amino acids (EAA) to fuel the recovery and growth process.
References
- Garthe, I., Raastad, T., Refsnes, P. E., & Sundgot-Borgen, J. (2013). Effect of nutritional intervention on body composition and performance in elite athletes. European Journal of Sport Science, 13(3), 295–303. https://doi.org/10.1080/17461391.2011.643923
- Stokes T, Hector AJ, Morton RW, McGlory C, Phillips SM. Recent Perspectives Regarding the Role of Dietary Protein for the Promotion of Muscle Hypertrophy with Resistance Exercise Training. Nutrients. 2018 Feb 7;10(2):180. doi: 10.3390/nu10020180. PMID: 29414855; PMCID: PMC5852756
- Jose Antonio, Anya Ellerbroek, Tobin Silver, et al., “A High Protein Diet Has No Harmful Effects: A One-Year Crossover Study in Resistance-Trained Males,” Journal of Nutrition and Metabolism, vol. 2016, Article ID 9104792, 5 pages, 2016. https://doi.org/10.1155/2016/9104792.
- Antonio J, Peacock CA, Ellerbroek A, Fromhoff B, Silver T: The effects of consuming a high protein diet (4.4 g/kg/d) on body composition in resistance-trained individuals. J Int Soc Sports Nutr 2014, 11:19
- Bagheri R, Karimi Z, Mousavi Z, Ziaee Bashirzad M, Camera DM, Sadeghi R, Dabbagh VR, Kargarfard M, Dutheil F. High-Protein Diets during either Resistance or Concurrent Training Have No Detrimental Effect on Bone Parameters in Resistance-Trained Males. Nutrients. 2024 Jan 22;16(2):325. doi: 10.3390/nu16020325. PMID: 38276563; PMCID: PMC10819948.
