Offseason diet. Do you dirty bulk or clean bulk?

[LoveCompeting]

Clean or Dirty Bulk? What is your preference?

Since we are on the subject how about a picture of one of the best pro's in the IFBB, Shawn Rhoden. Here here is posing in the off season and as you can see he likes his dirty foods. He gets very bloated with lots of water retention in his off season. Never been a fan of this look personally......

 

[AlexPowell]

For me dirty bulking made it so I was not absorbing nutrients.

That guy you posted doesn't look like he eats a lot of bad food. Those shoes though, sweet Jesus.

 

[jrock645]

Mostly clean, but I enjoy a cheat day each week. Within reason, anything goes that day. Now that doesn’t mean eat a whole dozen doughnuts or eat to the point of being sick, but for each meal that day, I’ll basically enjoy what I want.

 

[jdwaca]

Clean or Dirty Bulk? What is your preference?

Since we are on the subject how about a picture of one of the best pro's in the IFBB, Shawn Rhoden. Here here is posing in the off season and as you can see he likes his dirty foods. He gets very bloated with lots of water retention in his off season. Never been a fan of this look personally......

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I personally know several pros that look like this in the off-season and they don’t eat “dirty” foods. For the most part, their diet is the same as contest prep, but with more of what they normally eat.

 

[Whisky]

It’s far easier to change the relationship you have with food so that you enjoy the foods that are doing you good and don’t ‘miss’ the foods that don’t.....

This takes a bit of effort (in the kitchen and from a planning perspective) but when you look at top restaurants you’ll find the vast majority use good quality whole foods and cook them well, tastes awesome. Replicate that at home and there’s no need to ‘dirty’ bulk, you just eat in a surplus, stay leaner and feel better.

 

[AntM1564]

Clean or Dirty Bulk? What is your preference?

Since we are on the subject how about a picture of one of the best pro's in the IFBB, Shawn Rhoden. Here here is posing in the off season and as you can see he likes his dirty foods. He gets very bloated with lots of water retention in his off season. Never been a fan of this look personally......

View attachment 169626

I hate the terms dirty bulking and clean bulking because the majority of form users are going to equate those terms with food choices when that has nothing to do with it. Regardless of food choice, it comes down to caloric surplus. But to answer your question, I think clean bulking is better, or trying to put on lean mass more than fat, since there is potential for a shorter cutting period.

Also, keep in mind, most top level pros do not put on a lot of fat during the offseason. I don't know who is in that photo, but if you look at top level pros, they are simply carrying more water and glycogen, with a little more fat. This is more than likely due to their drug regime offseason.

 

[Lionheart1776]

For my first bulk, I eventually fell into the balanced approach. Stick to the meal plan 6 days a week (750 KCAL surplus) and have a sorta cheat day once per week on my hardest training day. On the cheat day I'd let myself have up to a 2000 kcal surplus, but the way I'd work out is I'd usually just eat my normal food out of habit and get to full to have the cheat day so i'd end up pretty modestly most weeks (Maybe 400-1000 extra calories of junk food type stuff).

I'd personally hate the idea of dirty bulking as long term habbit, I'd be worried about the icky bloated feeling, mal-absorption of nutrients, and excess fat gain personally. It's such a pain in the ass to have to diet as well, especially if it's avoidable going in. Not to mention most people I see posting about dirt bulking aren't exactly eating chicken and oats, but much more palatable food that isn't exactly healthy or easy on the body especially in larger amounts and in a caloric surplus.

Another concern I'd be worried about with dirty bulking is it causing insulin resistance to sky rocket. John Meadows talks about how if we get insulin resistant less of the nutrients we consume get shuttled into our muscles and more of them get shuttled into fat instead. With that basic premise, wouldn't dirty bulk being doubly bad from a body composition stand point? You'll shoveling food in, which is making you insulin resistant quicker. Which shuttles more of the food into the fat cells, which since your eating more calories that would be even quicker fat gain. A negative feedback loop?

So to summarize my preference is leaning very strongly for the clean bulk with a sorta of cheat day once per week at most. I also want to able to grow longer so I expect as I advance as a weight lifter I'll probably get tighter and tighter with the bulks as I get more satisfied with my LBM and also leaner since muscles look a lot better when they are not covered with fat.

I think we can all agree that dirty bulks are probably more fun thou :silly:

 

[jdwaca]

I hate the terms dirty bulking and clean bulking because the majority of form users are going to equate those terms with food choices when that has nothing to do with it. Regardless of food choice, it comes down to caloric surplus. But to answer your question, I think clean bulking is better, or trying to put on lean mass more than fat, since there is potential for a shorter cutting period.

Also, keep in mind, most top level pros do not put on a lot of fat during the offseason. I don't know who is in that photo, but if you look at top level pros, they are simply carrying more water and glycogen, with a little more fat. This is more than likely due to their drug regime offseason.

Lol. That’s Shawn Rhoden. Top Olympia contender. He’s usually in the top 5. He placed second behind Phil in 2016....I think.

 

[AlexPowell]

Lol. That’s Shawn Rhoden. Top Olympia contender. He’s usually in the top 5. He placed second behind Phil in 2016....I think.

I've talked to a lot of people about this, everyone puts on muscle best at a different body fat percentage. This is why I don't like the "reverse diet" because most people don't build muscle effectively at 6%, so taking as long as possible to get to 9% body fat doesn't really make sense for a lot of people. You may as well get there as quick as possible so you can put your body in the position where it wants to grow.

I know for myself personally, I've never managed to put on a lot of muscle when lean. I've tried pretty much every way of dieting and every time I always start adding muscle when I can just sort of see my abs if the lighting is right. My fat levels never increased past that though, no matter how much I ate.

So some people build muscle best leaner (like Ramy) and others require a higher bf percentage

 

[Smont]

Dirty birdy, 80% clean, 20% garbage. Swiss cake rolls and zebra cakes after a clean meal every other day

 

[LoveCompeting]

I've talked to a lot of people about this, everyone puts on muscle best at a different body fat percentage. This is why I don't like the "reverse diet" because most people don't build muscle effectively at 6%, so taking as long as possible to get to 9% body fat doesn't really make sense for a lot of people. You may as well get there as quick as possible so you can put your body in the position where it wants to grow.

I know for myself personally, I've never managed to put on a lot of muscle when lean. I've tried pretty much every way of dieting and every time I always start adding muscle when I can just sort of see my abs if the lighting is right. My fat levels never increased past that though, no matter how much I ate.

So some people build muscle best leaner (like Ramy) and others require a higher bf percentage

I firmly believe the reverse diet is for people who hate feeling fat while bulking. In my opinion if a person cares more about how they look when the number one priority is packing on mass and making progress with muscle growth, along with added strength then they are simply in the wrong sport. Unless you are on serious gear, you cannot add muscle naturally without adding higher bodyfat. Some people need to add lots of bodyfat during a bulk to put on muscle. Thats just how it is. Bulks are temporary anyway so why not enjoy eating , training, and adding muscle? When you cut down again you are going to be glad you made that decision.

Or a person can simply take the route of staying lean all year round. Not really gonna ever pack on serious mass but you will always look shredded to many people.