On paper, a “bulk” sounds like a dream for many lifters. Eat all the food, make all the gains…something along those lines. But the reality is quite different. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that when you’re deep into a massing phase, you can start to long for the days when you get to eat in a deficit. Okay, maybe a bit extreme. But the grass is always greener on the other side, am I right? One of the biggest struggles in sticking to a surplus comprised of high-quality foods during a growth phase is a lack of appetite. This can create problems because just as consistently being in a caloric deficit is imperative for fat loss, so too do we need to consistently be in a calorie surplus to build muscle. Below are 3 less-known tips to help overcome appetite struggles during massing phases.
Wake up earlier
This could be a tough one for those of you who like your lie-ins in the mornings, but your late mornings and late nights can actually start to create a vicious circle that hinders your ability to hit all your calories. When you wake up late, you’re already forced to have your first meal later in the day, which pushes your next meal time further, and the next, and so on. Before you know it, it’s already 10 pm and you still have 1,000 calories left to eat, 80% of those carbs. Going to sleep on a full stomach isn’t a great way to ensure a good night’s sleep. Odds are that you’ve had to stay up late to get your remaining food in, which is now going to disturb your sleep, resulting in you sleeping late the following morning just to feel rested. The process repeats and you’re always left chasing your tail. If you wake up earlier, not only can you start fitting in your meals sooner, odds are that you’ll be more productive in the day anyway, allowing you to hit your meals on time and still go to sleep at a reasonable hour.
2. Favour smaller, more frequent meals over fewer, huge portions
This one often catches people out, because they think “I’ll just eat bigger meals, and that way I’ll be able to hit my calories much easier.” While in theory that sounds, in practice, it doesn’t often work as well. The problem with eating very large meals is that you’ll still be digesting that meal after 4-6 hours, and not have much of an appetite by the time you’re due to eat again. This can push meal times later in the day and cause issues with sleep. From a comfort standpoint, very large meals just don’t feel that good on your body. You feel bloated, and sluggish and good luck getting anything done after that. Just think about how you feel after going a bit too wild at an all-you-can-eat buffet. Large portions can also impact training times because you’re not going to be in a good state to train after 1-2 hours if you’ve just knocked back 1,500 calories. Later training will have a knock-on effect on subsequent meals, and we’re back to problem number 1.
3. Factor in food volume
While it’s always nice to have some more variety in your food choices from time to time, there’s a reason that the old staples of bodybuilding have stood the test of time. Certain foods just tend to be more conducive to fat loss phases and others to massing phases. Case in point, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and butternut squash are great options during fat-loss phases when calories get low because the volume still stays relatively even at lower weights. But this is a problem when you’re trying to take in 700g of carbs because it’s going to be very difficult to stomach over 3kg of sweet potato (yeah, I did the math so you don’t have to) per day. Compare that with rice, pasta, and fruits and it’s clear which is going to be more feasible. The same goes for proteins. During difficult fat loss phases, sticking with foods that are made up of a single macronutrient is advisable, meaning that we don’t want to spend a huge portion of our daily fats while we get in our protein. Salmon is a good example of this, which is a great food but very high in fat as well as protein. This reduces our food volume. During a massing phase, this can be very beneficial as it allows us to kill two birds with one stone and eat them both for extra calories. That said, as carbohydrates are still going to be preferable over fats to drive on size, we don’t want to overdo it with our 2-for-1 protein choices.
To summarise, wake up earlier, eat smaller meals more often, and try not to choose foods that are already very filling. Doing these 3 things will set you up for a much smoother growing phase, which often ends prematurely because it simply becomes too much effort to eat all the food.
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