BULK VS CUTTING FOODS

Recently I was asked the question on which foods should be considered bulking foods and which ones should be considered cutting foods.

To rephrase this, which foods should be consumed when the focus is on gaining muscle (for the record, I don’t like the term bulking, prefer massing) and which foods should be consumed when losing bodyfat.

The easy nutrition coach response would be to just say either, you only have to hit your macros.

While that’s true, the reality is, there are some foods that allow you to eat more, which is good when you’re running a surplus in a massing phase, and there are some that make it easier to eat less calories, like when you’re running a calorie deficit.

The main difference here is volume. Foods that are more calorie dense, take up less space (volume) in your gut. These are beneficial when massing as they allow you to eat more without feeling extremely full. On the flip side, those foods which are less dense, are higher volume food. That means that for the same amount of space in your gut, you take in less calories.

Let me provide some examples of this. Probably one of the most abused foods out there is peanut butter, lol. It’s delicious (or did I mean dangerous) and it’s very calorie dense. In other words, a little goes a long way. On the flip side, a low density, high volume food is broccoli. A whole bowl is only about 20 calories.

So when you’re looking for foods based on your goals (massing vs fat loss), look to the volume factor to help make that decision.