Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - 2907: How to Clean Bulk Without Getting Fat (The Exact Formula)

Episode Date: July 23, 2026

In this episode the guys break down exactly what a clean bulk is, how it differs from a dirty bulk, and why most people do it completely wrong. They cover why increasing training volume during a bulk ...actually makes sense (because you have the nutrients to recover), why 500 calories above maintenance is all you need, why staying active with daily steps dramatically improves muscle building, and why garbage food is what separates a clean bulk from a dirty one. Sal and Adam both share their own dirty bulk horror stories — competing against coworkers and friends, gaining more fat than muscle, and how they finally figured out what actually works.   Mind Pump Nutrition Coaching: https://mindpumpnutrition.com Code: MP50 for 50% off a coaching call with a Mind Pump certified coach.   MAPS Upper Lower: https://mapsupperlower.com Code: LAUNCH for 40% off. Four day split with slightly higher volume — the ideal program to run during a clean bulk.   SPONSORS   Crisp Power (protein pretzels): https://www.crisppower.com/mindpump Code: MINDPUMP10 for 10% off. Up to 28g protein, 6 net carbs, baked not fried, zero added sugar, vegan. 7.1oz variety pack bundle available   LINKS   Mind Pump Store: https://mindpumpstore.com Maps Fitness Products: https://mapsfitnessproducts.com Instagram: @mindpumpmedia 0:00 - Intro 1:53 - What is a clean bulk vs a dirty bulk (and why reverse dieting is the same thing) 4:04 - Sal's 60-day dirty bulk competition — how he gained mostly body fat and lost anyway 6:05 - Adam's bodybuilder off-season experience — watching dirty bulkers end up where they started 9:14 - How much body fat should you actually gain in a clean bulk 12:31 - Step 1: Lift weights properly and increase volume during the bulk, not the cut 16:25 - Step 2: Eat your target body weight in protein — not your current weight 16:45 - Step 3: 500 calories above maintenance is all you need 19:26 - Step 4: Keep daily steps high — why being sedentary is a muscle killer 23:12 - Sal's BMX bike summer — how moving more actually helped him build more muscle as a kid 25:16 - Step 5: Avoid garbage food — why junk calories kill protein intake and inflate the scale  

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Starting point is 00:00:00 If you want to pump your body and expand your mind, there's only one place to go. Mind Pump. Mind Pump with your hosts. Sal DeStefano, Adam Schaefer, and Justin Andrews. You just found the most downloaded fitness, health, and entertainment podcast and history approaching half a billion downloads. This is Mind Pump. Today's episode is on clean bulking. What is it and how to do it properly?
Starting point is 00:00:25 By the way, we have trainers and coaches here at Mind Pump that can help you with your diet. nutrition. They'll coach you through it. And these are mind pump coaches, so they're good. And we have a code for 50% off. Go to mind pump nutrition.com. Use the code MP50 for the half off. This episode is brought to you by a sponsor, crisp power. Look, if you're looking for a snack that actually fits your macros without sacrificing taste or crunch, you need to try crisp power protein pretzels. These are pretzels. They taste like pretzels. They look like pretzels. They're pretzels. but each bag packs up to 28 grams of protein with only six grams of what are considered net carbs when you subtract out the fiber because they're also very high in fiber.
Starting point is 00:01:08 They're baked. They're not fried. No added sugar. They're vegan. They taste good. Really good flavors. Cheddar, flaming crunch, cinnamon crunch. They're delicious.
Starting point is 00:01:18 But again, very high in protein. So if you want that extra snack, you like the crunch, you want the protein, use crisp power. So go to crisppower.com slash mind pump and use the code mind pump 10 for 10% off your order. Back to the show. All right, real quick, if you love us like we love you, why not show it by rocking one of our shirts, hats, mugs, or training gear over at mindpump store.com. I'm talking right now, hit pause, head on over to mindpump store.com. That's it.
Starting point is 00:01:48 Enjoy the rest of the show. The topic for today's episode, clean bulking. What is it and how can you do it? Let's get to it. Justin's a big dirty. I love bulking, you guys. He's a big dirty baller. Let's break it down first for people aren't familiar.
Starting point is 00:02:03 So the bulking is a term that relates to trying to gain size or muscle, right? Strength usually accompanies this. Now, we've changed the term to mean other things, or should I say we've used different terminology that's also describing clean bulking in a way to make it more appealing to certain people. For example, a reverse diet. reverse diet is actually a clean bulk. And the reason why we call it a reverse diet is because when you tell in particular women,
Starting point is 00:02:36 we're going to bulk you, even though you're trying to lose body fat, they will run in the opposite direction. Well, I think another thing that it implies is that it's controlled, right? Because it's a diet. Reverse diet. You're still following a plan where bulk doesn't necessarily signal. It sounds like there's no plan. It doesn't signal plan, really.
Starting point is 00:02:56 Yeah, bulk sounds like you're off. your diet. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're trying to get big. Yeah, but, you know, this has been around for a long time. Strength athletes, athletes and general fighters have done this for a long time. Really, it's the attempt to trying to build strength and muscle. And what comes along with that is like a faster metabolism.
Starting point is 00:03:12 This is why bulking or reverse dieting is attractive to people who want to lose weight because through this process, you speed up your metabolism. Through this process, in many cases, especially if you're somebody that chronically diets or has always tried to get leaner and you've never tried to do something like this. This can be very healthy. It can balance out hormones. It can make you feel a lot better.
Starting point is 00:03:34 It can get rid of pain. I've had many clients who were so afraid of gaining weight. They always ate in this really controlled way. And then we put them in a clean bulk, you know, strategy. And they feel so good. They have tons of energy, tons of strength, the result of which being more muscle and eventually later on less body fat.
Starting point is 00:03:54 So that's a clean bulk is trying to build muscle with minimal fat gain. Okay? Dirty bulk is no strategy. Dirty bulk is I'm just going to eat a bunch of food. Just a lot of calories all at once. Yeah. I'm just eating a ton of food and just trying to gain weight on the scale. Let's be honest.
Starting point is 00:04:10 It's what it looks like for most of us when we... This is how I bulked as a kid. I thought that's how you had to do it. Well, I think if I had done it, I'll be honest. That's a good question, Justin, or good statement. because had I tracked and done things properly, a quote-unquote clean bulk would have resulted in more muscle mass for me as a kid.
Starting point is 00:04:30 Oh, yeah. I just, I knew I needed to eat more. And so what I did as a kid, and I was a skinny kid, so what I did is just ate as much as possible and ate as much garbage as possible because I could eat more of it. But had I done this the right way,
Starting point is 00:04:44 I would have ended up with more lean body mass. I'll never forget that the first time this really, really hit me was, I was, I want to say, 21. So I was still young. And I knew better at this time. But still, I was kind of stuck in that trap of just trying to get big. And I had a competition or I entered into a competition with my fitness manager and my assistant manager.
Starting point is 00:05:06 So the three of us said, let's see you can gain the most like muscle and strength over 60 days. I think it was. And I went hard. I didn't want to lose. I went hard. I ate as much as I could. It was a lot of garbage. And I don't remember how much weight I gained, but I got pretty heavy.
Starting point is 00:05:20 I almost got to 240 pounds. Tested my body fat, which I had tested before I started the bulk. And the vast majority of the weight that I gave was body fat. And when I went on the cut, I went back to where I was before. So a good clean bulk builds lean body mass that you can hold on to later when you want to cut. A good clean bulk looks like you're building muscle, not just gaining a bunch of sloppy weight. I think this is actually really common, even in the competitive world. I saw a lot of this
Starting point is 00:05:53 And I had similar experiences As you did In fact, I still remember When this had was very vivid Because I had a competition With my buddy My buddy Mark And
Starting point is 00:06:02 Oh, he wanted a bulk with you? Yeah, we both went on a bulk together And, you know, And I'm the trainer of the two of us So I, you know, I had a lot of confidence going in That I was going to Whoop him at this, right?
Starting point is 00:06:13 Like I should be better at this than he is And I just went so aggressive with eating in a dirty bulk that when we actually got on and we did a dunk tank before and after and so we had a controlled thing to test it and I had put on a good amount of weight. You know, I'd put on 25, 30 pounds. So I'm like, oh, yeah, I'm going to smoke them. And he didn't put on, I think I only put on like 10 or 15 pounds. He ended up winning because he built more muscle.
Starting point is 00:06:38 He gave more lean body mass. I put on more body fat. Wow. And so I did put on muscle, but as much muscle I put on, I put just as much body fat on. That was my first experience. I'm in my probably mid-20s when I experienced that. Fast forward into my 30s when I got into competing. I saw this.
Starting point is 00:07:00 I got to hang out with a lot of other amateur and pro bodybuilders. And, you know, there's a lot of us that worked out at the same facility. And we were, you know, talked about what we ate at the same places and dieted and talked about everything. You know, you're talking about everything, right? And, you know, I'd watch some of these guys. in the off season just put on 40, 50 pounds, you know, and just whatever, you know, burgers, fries, milkshakes, whatever, like just to put mass on.
Starting point is 00:07:28 And then they would cut and get shredded for a show. And I'd watch this happen kind of show to show. And again, we're all showing up to the same events. And their physiques look the same. You know, or it's arguably sometimes not as good. And it's like, man, you're putting all this work in. And, and, and, and, and, but what was happening was they're, they were basically, you know, putting on 30 to 50 pounds, half of it being muscle, half of it being fat. Then when they shred all the way back down, they would lose it all.
Starting point is 00:07:59 They would lose, they would lose a bunch of, they'd lose a bunch of fat, but they also lose a ton of musk because they'd also extreme cut, too. So they go from one extreme, the other extreme. So they go from extreme bulk eating to what we talk about what not to do on the show all time, which is just cut calories like crazy, increased cardio every day. And so, you know, the same rate. that they were losing fat, they were losing muscle. And so they'd end up where they started going into the off season. It's like, man, if you would have just like kind of maintained, it would have been far easier on your body to do that.
Starting point is 00:08:27 I think that's an extreme example, but this is what I think happens to a lot of people. Well, it's funny too because, like, I went through that whole process of just, like, adding whatever calories I could and drinking whatever shakes. I thought, you know, would be able to, you know, get all those calories in before my workouts. And what I found was, like,
Starting point is 00:08:47 There's a tolerance. There's a point where, like, I have insane gastral distress. I'm, like, running to the bathroom. It's like there was, like, a sweet spot where it's like, I could actually hold the food for the whole day, but it was like, it was volatile. And, like, going back in hindsight, if I just kept that at a certain amount and consistently, and then obviously with, like, better food choices. It would have been awesome. Dude, I would have gained so much more muscle and, like, had so much more progress. I was, like, constantly fighting and battling this, uh, distress.
Starting point is 00:09:17 Yeah, so let's talk about like how much body fat you would gain in a clean bulk. So it depends on how lean you are. So if you're really lean, like if you're a guy and you're, you know, 9% body fat and you go in a clean bulk, you should gain some body fat, okay? Because walking around at 9% for most men is a little too lean to walk around. And you're not going to build much muscle at 9% body fat. But if you're a guy and you're walking around at 15% body fat, you can gain muscle and maintain 15% body fat. Oh, totally. So what I mean by that is this, as your body weight goes up,
Starting point is 00:09:52 you are gaining some body fat, but as your lean body mass goes up, it outpace, and also outpaces the fat that you gain. Yep. Because remember 15% of your body weight, that's a higher number as your weight goes up. So you can still gain body fat with the muscle, because the muscle is outpacing it, body fat percentage stays the same. If you're a woman and you're listening, you're like, I need to go in a bulk. I'm always in a deficit. And you're walking around in the teens with body fat, but you're going to have to gain some body fat.
Starting point is 00:10:21 Okay? But if you're walking around the low 20s, you could totally go in a clean bulk, get your metabolism to boost, and your body fat percentage not budge that much at all. So just wanted to be clear with that, because there are cases where people do need to gain body fat if they want to build muscle.
Starting point is 00:10:36 But if you're listening and you're at a kind of athletic body fat percentage anyway, for guys, mid-teens, for women, you know, low 20s, you could totally do this the right way. and not gain any body fat. Just to use the female example, since you went that way, too, you know, this is what happened with Karen and I. What we, her body obviously needed to get higher body fat percentage before it was going to respond and build muscle.
Starting point is 00:10:56 We're doing all the right things. We're adding calories, you know, and seeing strength gains happen. But then when we did the body fat test, according to the test, we hadn't put on that much muscle. But it was also, she's coming out of a 17 to 18% body fat. She needed to gain body fat. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:11:13 So her, her, her body needed to gain body fat before it's going to respond and build muscle. And so to your point, if you're really lean male or female, many times you do have to get a little bit of body fat before the body really starts to pack the muscle on. But if you're already kind of in a,
Starting point is 00:11:30 you know, healthy place body fat range, so mid teens for men, low 20s for women, then you can kind of maintain it while you clean bulk. And that's to me where where I got in competing, I never let myself teeter too much higher than about the 11, 12% range. And that would be like a big bulk for me.
Starting point is 00:11:52 It was allowing the body to go back up to about 11, 12%, and then come back down. And what was nice about that, when it's time to switch to the other direction and lean out, you're never that far off from this direct or this cut or this look or whatever it is that you're trying to achieve. Versus the what I think the traditional way was before we talked about reverse. Just gain as much way. You just gain as much weight, put on as much muscle, then you'll worry about it later and cut body fat. And what ends up happening is you just keep gaining and losing the same fat and muscle through that process
Starting point is 00:12:24 and never really build or keep any of that. That's right. So the first thing that's important to consider here is you obviously got to lift weights, right? So if you bump your calories, and we'll get there, we'll get to the food part. But if you just eat more and you're not lifting weights, you're just going to gain body fat. Your body doesn't build muscle unless it thinks it needs to. So I know this goes without saying, but you need to lift weights. And you need to lift weights properly.
Starting point is 00:12:46 So here's, there's this interesting mentality around bulking and cutting that is, especially with cutting, that is opposite of what actually works in the real world. So here's what, this is what I think a lot of people believe. When they cut their calories, they think they need to dramatically work out more. I'm trying to lose weight, so I need to work out way more. Opposite. And when they bulk, they're like, well, I need to work out less because I'm trying to build. The truth is the time to increase the volume of your training, the time to add more sets and stuff like that within reason is when you're in a bulk. This is when your body will adapt better to higher levels of stress because you have more nutrients in your body.
Starting point is 00:13:27 So when you're in a bulk, if you're ever going to add exercises or add sets, again, within reason, because you get overtrain in a bulk. There's a saying that says you never overtrain, you're just under-eat. That's not true. But there's some truth to it, but it's not entirely true. So when you're in the bulk, this is when you can increase the volume. This is when you can train a little harder. Why? Because you have extra calories that help with the recovery.
Starting point is 00:13:52 I mean, this is, in my opinion, this is the only time it makes sense. That's right. And this is the mistake I think so many people make is they, and because we know, not everybody, it's the over-journalization, but a lot of people are familiar now with progressive overload. I think that was a term that we used as frequently in the 20 years ago. but I think more and more people understand progressive overload, which would be increasing volume over time. And this is what makes the body change.
Starting point is 00:14:17 This is what builds muscle. And so people grasp that, especially if you listen to a podcast like this, most people understand progressive overload is important to building muscle. But so many people understand that, but then they would do that while in a deficit because they don't want to, you know,
Starting point is 00:14:33 oh, I'm trying to lean out. So they're progressively overloading in their workout, but they're reducing caloric intake. It's like counterproductive. So, you know, in those times when you are, you're progressive overloading, you need to be in a calories or plus. You're overloading the body more than what it's used to handling. So you're sending a signal to the body say, we need more muscle. He's increasing volume.
Starting point is 00:14:57 He's increasing intensity or he's increasing sets, however you want to say it. Therefore, I need more material to go build this tissue. But what ends up happening is so many people do that while also in a deficit. it. And it's like, that's a terrible time to do it. You're putting more stress, more demand on the body and reduce it. This is the time to do it. So to give an example with our programs, if you listen and you follow maps programs, you know, let's say you're following maps anabolic or PPL. A good program to go to that would be similar while you're increasing your calories for a clean bulk would be our new program maps upper lower. Upper lower has a slight increase in volume. This is the time to do it with your strength training is when you're increasing your calories.
Starting point is 00:15:37 The next thing is to hit your target body weight and protein. This is true if you're cutting or bulking, but here's a difference. When you're cutting, your target body weight is less than what you currently weigh. When you're bulking, your target body weight is more than what you currently weigh. So, by the way, be realistic with this. So don't think to yourself, like, I want to get 100 pounds of muscle. That's not going to work. But realistic would be like, okay, I want to gain eight pounds of lean body mass,
Starting point is 00:15:59 or 10 pounds of lean body mass or 20 pounds of lean body mass over this period of time. That's your new target protein intake. So if you're a 200-pound guy, you want to weigh 215 grams of protein. So you're going to be eating more protein than you probably already do. And this will only help contribute to the muscle building process. It definitely doesn't hurt. But in my experience, this makes a difference. Well, and it makes more sense.
Starting point is 00:16:23 You're increasing volume. You need more material to recover and adapt. And so what a better time than to now increase protein also. That's right. And then increase your calories. So here's what people get weird. how much do I increase my calories for a clean bulk? You don't need a ton.
Starting point is 00:16:40 You don't need to eat a ton extra calories. Now, you can definitely make the case, especially if somebody's really lean. You know, step-walk your way up, yeah. Somebody who's really, really lean, you know, typical fast metabolism person, you know, they can make the case for more calories. But on average, in my experience, training people,
Starting point is 00:16:58 the average person will have a nice, lean body mass gain at about 500 calories above maintenance. Okay. So whatever calories you need to eat to keep your body weight the same, add 500 calories to that. By the way, there's data on this. And the data shows that more calories don't build more muscle. They just tend to add more body fat. Now again, for somebody who needs the gain body fat, if this is a young woman coming to me that I finally convinced to go on a bulk who's walking around 13% body fat has hormone issues, I'm going to try and have her eat more calories. The limiting factor there is what she's comfortable with. If I'm talking to a guy walking around 8% body fat, I may do the same thing. I may go up to as much as 800 to 1,000 calories. But the average person, it's about 500 calories more than what you're currently eating.
Starting point is 00:17:41 You don't need a ton of extra calories to build that extra muscle. Yeah, I was going to say another kind of generic way to say that is if you're in that kind of healthy body fat range you already talked about, then 500 is perfect. If you're in that lower percent than 1,000. Yep.
Starting point is 00:17:55 If you need to gain body fat and you're going into a bulk, you could easily surplus 1,000 and be totally fine. And even if that's a little hot, say it's better to be around $750 or $800, it's not so much over that you're going to see pounds of body fat go on. You know, you're talking about... It takes a while. Yeah, we take quite a while.
Starting point is 00:18:14 And arguably, by that time, those extra calories are, you will feel them in the workouts and your strength will go up and then you'll end up adapting and building muscle. Just to touch on that, Adam, when you're walking around too lean, you could gain body fat and have an increase in your performance and strength without even gaining much muscle. That's what I occur in. I know.
Starting point is 00:18:35 And so, again, a lot of times people are like, oh, I want to clean bulk. You know, I'm 8% body fat. I just want to gain muscle and not getting any body fat. You're probably not going to. Good luck. You need to gain some body fat to build some muscle. And that extra body fat will make you stronger and feel better in that particular situation. But if you're walking at a relatively healthy body fat percentage, like I said, man, you're a guy, mid-teens.
Starting point is 00:18:59 You're a woman, you know, low 20s, 500 calories above. Watch yourself gain muscle. with minimal to no increase in body fat percentage, which is pretty expected. Next, keep your daily activity high. Now, notice I didn't say tons of cardio. That's not what I'm talking about. But there is this mentality sometimes, especially with those that really want to gain weight, where they need to be like, I can't move at all throughout the day.
Starting point is 00:19:23 I've got to conserve calories. This can actually be counterproductive because being idle and super sedentary is actually counter muscle building. Now, I'm not also saying when you do the extreme, where you're going to do tons of cardio outside of the gym. But what I am saying is walk. Yeah, the body systems just work better. That's right. Yeah, when you add movement.
Starting point is 00:19:44 And that doesn't need to be intense movement. But yeah, if you take a nice light walk, like digestive system, everything else was going to be able to shuttle. You know, blood's going to circulate more efficiently. Everything that's vital for healing tissue. It's all going to happen. So I build more, I build better muscle. everything being the same, when I'm averaging 8,000 steps a day versus when I'm averaging 4,000 steps.
Starting point is 00:20:08 More movement, more oxygen, more blood flow, more nutrients, muscle, better recovery, better digestive. And in this context where we are increasing volume, increasing calories, this makes a huge difference. And I don't know, I'm not familiar with any studies that we have to really highlight how affected this is. I mean, I've just experienced it not only with all my clients, but especially at the high levels of competing and watching this so diligently.
Starting point is 00:20:38 Like, it makes a big difference. When I increase, or I would take this for a client or me, where I increase volume like this, so they're doing more workload, increasing calories, always moving them up in steps, always help this process so much better. And the theory is the exactly what we're saying, it's just more blood flow, more oxygen, more nutrients,
Starting point is 00:21:00 getting to the muscles, get to facilitate recovery faster. It's also this. Like you send a signal to build muscle when you're strength training. You're feeding yourself properly. The strongest lose muscle signal you could send besides starving yourself. Is not move. To not move. Beat a catabolic.
Starting point is 00:21:18 The irony of that. You could lift weights so perfectly and hard today. Let me put, you could do crazy set of, you could do squats today. We're going to do squats and deadlifts and leg press. We're going to really work your legs well. And then what I'm going to have you do until the next time you're supposed to train your legs, let's say it's a week from now.
Starting point is 00:21:34 Lay the couch. I'm going to make you bedridden. You're not allowed to get up off the bed. You would actually come back weaker. Whenever we talk about this. You used to believe that. 100% I did. It was done.
Starting point is 00:21:43 So my first trainer job was across the street from 24th Fitness. I live my grandma. Across the street. I could just walk across the street. And this was like a dream come true for the kid trying to bulk. You know, so. And this is not only, not only did I dirty bulk. but I would dirty bulk,
Starting point is 00:22:02 eat as much as I could, and then I would go lay down. And I would literally lay down. I would watch, set my alarm for when my next client was. Just grow. Yeah, you just lay there in the middle of the day. Two o'clock in the afternoon,
Starting point is 00:22:12 sun's out. I'm laying in a bed, you know, after a 2,000 calorie, you know, cheeseburger type of lunch, you know, waiting for my next client and wait five minutes before I'd be there, alarm goes off and then I'd run across the street
Starting point is 00:22:24 to go trim. And just thinking that I'm like, trying to give myself as much recovery, like such a terrible. terrible approach to not only dirty bulk like that, but then to pair it also with less movement because I'm just trying to, thinking recovery, recovery. And the reason why I'm communicating this,
Starting point is 00:22:39 this is more for the like really, the people are really eager to gain size. You know, like I'm talking to myself as a kid. I thought, well, every calorie I burn is taking away from the calories that cold in my muscle. And so I did the same thing. You know, as a kid, I'd lift, I'd eat like crazy. I'd sit on the couch as much as I could.
Starting point is 00:22:58 So, oh, got to let the muscles. grow. If I move them too much, they're not going to grow. I just sit here and let them grow. And I'll never forget, I've talked to you guys. I've told this story. I haven't told this story in a long time. But there was a summer where my cousin and I had bought BMX bikes. And so throughout the day, we go ride these bikes.
Starting point is 00:23:15 So this was like a summer where I wasn't just sitting around trying to build muscle. And at this point, I was trying to learn how to bunny hop. And when you don't know how to bunny hop, you yank on the handle bars. You're cold too hard with your arms. And my arms grew. And I remember being like, and I was afraid. I'm like, oh, my God, all this work on my arms. They're not going to grow because they need to let them recover.
Starting point is 00:23:31 And they built. And I've tracked this throughout the years. Like I said, I know we don't do a lot of steps because, or I don't take a lot of steps because of what we do for work. So if I let that happen, I'm hitting 4,000 steps in a day. Like, that's it. If I consciously move and walk, I can get myself up to about 8,000. 10,000 could be hard except for on our off days or whatever.
Starting point is 00:23:51 But I know when I'm trying to build and get stronger, the difference between, there's a big difference in how I build when I'm taking 8,000 steps between or 4,000 steps. So now the key isn't to go, you're not going crazy activity. I'm not telling you go work out all the time, but move. So those people are afraid of that. Go and walk. Get those steps up. The other thing that I add to that demographic of people,
Starting point is 00:24:12 because these are the same people that are dirty bulking and stuff like that because they need to eat as many calories as they can. The other thing that I didn't realize at first, but then later on, once I started tracking, was I was eating all these calories because I could eat more calories through junk food and dirty bulking. But what I also recognized when I actually started to track diligently was I was super high on calories, but low on my protein intake.
Starting point is 00:24:37 All your calories were from fat and carbs. Yes. And that was like the real eye-opener for me. It was like I felt like I had to eat all this food just to get the calories at the 4,000 plus calories. But then I struggled to hit 130, 150 grams of protein. And I needed to be somewhere towards 200. And so it really shifted.
Starting point is 00:24:55 I was like, oh, man, well, I got at least. go get the good calories first. And that alone kind of organically made me clean bulk. And that's the last point, which is avoid garbage food. Garbage food, processed food, junk food. Yes, you'll hit high calories. You're probably not going to get really, really good protein. So hard to, you know.
Starting point is 00:25:15 Most garbage food is not good in protein. And it affects your digestion. And it makes you feel lethargic. And it makes you hold water. So now you're gaining weight on the scale. Am I gaining muscle? Probably not. It's probably water.
Starting point is 00:25:26 Loaded. Yeah, so you still want to avoid garbage food. Now, the occasional, in a clean bulk, the occasional pizza burger is okay. I also think that's okay in a cut as well. The person where I allow that to happen more is a person that really struggles to get those extra calories. They've already hit their protein. They really struggle. I'm like, man, I don't know if I can eat me more.
Starting point is 00:25:49 Need something tasty to help. Could you have a burger? Yeah, I think I could do that. Well, my hard gainer advice used to be this, because I would have considered. I considered myself in this category, trained a lot of people in this category, that would just be like, man, I just, I stroll to keep the calories consistently up there. And so the goal was always, go get your protein intake through a whole natural foods. After that, then I would allow you to do the French fries, the shake, the whatever, whatever you needed to, that was palatable to boost the calories. But go through.
Starting point is 00:26:20 And that, that advice worked really well for myself. when I was a hard gainer, it worked really well for clients that also were like that was otherwise. What ends up happening is you do, you end up getting a bunch of calories through saturated fat and through carbohydrates and you end up putting on as much or more body fat than you do muscle because all your surplus is coming from that. Totally. Look, so here's what we have, right? So we have coaches and trainers now that work for mind pump. And what we have is a nutrition call or appointment where you can get on with a coach with a mind pump certified coach or trainer. and they'll walk you through this.
Starting point is 00:26:55 They'll organize this for you. They'll organize how many calories, proteins, fats, carbs. They'll give you advice on your workouts. It's mindpumpnutrition.com. If you use the code MP50, you'll get this appointment for half off. So again, mindpnutrition.com talk to a personal trainer that works for mind pump, trained to coach by us. Use the code MP50 for the 50% off.
Starting point is 00:27:19 You can also find us on Instagram. It's Mind Pump Media. We'll see you there. to Mind Pump. If your goal is to build and shape your body, dramatically improve your health and energy, and maximize your overall performance, check out our discounted RGB Superbundle at Mind Pumpmedia.com. The RGB Superbundle includes Maps Anabolic, Maps Performance, and Maps Aesthetic, nine months of phased expert exercise programming designed by Sal Adam and Justin to systematically transform the way your body looks, feels, and performs. With detailed workout blueprints and over 200 videos. The RGB Superbundle is like having Sal, Adam, and Justin as your own personal trainers, but at a fraction of the price. The RGB Superbundle has a full 30-day money-back guarantee, and you can get it now, plus other valuable free resources at mindpumpmedia.com. If you enjoy this show, please share the love by leaving us a five-star rating and review on iTunes,
Starting point is 00:28:20 and by introducing Mind Pump to your friends and family. We thank you for your support, and until next time, this is Mind Pump.

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