Dirty Bulking - Learn what dirty bulking is and how to dirty bulk

Dirty bulking for a lot of people is the easy road to take when looking to add muscle mass. If you’re looking to put on quality muscle mass as well as fat then dirty bulk. The dirty bulking diet is aimed more towards the skinny ectomorphs of this world. Ectomorphs are also referred to as hard gainers and will generally have a delicate, skinny and fragile body which struggles to build muscle due to their body type. When athletes/bodybuilders are looking to gain weight and put on muscle they are usually faced with two choices. They can either clean bulk or dirty bulk. For this article however we will focus on dirty bulking.

What is Dirty Bulking?

Dirty bulking is pretty self explanatory. Dirty bulking is where an individual will eat so called ‘dirty’ foods in order to put on weight and muscle. Now, the key word here is ’dirty’. A dirty bulking diet simply means that you will be taking in way over your maintenance level of calories for the day in order to try and build muscle and put on weight. Your diet will largely consist of a combination of good clean healthy foods such as chicken breasts, lean meats, brown rice, whey protein, vegetables and fruit as well as other ‘dirty’ foods which are generally high in saturated fat and sugar. Such foods may include Mc Donald’s, Burger King, KFC, ice cream, biscuits, chips and pies. It is also possible for a dirty bulking diet to consist of absolutely no clean foods whatsoever.

This would mean protein requirements will probably be coming from greasy fast food restaurants such as burger king whereas the rest of an individual’s macro-nutrients are not really monitored i.e. carbs and fat intake. So, to sum up, dirty bulking can be referred to as a diet where any food goes. Usually as long as daily protein requirements are met (at least 1g of protein per pound of bodyweight) the dirty bulking diet is considered effective. A combination of clean and dirty foods may be consumed when on a dirty bulking diet as previously mentioned although this is not entirely necessary. A dirty bulking diet made up completely of ‘dirty’ foods high in fat and sugar is not completely un-heard of and some bodybuilders will even swear by these types of diets.

Is Dirty Bulking Better than Clean Bulking?

In my opinion dirty bulking is not better than clean bulking. When a person dirty bulks or follows a dirty bulking diet, it can be very unhealthy. When following a dirty bulking diet a large percentage of your calories will be coming from junk food. This will mean that you are consuming a large amount of sugar and saturated fat on a daily basis which your body probably won’t be used to. High amounts of saturated fat and sugar are not good for your body and have been linked to potential health problems later on in life.

On to another important point. Dirty bulking will increase fat gains and lead to pro-longed periods of dieting later on. An athlete does not want to spend any more time dieting than is absolutely necessary as this means less time is spent building muscle. Therefore dirty bulking is not a popular choice. Don’t get me wrong, dirty bulking will add muscle mass to your frame if you are training correctly and getting in your daily protein requirements each day but will also make you fat. If you are fat muscle definition is going to be hidden by stubborn layers of body fat making it hard to ever show off a truly impressive physique.

Let me go into a bit more detail about this point. Bodybuilders, athletes and personal trainers are always telling people that “to get big you need to eat big”. Now I don’t disagree with this phrase for one second but many people interpret this the wrong way. If you want to get big you will need to eat a lot of food so this statement does hold true. Now that’s look at it another way. If you want to put on muscle with the minimum amount of fat you need to eat a sufficient amount of calories that will not impair your muscle growth potential but at the same time will not pile on pounds of fat. A dirty bulking diet is therefore not a good choice for this. Your body has a limit as to how many calories are optimum for putting on muscle and once it receives all the necessary nutrients to help it build new muscle any extra calories will be stored as fat. Some peoples potential to build muscle can be a lot higher than others so you will need to find the sweet spot so to speak where you know you have given your body all that it needs to grow and become bigger and stronger.

Why a dirty bulking diet is not needed

You do not need to dirty bulk and stuff your face with thousands of calories to put on muscle as this will only make you fat, it will not make you lean and muscular. Of course, to put muscle on you will need to be eating more calories but this does not mean you can eat as many calories as you like. Anywhere between 200 and 500 over your maintenance level is perfect for adding muscle as long as all other aspects of your training are in order such as rest, nutrition, protein levels and workouts. Follow a clean bulking diet as opposed to a dirty bulking diet and you won’t regret it.

Dirty bulking is a far less strict approach to gaining weight and muscle. Unfortunately the reality of bulking up is that you are going to gain a little bit of fat whether you dirty bulk or clean bulk. It will happen. However, it is certainly possible to minimize the fat you gain, keeping your body as lean as possible throughout your bulk. As I said, gaining a little fat is likely to happen and you shouldn’t worry about it. If your bulking correctly you probably won’t notice it too much so stick to a clean bulking diet and try and avoid the dirty bulking diet. Many athletes start off using a clean bulk which then accidently turns into a dirty bulk. Keep your discipline and stick with a clean bulking diet for around a month or so and you will soon get use to it and wont even think about dirty bulking ever again.

As a lot of you will know, athletes and bodybuilders like to switch between bulking and cutting routines. The bulking up routine is exactly how it sounds and involves athletes trying to gain as much muscle as they possibly can. On the other hand the cutting routine is where calories are gradually reduced to under maintenance level in the diet in an attempt to burn off fat. If a dirty bulking diet was followed it will mean that a person is going to have to spend a lot longer cutting as they would have gained more fat. More time cutting results in less time bulking and less time bulking means........thats right, less time building muscle.

Another important point to make about following a dirty bulking diet is that when you finally decide to cut and lose the unwanted fat you gained from your bulk, you are running the risk of losing more muscle mass. The longer you cut the greater the chance of losing muscle due to your body constantly being in a calorie deficit. This is definitely not what we want! Now, since a clean bulk will minimize fat gains and allow you to cut for a shorter period of time there is a great chance that you will maintain the majority of your muscle while burning off the unwanted pounds of fat. This is exactly what you want and is why I recommend sticking to a clean bulking diet instead of a dirty bulking diet.

Search for more great content below!


Other Articles You May Like:

How to lose stomach fat Learn what the best protein foods are to build muscle Clean bulking - Learn how to clean bulk

Other Resources:

Ezinearticles.com - The joys of dirty bulking

Tmuscle.com - The truth about bulking

Bodybuilding.com - Bulking, the right and wrong way to bulk