# Bulk on a Budget - Cheap Bulking Food



## Tasty (Aug 28, 2007)

I know we've had this before, but I need reminding (and some fresh ideas maybe) and there's some newbies on the board that might benefit.

What food is good to bulk out your diet / calories when you're on a bulk? Anyone got any tips / tricks they like to use to get that extra muscle building much in?


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## BigDom86 (Jul 27, 2008)

olive oil, oats, whole milk


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## Big Dawg (Feb 24, 2008)

It's only the protein that's expensive really, carbs cost pennies! Use TVP instead of chicken and beef, and use Nutrisport 90+ to cover the rest and you won't get much cheaper than that!


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## Magic Torch (May 30, 2005)

Oats, Eggs, Rice, Cheap protein powder and Turkey/Cheap fish


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## Miike (Jun 11, 2009)

I've done well on sarnies. Quick to make and cheap.

1 tin tuna, olive oil, wholemeal bread, salad cream. Less than £1.

3 egg, olive oil, wholemeal bread, salad cream. Less than £1


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## G-man99 (Jul 15, 2008)

AlasTTTair said:


> It's only the protein that's expensive really, carbs cost pennies! Use TVP instead of chicken and beef, and use Nutrisport 90+ to cover the rest and you won't get much cheaper than that!


You mean this stuff mate??

Texturized vegetable protein

Whats it like?? :confused1:


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## Tasty (Aug 28, 2007)

G-man99 said:


> You mean this stuff mate??
> 
> Texturized vegetable protein
> 
> Whats it like?? :confused1:


I've never heard of it either!

Got rice & oats in the cupboard! Always good. I like a jacket potato with tuna too. Is turkey much cheaper than chicken?


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## BigDom86 (Jul 27, 2008)

yeah turkey is cheaper. 500g turkey mince is like £1.90 in tesco. or turkey breast is like £6 a kilo in tesco


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## skellan (Nov 15, 2009)

TVP otherwise branded as Quorn!


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## skellan (Nov 15, 2009)

Its not cheap though but I suppose its would be a cheaper alternative to chicken


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## Zee Deveel (Nov 5, 2009)

My latest discovery has been Soya Beans. 35g of protein per 100g, that's more than Tuna! And they cost next to **** all!


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## DNC (Jan 8, 2009)

The turkey mince is 1.70 in ASDA and the turkey fillets which i think are 500g are around 2.50,so a lot cheaper.

It's a lot drier though,throwing a little chinese 5 spice on it does the trick for me


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## Testoholic (Jun 13, 2009)

oats, peanut butter, cheap protein powder, eggs, tesco own brand cottage cheese


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## DNC (Jan 8, 2009)

Zee Deveel said:


> My latest discovery has been Soya Beans. 35g of protein per 100g, that's more than Tuna! And they cost next to **** all!


What they taste like mate?? can you just get them from the big supermarkets??


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## rs007 (May 28, 2007)

Got a big bag of clean baking spuds in morrisons the other day, loads of em, all decent sized and right tasty - 30 fkn pence. Not reduced either, or on offer, that is the on the shelf price.

Coudln't fkn believe it

Oats are dirt cheap around 50p a kilo from Tesco, slightly dearer in morrisons, 1.22 I think for a 2 kilo bag

Milk is actually quite expensive for what you are getting and the bastard thing is the farmers don't make a fkn penny off it - supermarket greed :cursing:

Getting good cheap meat is always a bugger, as someone said earlier, carbs are not a problem, the world turns on carbs - getting protein is altogether more tricky and expensive...


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## BigDom86 (Jul 27, 2008)

soya isnt good for you


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## Tasty (Aug 28, 2007)

I read that on Tnation Dom - something about it being counter-productive to muscle gain? Then a little semi racist sign off about chinese people being skinny.... I like t-nation


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## geeby112 (Mar 15, 2008)

I dont really believe its bad, i mean they contain all three of the macro-nutrients required for good nutrition: complete protein, carbohydrate and fat, as well as vitamins and minerals, including calcium, folic acid and iron.

Soybeans are the only common plant food that contain complete protein. Soybean protein provides all the essential amino acids in the amounts needed for human health. The amino acid profile of soy protein is nearly equivalent in quality to meat, milk and egg protein.

But if its fermented , Mercola can be an issue

Soybeans also contain haemagglutinin, a clot-promoting substance that causes red blood cells to clump together.

But everything in moderate portions should be fine:thumbup1:


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## dixie normus (May 11, 2008)

Green lentils, Adzuki beans, and chick peas. (or any other variety)

A mix of the 3 will give you decent amino profile, plenty of low GI carbs, and bags of fibre.

Add some fats, a protein powder, some fruit and veg and you are living very cheaply indeed:thumb:


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## Uriel (Oct 14, 2008)

sucking off old men for free will net you a few grams a pop (a pop, gettit?)


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## DNC (Jan 8, 2009)

Uriel said:


> sucking off old men for free will net you a few grams a pop (a pop, gettit?)


Is that what you tell all the young pups in the gym mate?? :lol:


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## Zee Deveel (Nov 5, 2009)

DNC said:


> What they taste like mate?? can you just get them from the big supermarkets??


I think so, I got mine in Waitrose.

They don't taste of anything much at all actually, which I was pleasantly surprised about lol.

You've gotta soak 'em over night to soften them, but even after doing that and then cooking them up for 3 hours they were still pretty crunchy. Apparently frozen ones aren't as crunchy though.

I just cooked a big bag of 'em up in some chopped tomatoes with bacon, onions and peppers. Lasted me a few days, tasted pretty nice!

I'd recommend 'em!



geeby112 said:


> I dont really believe its bad, i mean they contain all three of the macro-nutrients required for good nutrition: complete protein, carbohydrate and fat, as well as vitamins and minerals, including calcium, folic acid and iron.
> 
> Soybeans are the only common plant food that contain complete protein. Soybean protein provides all the essential amino acids in the amounts needed for human health. The amino acid profile of soy protein is nearly equivalent in quality to meat, milk and egg protein.
> 
> ...


Aha, well I'll have to do some research into this, but I'm probably only gonna have like 3-4 Soya meals a month, not like I'm living off the stuff.

EDIT - Ok so I've looked into it. It seems Soy doesn't have as great a biological value as some other forms of protein and for this reason has been shunned. It is also missing the amino acids Cysteine and Methionine.

However it seems that more bodybuilders are starting to realise that although it's not the greatest source of protein, it actually doesn't deserve the horrible reputation it has, which appears to be mostly perpetuated by the companies which produce Whey products and is fine to use just so long as it's not your main source of protein.


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## tonyc74 (Sep 2, 2009)

Uriel said:


> sucking off old men for free will net you a few grams a pop (a pop, gettit?)


 Probably get a few gramms of protein out of the cheese as well!

Seriously you can get decent deals in Waitrose believe it or not sometimes the whole chickens are reduced to about £3 and at the min the breasts are about £6 for six so a pound each aint too bad...and there are decent ones not full of crappy water like some ive had.


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## dog5566 (May 28, 2008)

tesco are doing 1kg of frozen chicken brests for £3.20, and i like sainsburys white fish 520g for £1.94, and there doing 1kg of muesli for 58p wich is not bad,


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## Uriel (Oct 14, 2008)

DNC said:


> Is that what you tell all the young pups in the gym mate?? :lol:


 :thumbup1:

Serves 3 apparently:whistling:


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## ooomoo (Jan 29, 2008)

is there any difference in frozen chicken to fresh?


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## Uriel (Oct 14, 2008)

ooomoo said:


> is there any difference in frozen chicken to fresh?


ones a bit cooler than the other:confused1:


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## usernameneeded (Sep 24, 2009)

if any one is a member of makro get down to there i went last week and got 5kg of chiken breasts (the ones in the big plastic bag) i think it was priced at 17.99 but when i got to the till i was only charged 9.97 went back in to see if someone had made a mistake and no i got another for the same price so got 10kg of chicken for less than £20


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## Big Dawg (Feb 24, 2008)

Miike said:


> I've done well on sarnies. Quick to make and cheap.
> 
> 1 tin tuna, olive oil, wholemeal bread, salad cream. Less than £1.
> 
> 3 egg, olive oil, wholemeal bread, salad cream. Less than £1


That's not cheap mate. 100g of pasta and 70g TVP = about 20p!



G-man99 said:


> You mean this stuff mate??
> 
> Texturized vegetable protein
> 
> Whats it like?? :confused1:


It's alright mate. Don't get me wrong, I'd rather be using chicken, but this stuff is about 30x cheaper, contains all essential amino acids etc, is stupidly easy to prepare (add boiling water, simmer for 5 mins) and you can make it taste however you want. I only eat it in one meal per day currently, but mix it with tomato pasta sauce, olive oil and cayenne pepper, then add to pasta - yummy!

And you don't have to soak it overnight unless you've got stupid huge chunks of it. I use the soya mince. Oh and it is NOT the same as quorn, I believe whoever said that is thinking of tofu.

I'm not a vege, but it's just loads cheaper than chicken. I still eat beef once a day, as well as eggs, CC and protein powder.


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## Zee Deveel (Nov 5, 2009)

AlasTTTair said:


> That's not cheap mate. 100g of pasta and 70g TVP = about 20p!
> 
> It's alright mate. Don't get me wrong, I'd rather be using chicken, but this stuff is about 30x cheaper, contains all essential amino acids etc, is stupidly easy to prepare (add boiling water, simmer for 5 mins) and you can make it taste however you want. I only eat it in one meal per day currently, but mix it with tomato pasta sauce, olive oil and cayenne pepper, then add to pasta - yummy!
> 
> ...


Ok I've ordered some of this ****, sounds delicious (horrible), but 50g per 100g of protein for 4 quid a kilo, i'll take that! 

EDIT -- Oh ****ing hell, I just read your other topic Alastair lol! Well even if it has crap bioavailability, I guess i'll just have to eat a lot more of it!


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## DNC (Jan 8, 2009)

Uriel said:


> :thumbup1:
> 
> Serves 3 apparently:whistling:


These triangles are popping up all over the place mate:lol:


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## BigDom86 (Jul 27, 2008)

dog5566 said:


> tesco are doing 1kg of frozen chicken brests for £3.20, and i like sainsburys white fish 520g for £1.94, and there doing 1kg of muesli for 58p wich is not bad,


you realise that is like 1g salt per 100g right? i used to eat it and my BP shot up, looked at all my foods and realised i was eating a pack a day. that is 10g salt a day!!! stay away from alot of frozen meat as its packed with salt


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