What Is Dirty Bulking? (And Should You Do It?)

What is dirty bulking?

Dirty bulking is a weight-gain diet that focuses on calories over nutrition. To build lots of muscle quickly, you have to provide your body with material to build that muscle, in the form of food. “Dirty bulking” is an all-out, devil-may-care form of this, where an athlete prioritizes sheer calorie numbers over careful intake of specific nutrients, eating anything and everything they can get their hands on in order to gain mass. By anything, we mean anything: burgers for breakfast, milkshakes for lunch, and maybe even some German chocolate cake as a midafternoon snack. Sometimes, dirty bulkers do monitor and target their protein intake, since more protein intake lends itself to more fat, after a certain point.

Dirty Bulking vs. Clean Bulking

Clean bulking facilitates weight gain through a more controlled diet. Clean, or “lean,” bulking is the more trusted and proven method of weight gain for muscle building. On a clean bulk, athletes eat a more balanced and nutritionally dense diet that supports and sustains their body and weight gain, and control or avoid “dirty” or less productive calories and nutrients from sugars and fats. Clean bulking takes a little more effort and planning, since your diet on a clean bulk is more closely monitored.

Pros & Cons of Dirty Bulking

Dirty bulking is easier and ensures a calorie surplus. There’s one thing to be said about dirty bulking, which is that it’ll make sure you have a calorie surplus, and as a result, you will gain weight. That’s pretty easy to do when you’re on an unrestricted diet and are aiming for quantity over quality, and you may even gain more weight than with a clean bulk. It’s also easier to do a dirty bulk: eat high-calorie foods, avoid low-calorie foods. All said, it is a simpler diet for muscle gain.

Dirty bulking can lead to a higher fat-to-muscle ratio. In a study of 600 athletes, researchers found that athletes who focused on high calorie intake had an average fat gain of 15%, as opposed to a mere 2% fat gain in athletes with a controlled weight gain diet. That means that even after you gain weight on a dirty bulk, you’ll have a fair amount of cutting to do if you want good muscle definition.

Dirty bulking can lead to health and heart complications. When you’re eating whatever you want in order to gain weight, you’re probably reaching for a lot of processed foods. Overeating processed foods, like sweets, precooked meals, and processed meats is widely known to contribute to heart disease, diabetes, stroke, cancer, and a number of other health risks and complications. Not to mention that low-quality foods can decrease testosterone, which means less gains at the gym.

Dirty bulking can affect your workout performance. Even if you only dirty bulk for a short while, you’ll still be held back in the gym. Your body needs all sorts of nutrients and proteins in order to perform at its best and avoid injury, and you won’t get enough of those from sugary, fatty, processed foods. What’s more, your body burns fewer calories when it’s running on processed foods, meaning it’s harder to lose built-up fat, and you’ll feel more sluggish during a workout.

Should you try dirty bulking?

Experts recommend staying away from dirty bulking. While anecdotal evidence from some athletes may champion the diet, researchers and health experts warn against it for 2 primary reasons. First, the health risks just aren’t worth it. And second, even if it’s only for a short while, there’s no hard evidence that a dirty bulk is any more productive or effective than a clean bulk. In fact, a study of 600 athletes’ diets found that athletes who focused on calorie count had no increased muscle mass over those partaking in a controlled diet.

Bulking More Effectively

Shoot for a 300-500 calorie surplus each day for 16-26 weeks. A calorie surplus is when you intake more calories than you burn. During a clean bulk, aim to have a surplus of about 300-500 calories every day, until you hit your target weight. Most effective bulking durations go for about 16-26 weeks, after which you should return to a normal diet. Also, some experts recommend aiming to gain 0.5–1 lb (0.23–0.45 kg) per week. Use a calorie and workout tracking app or a fitness tracker watch to more easily and effectively track your calories. To reach this goal, eat 3 meals a day, with 2-4 snacks throughout.

Aim to get about 30% of your daily calories from protein. Certified personal trainer Danny Gordon says that for effective weight gain, athletes need about 0.8 g of protein per their body weight in pounds each day. For a 150 lb (68 kg) athlete, that’s about 110-150 g. The good news is that if you’re regularly working out and eating varied, balanced meals, you’re probably already getting that much. Great protein-rich foods include coldwater fish, milk, lean meats and poultry, or Greek yogurt. Many athletes supplement their protein intake with protein bars, shakes, and other products, but excess protein has diminishing returns, and is stored as fat, which can be counterproductive.

Aim for 50% of your daily calories to be complex carbs. Carbohydrates are your main source of calories, both on and off bulking, but not all carbs are created equal. Complex carbs are nutrient dense and supply plenty of much-needed energy, while “simple carbs” are essentially empty calories—they’ll make you full, but won’t fuel you. Complex carbs include things like bread, rice, pasta, legumes, starchy vegetables, and fruits.

Aim to get 20% of your daily calories from unsaturated fats. Unsaturated fats help balance cholesterol, stabilize your heart, and promote a number of other beneficial effects while bulking. Unsaturated fats include foods like avocados, olive oils, seeds, and nuts. These ought to make up about 15-30% of your clean bulking diet.

Incorporate resistance training into your bulking workouts. All those nutrients don’t do you much good if you’re not putting them to use! Keep up your resistance training (weights and strength training) throughout your bulk to ensure you’re bulking your muscles, and not just your belly. Hit the free weights, weight machines, resistance bands, and even bodyweight exercises to target your entire body.