---
title: 'How To Bulk Like A Pro (Using Science)'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=OqRvmJ2eyBA'
video_id: 'OqRvmJ2eyBA'
date: 2026-07-01
duration_sec: 801
---

# How To Bulk Like A Pro (Using Science)

> Source: [How To Bulk Like A Pro (Using Science)](https://youtube.com/watch?v=OqRvmJ2eyBA)

## Summary

This video explains why a proper bulking phase is the most effective way to build muscle, countering the common fear of fat gain. Jeff shares his personal year-long bulk results, including significant lean mass increases measured by DEXA and ultrasound, and provides a science-based blueprint for diet, training, and supplements.

### Key Points

- **Personal bulk experience** [0:00] — Jeff has been on a proper bulk for a full year with optimized training and nutrition, achieving the most gains in years.
- **Dirty bulks vs main gaining** [0:48] — Old-school dirty bulks cause excessive fat gain, while main gaining (recomp) limits muscle growth. A proper bulk balances both.
- **Measurable muscle gain** [1:27] — Jeff's bulk since January has been tracked with DEXA and ultrasound, showing significant muscle gain. He is a subject of a McMaster University case study.
- **Evolutionary rationale for surplus** [2:41] — Your body prioritizes survival over muscle building. A caloric surplus signals that starvation is not a threat, allowing energy to be allocated to muscle growth.
- **Research evidence** [3:18] — A study showed the bulking group (4,300 cal/day) gained significantly more fat-free mass than the main-gaining group (2,500 cal/day), with no additional fat gain in beginners.
- **Recommended weight gain rate** [4:13] — Beginners: 1-2% of body weight per month. Intermediate/advanced: 0.5-1% per month. Example: a 170 lb intermediate should gain 1-2 lb per month.
- **Calorie surplus target** [5:04] — A 5-10% surplus above maintenance is sufficient. Jeff maintains at 2,800 cal, bulks at ~3,000 cal. A dirty bulk of 50-100% surplus causes rapid fat gain.
- **Protein and fat guidelines** [6:34] — Eat 0.7-1 g of protein per pound of body weight. Keep dietary fat at 20-30% of total calories. Jeff eats 170 g protein, ~80 g fat on 3,000 cal.
- **Training is key** [9:15] — Training triggers muscle growth; diet alone is not enough. Beginners should focus on basics; intermediates need 8-15 sets per muscle per week; advanced can use specialization programs.
- **Cardio on a bulk** [10:50] — Yes, do moderate cardio (e.g., walks, basketball) 2-3 times per week to improve conditioning and tolerate more volume, unless you have an active job.
- **Supplement stack** [11:27] — Basic: 5 g creatine, protein powder, 200 mg caffeine pre-workout. Additional: fish oil (2 g EPA+DHA), magnesium, vitamin D, multivitamin with ashwagandha (not broadly recommended).

## Transcript

I've been bulking for this entire year
straight an actual proper bulk with
optimized training and nutrition and
I've made the most gains that I've made
in years and in this video I'm going to
try to convince you to do the same if
you click this video I'm sure you're
interested in building some more muscle
but maybe you're not sure if bulking is
a good idea you've probably heard that
the heavy bulking that bodybuilders do
is outdated Bro Science but a lot of
people still do them three servings of
checks let's pour on I don't know 3 cups
of milk or so so that puts me about 170
G of of carbs 25 g of protein and about
25 G of fat for this whole bowl or you
may have even heard that you don't need
to bulk at all you can just main gain
meaning you maintain your weight while
gaining muscle don't bulk don't
cut main gain the reality is old school
dirty bulks do build muscle but they
also have a problem they cause way more
fat gain than muscle gate there are
thousands of stories from people online
who figured this out the hard way and
it's caused a lot of people to swing all
the way way back to the opposite end of
the spectrum never actually committing
to a bulk and playing it safe with main
gaining forever and sure main gaining is
possible but it has a problem too you'll
never build as much muscle with main
gaining as you will with a proper bulk
so in this video I'm going to explain
why bulking is most effective for
building Nole I'll show you the exact
meals that I'm eating in my own bulk and
I'll teach you how to set up your own
science-based bulking plan for maximum
muscle gain and minimum fat gain I've
been doing a proper bulk since January
1st so just about a year it's the first
serious bulk I've done in a long time
and I've built a significant amount of
muscle measured by both dexa and
ultrasound so that's tiny little Gap
that's fat and then from here to here is
all muscle and did I mention that is my
weaker arm and that I can't reveal
exactly how much muscle I've gained yet
cuz I'm the subject of a case study at
McMaster University but I'll say it's
more than I expected and I'll reveal the
results of that study in the New Year if
your main goal is to build muscle and
you've never done a proper bolt before I
strongly encourage you to do what I did
this year I'm not the only one who's had
success with bulking here a few examples
from some of my followers who've also
done bulking the proper way this is what
you can expect when you actually commit
to a bulk and do it right a bulk is when
you eat more calories than you expend
putting your body in a caloric Surplus
if you do this you'll gain weight and if
you bulk the right way that weight
should mostly come from muscle instead
of fat a lot of people completely
freestyle their bulk gain a ton of fat
and end up giving bulking a worse rep
than it actually deserves now at this
point you're probably wondering why
should I do a bulk anyway why not just
recomp forever the answer is that you'll
never build as much muscle through
recomping as you will through proper
bulky you'll probably never reach your
full muscular potential that's because
your body doesn't really care about
building muscle your body cares about
survival in evolutionarily speaking
survival means not starving to death so
if your body doesn't have a surplus of
calories it'll use the limited energy
available to do more important things
like making sure that your organs have
enough glucose empowering your immune
system to fight off pathogens again you
can still build some muscle in a caloric
deficit or at caloric maintenance as
long as you train hard it just won't be
as high on the priority list on the
other hand if you're in a caloric
Surplus your body knows that starvation
isn't a threat and it can allocate more
energy toward the less evolutionarily
imminent process of getting more jacked
the research shows this as well this
study had one group of subjects main
gain on about 25 200 calories per day
and another group bulk on about 4,300
calories per day both groups followed
the same training plan for 8 weeks and
after 8 weeks the Bulan group gains
significantly more fat free mat I found
it super surprising that in this study
the bulking group actually didn't gain
any fat either it was basically all lean
tissue that they gained but that's
probably because they were new lifters
when you look at studies on more
experienced subjects bulking still
causes more muscle gain but it also
causes more fat gain but again there is
a way to avoid that excess fat gain and
next I'll explain exactly how to do that
through your diet training cardio and
supplements how much fat you gain on
your bulk mainly depends on how fast you
gain weight if you gain weight too
quickly the majority of that weight will
be fat building muscle takes time and
you can't force feed muscle growth the
general scientific consensus for lean
bulking is to gain 1 to 2% of your body
weight per month if you're a beginner
and 0.5 to 1% of your body weight per
month if you're an intermediate to
Advanced lifter so let's just say you've
been training for 2 years and you weigh
170 lb that means you should gain about
1 to 2 lb per a month on your bulk
that's pretty slow it means if you bulk
for the entire year like I'm doing you'd
gain 12 to 24 lb if you're closer to
being a beginner it's definitely
possible that 100% of your weight gained
could be from lments especially if you
have good genetics but if you've been
training for a while and you're closer
to your so-called natural muscular limit
half of it could be lean and the other
half could be fat in my opinion that's
okay though because you've still made
gains rather than just spinning your
wheels and you can always do a cut after
your bulk is over to trim that fat off
as long as you cut Rel ATIV L slowly
train smart and eat enough protein you
should retain most of that new muscle
that you added on your bulk so to gain
weight at the appropriate rate how many
calories should you eat well you
definitely shouldn't do the old school
dirty bulking approach where you just
eat as much as humanly possible these
dirty bulks usually result in a massive
caloric Surplus as much as 50 to 100%
above maintenance without some serious
anabolic assistance that type of bulk
will simply cause rapid fat gain instead
studies show that even a 5 to 10%
caloric Surplus is enough to give your
body the resources that it needs to lay
down new muscle tissue without ramming
those extra calories into your fat
stores I maintain my weight at around
2800 calories per day if I eat 2,800
calories I don't gain weight and I don't
lose weight so when I bulk I simply
increase my calories by 5 to 10% up to
around 3,000 calories per day then I'll
adjust those calories up or down
depending on if I'm gaining too fast or
too slow if you don't know your
maintenance calories you can simply
multiply your body weight in pounds by
14 to 18 and that should get you in the
right ballpark or you can screenshot the
steps on screen to figure it out for
yourself or better still you can
download the macro Factor app for 2
weeks for free track your weight and
what you eat for those two weeks and the
app will give you an extremely accurate
number for your metabolic rate and your
maintenance calories the app will also
update and adjust your calories
throughout your bulk as your metabolism
adapts and it's the app that I've been
using to run my own nutrition for this
entire year I'm a part owner and I help
develop the app so if you're interested
I'll have a little more info about that
at the end okay so that's how you set
your calories up but you obviously
shouldn't get all those calories from
donuts and ice cream you need to eat
enough protein to lay down new muscle
tissue the best science shows that 0.7
to 1 g of protein per pound of body
weight is plenty when bulky so I weigh
180 lb and I've been eating about 170 g
of protein per day on my bulk you also
want to monitor your fat intake on your
bulk too little dietary fat can lower
testosterone but too much fat can lead
to excess fat gate despite what low carb
Advocates say dietary fat is much more
easily stored as body fat than
carbohydrate is that's because fat is
already fat while carbs have to be
converted to Fat through a fairly uous
biochemical process before they can be
stored as fat so I'm not a fan of high
fat bulks or low fat bulks ideally 20 to
30% of your total calories should come
from fat based on these numbers going
back to me in my 3,000 calorie bulk I
should eat between 65 and 100 G of fat
per day I usually land around 80 g per
day so this is my protein this is my my
fat and then I just fill in any
remaining calories with carbs pretty
easy all right and this is what a full
day of bulking looks like for me I
usually wake up at around 7:30 a.m. and
I have an energy drink or a coffee
coffee is probably the healthier option
since it's packed with antioxidants and
has a huge body of science showing
health benefits I think energy drinks
are also okay in moderation I'm not
hungry when I first wake up so I end up
eating breakfast at around 10:00 a.m.
which is 1 cup of egg whites and one
whole egg scrambled with one slice of
turkey bacon mushrooms onions and
spinach and I put 15 G of shredded
cheese on top of the eggs and for carbs
I have 60 G of oats with almond milk and
100 G of blueberries I also take most of
my supplements with this Meal which I'll
come back to in a minute if it's a busy
morning and I don't have time to cook
I'll just have a protein shake with some
oats at 1:00 p.m. I have my pre-workout
meal which is 100 G of lean ground
turkey jasmine rice Greek yogurt
shredded cheese Sriracha a kiwi and 100
G of blackberries after this meal I have
a pre-workout supplement and then I
train about an hour later after training
I have a protein shake and a banana and
then in the evening my diet becomes a
lot more flexible some nights I'll order
a peita or a burrito sometimes I get
sushi or Thai food but it's often
chicken potato sour cream and broccoli
with a side of roasted sunflower seeds
for healthy fats then before bed it's
Greek yogurt honey and peanut butter
with a side of popcorn if I have any
calories left over I usually have
something sweet like some candy or
chocolate again when you track your
Macros you can be a lot more flexible
with the foods you eat and you can even
eat some junk food as long as it fits in
your daily totals and remember when
you're bulking you have a higher caloric
intake than usual that means you need to
make sure that you're putting those
calories to use in the gym a lot of
people make the awful mistake of
slacking off with their training on
their bulk and I've done this in the
past myself but this is a Surefire way
to guarantee that you gain more fat than
muscle after all it's your training
that's going to trigger new muscle
growth as important as your diet is your
training is what will determine how much
muscle you gain on your bulk so you need
to take it seriously if you're still in
your first year of training focus on the
basics when proper technique for the
basic EX ex sizes and learn to push
yourself hard with good form splits
don't really matter at this point bro
split push both legs upper lower full
body they all work pick what you like
just try to be in the gym at least 3
days per week with four to five gym days
per week likely being most optimal if
you're an intermediate meaning you've
been training hard for 1 to 3 years you
can start to add some more volume as an
intermediate you should be doing more
sets than you did as a beginner but
intensity is still the most important
thing at this stage you should be doing
around 8 to 15 sets per muscle per week
big complex muscles like the back seem
to tolerate more volume so you might
want to do more sets for your back than
you do for your chest I'll put a table
up here on screen from my upcoming book
the muscle ladder breaking down weekly
set volumes that I recommend for each
muscle at this stage it might also be
smart to ditch the Bro split for one of
the other options since it'll help you
avoid junk falling if you're an advanced
trainee meaning you've been training
hard and smart for more than 3 years you
could consider running a specialization
program for your bulk this is when you
increase your training volume for just
one or two muscles at a time for example
if you need to bring up your delts you
could add 20 to 40% more volume for your
shoulders each week so if you currently
do 15 sets for your shoulders each week
increase that to 18 to 20 sets per week
this is also in things like length and
partials my reps and advanced exercise
techniques can help you e those extra
marginal gains should you do cardio on a
bulk I think for the most part yes you
should the idea that cardio kills your
gains is based on outdated lowquality
science staying in good cardiovascular
shape as you bulk is not only good for
your health it also help you tolerate
more volume if your cardio sucks you're
really going to struggle through your
leg days you may not be able to get as
many reps as you could have gotten if
your conditioning was better that's
because your heart and lungs will give
out before your legs do that said if you
work a very active job such as in
construction or as a server you may not
need any extra cardio at all but if you
work a desk job you probably should do
some extra cardio I personally do two or
three moderate intensity cardio sessions
per week by going for a brisk walk or
playing some late basketball for
supplements I've talked about all the
basic boring stuff in other videos so I
won't go into those details again here
the basic advice is to Take 5 G of
creatine per day use protein powder as
you need it and consider taking about
200 Mig of caffeine before your workouts
as long as it doesn't mess with your
sleep but on this bulk there are a few
other things that have been taking I
take six fish oil capsules every morning
which gives me two grams of combined EPA
and DHA eating more Omega-3s is one of
the easiest things you can do to improve
nearly every facet of your health from
your heart to inflammation to brain
function and anxiety I've also been
taking a magnesium supplement before bed
low magnesium is associated with low
testosterone and poor sleep two things
that are very important for muscle gain
I also take a vitamin D supplement
because I don't get a lot of sunlight
low vitamin D is also linked with low
testosterone so if you aren't getting
enough naturally supplementation is an
easy way to prevent your test levels
from dropping other than that I take a
basic multivitamin in the morning with
600 Mig of ashwaganda root although I
don't really feel like there's quite
enough safety data on ashwaganda yet for
me to recommend it broadly and if you
guys want to optimize your bulk like
I've done this year I'd strongly
recommend downloading macro fact you can
try it out for 2 weeks for free if you
use code Jeff when you download the app
it's the only app that uses
science-based algorithms to figure out
your exact metabolism and then it
updates your nutrition each week just
like a coach would it really is like
having me as your own personal nutrition
coach but for a tiny fraction of the
cost it also comes with all kinds of
amazing tracking tools so you can
monitor not only your calories and
macros but also every vitamin and
mineral that way you can figure out what
foods you need to eat more of and what
foods you need to eat less of to improve
your health we just hit 200 100,000
active users and we have an amazing
engaged community on Facebook and Reddit
that you can be a part of if you have
any questions about the app you'll
always get an answer there so I'll put a
link to the free trial in the
description box down below or you can
scan this QR code over here next to my
head and try it out for yourself don't
forget to leave me a thumbs up if you
enjoyed the video subscribe if you
haven't already and I'll see you guys
all here in the next one