Recipes
Best bulking recipes: 15 meals over 700 calories
Eating in a surplus is harder than eating in a deficit, because volume runs out before calories do. These 15 meals clear 700 calories and 40 g of protein without becoming enormous.
Bulking fails on volume rather than willpower. Chicken breast, rice and vegetables at 700 calories is an enormous plate, and after 2 weeks of it most people stop. The fix is choosing foods where the calories are concentrated, so the portion stays normal.
The 15 meals below each provide roughly 700 to 1,000 calories with 40 g or more of protein. Every one uses ordinary ingredients, and none requires a weight-gainer powder.
Calorie and protein figures are approximate and depend on brands and portion sizes. Treat them as a starting point to weigh once and then estimate from, rather than as precise counts.
None of this is individual advice. A specific calorie target depends on bodyweight, training and goals, and is worth setting with a qualified professional rather than taking from a recipe page.
What are the best bulking meals?
A beef and rice bowl finished with olive oil, salmon with potatoes, and a milk-based smoothie are the 3 most useful. The first 2 reach roughly 900 calories on a normal-sized plate, and the smoothie adds 600 without any fullness at all.
The general principle is to make each component denser rather than each portion larger. Whole milk instead of skimmed, olive oil over the finished dish, full-fat yoghurt, and nut butter in anything sweet.
| Meal | Calories | Protein | What makes it dense |
|---|---|---|---|
| Beef mince and rice bowl | About 900 | About 45 g | Olive oil and full-fat cheese |
| Salmon, potatoes, aioli | About 850 | About 42 g | Oily fish plus a fat sauce |
| Peanut butter oats with whole milk | About 800 | About 35 g | Nut butter and dried fruit |
| Chicken thigh curry with rice | About 950 | About 48 g | Coconut milk and thigh meat |
| Steak sandwich with mayo | About 900 | About 45 g | Bread, fat sauce, cheese |
| Milk and peanut butter smoothie | About 600 | About 30 g | Liquid calories, minimal fullness |
| Pasta with pesto and chicken | About 950 | About 50 g | Pesto is mostly oil and nuts |
| Eggs, avocado and sourdough | About 750 | About 30 g | Avocado and olive oil |
| Lamb and couscous with tahini | About 900 | About 44 g | Tahini adds 90 calories a spoon |
| Tuna pasta with olive oil | About 800 | About 45 g | Cheap and very dense |
The additions that raise a meal
These 6 add calories without adding much volume, which is the entire skill in eating a surplus.
| Addition | Amount | Calories added | Where it disappears |
|---|---|---|---|
| Olive oil | 1 tbsp | About 120 | Over any finished dish |
| Peanut butter | 30 g | About 180 | Oats, smoothies, sauces |
| Whole milk instead of water | 300 ml | About 195 | Oats, soups, smoothies |
| Full-fat Greek yoghurt | 150 g | About 200 | Curries, bowls, desserts |
| Grated cheese | 40 g | About 165 | Pasta, rice, eggs |
| Dried fruit | 50 g | About 150 | Oats, couscous, snacks |
A day that reaches 3,500 calories
Written out, a large surplus looks far less daunting than it feels. This is 4 eating occasions with no meal that needs to be uncomfortable.
| When | What | Calories | Protein |
|---|---|---|---|
| Breakfast | Peanut butter oats with whole milk | About 800 | About 35 g |
| Lunch | Chicken thigh curry with rice | About 950 | About 48 g |
| Afternoon | Milk, peanut butter and banana shake | About 600 | About 30 g |
| Dinner | Pasta with pesto and chicken | About 950 | About 50 g |
| Extra | Full-fat yoghurt with dried fruit | About 300 | About 15 g |
| Total | Four meals and 1 snack | About 3,600 | About 178 g |
Note how much work the shake and the yoghurt do. Nine hundred of those calories require no cooking and produce very little fullness, which is exactly why they belong in a bulk rather than more food on the plates.
Five meals over 900 calories
These are the heaviest in the collection, and each still fits on a normal plate.
- Chicken thigh curry with rice. Thigh meat, coconut milk and a spoon of yoghurt at the end. About 950 calories and 48 g of protein.
- Pasta with pesto and chicken. Pesto is largely oil and pine nuts, so 3 tablespoons adds around 300 calories on its own.
- Beef mince and rice bowl. Mince, rice, cheese and olive oil over the top. Cheap, fast and about 900 calories.
- Steak sandwich with mayo and cheese. Roughly 900 calories, and the bread and sauce do as much work as the meat.
- Lamb and couscous with tahini. Tahini adds about 90 calories a tablespoon and a flavour that makes the dish rather than padding it.
What to keep in the house
A surplus is lost on the days nothing is in. These are the items that make a 900-calorie meal possible without a shop.
- Whole milk, 2 L at a time. The single most useful item, since it upgrades oats, coffee, sauces and shakes.
- Peanut butter, large jar. One hundred and eighty calories per 30 g, and it goes into sweet and savoury food equally.
- Olive oil, 1 L. One hundred and twenty calories a tablespoon over any finished dish.
- Chicken thighs, frozen in portions. Cheaper and denser than breast, and forgiving if you overcook them.
- Rice and pasta in bulk. The cheapest calories in the shop by a wide margin.
- Full-fat Greek yoghurt and dried fruit. A 300-calorie snack that requires no preparation at all.
Buying these in large sizes matters more here than in any other kind of eating, simply because of the volume involved. A bulk consumes roughly 50 percent more food than maintenance, and unit prices are where that cost is either absorbed or felt.
How do you eat this consistently?
Four meals rather than 3, one of them liquid. That single structural change is what makes a surplus sustainable, because it removes the need for any individual meal to be uncomfortably large.
- 1Eat 4 times. Three plates and 1 smoothie is far easier than 3 very large plates.
- 2Add fat at the table. A tablespoon of olive oil over a finished dish is 120 calories nobody notices.
- 3Choose fatty cuts. Chicken thigh over breast, salmon over cod, lamb over lean beef.
- 4Use whole milk everywhere. Oats, coffee, smoothies and sauces, which adds several hundred calories across a day.
- 5Cook in batches. Eating in a surplus fails on the days nothing is prepared, so cook double every time.
For the training side of the same week, ReciBites vs Strava covers where a training log stops and food planning has to start.
For the protein arithmetic underneath all of this, high-protein recipes has the per-ingredient numbers, and high-protein meal prep covers the weekly system. Breakfast is the meal most often wasted in a bulk, which high-protein breakfast ideas addresses.
If you are counting rather than estimating, track macros in recipes and calculate calories in a recipe both cover getting numbers out of food you invented. On tools, ReciBites vs Samsung Food and ReciBites vs Flavorish are the relevant comparisons.
Frequently asked questions
+What are good bulking meals?
A chicken thigh curry with rice at about 950 calories, a beef and rice bowl at 900, or pasta with pesto and chicken at 950. Each carries 45 g or more of protein.
+How do I eat more calories without feeling full?
Add fat and drink some of it. Olive oil, nut butter, whole milk and full-fat yoghurt are dense and filling far less than the same calories in solid volume.
+How many calories should a bulking meal have?
For a 3,000 calorie target across 4 eating occasions, roughly 700 to 900 each. Making one of them a smoothie is the easiest way to reach that.
+Is a smoothie good for bulking?
It is the single most useful tool. Whole milk, peanut butter, oats and a banana is about 600 calories and produces almost no fullness.
+Do I need a mass gainer powder?
No. Whole milk with peanut butter and oats provides the same calories and protein at a fraction of the cost, using ingredients you already buy.
+What is the cheapest way to add calories?
Olive oil at about 120 calories a tablespoon, and whole milk in place of water. Both cost very little and neither changes what the meal is.
+Should I eat chicken breast or thigh when bulking?
Thigh. It carries more calories per gram, costs less, and is far more forgiving to cook, which matters when you are cooking 4 times a day.
+How much protein do I need when bulking?
Commonly cited guidance is 1.6 to 2.2 g per kilogram of bodyweight. For a 80 kg person that is roughly 130 to 175 g, or about 45 g across 4 meals.
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