How to Bulk With a Low Appetite
While exercising is crucial for gaining both muscle and strength, an arguably more important factor is your diet. Although macronutrients such as protein, fats, and carbs are vital to your diet, most people generally get enough of them. However, something that people do struggle to get enough of are calories.
Calories are the primary source of energy during your workouts, allowing you to lift heavier and perform more reps. This results in calories being a driving force behind putting on size and gaining strength, leading to people undergoing a phase called “bulking,” where they consume calories in a surplus to grow more physically.
Despite the seemingly simple task of eating more, it is much more difficult than people think, especially for those who typically have a low appetite. Although eating so much food can be mentally and physically challenging, there are strategies to increase your caloric intake without being overwhelmed by food that I personally, as someone with a low appetite, can say are effective.
1. Liquid Calories
The concept of liquid calories is fairly self-explanatory, but essentially it describes the consumption of calories in liquid form. This idea often takes shape in the form of protein shakes that are filled with calorically dense ingredients such as peanut butter and bananas.
The effectiveness of liquid calories as a strategy lies in the science behind it. Liquid calories are normally easier to intake and digest, making it less satiating than solid foods. This results in your body receiving the same (if not more) amount of calories without feeling overly full, allowing you to have another meal later in the day and ultimately increase your caloric intake.
2. Incorporating Olive Oil
Olive oil is one of the easiest ways to increase your caloric intake without having much negative drawbacks. Not only is olive oil rich in antioxidants and healthy monounsaturated fats, provides anti-inflammatory effects, and reduces risks for cardiovascular and heart diseases, but it is calorically dense from its abundance in fat.
By adding olive oil into your protein shakes (your liquid calories) or your solid foods, you can increase the health benefits from your meal, your caloric intake, and make it taste better without compromising your stomach space.
3. Smaller, More Frequent Meals
Consuming too many calories at once can be detrimental to your bulk as it may be one of the reasons you have a low appetite. After a large meal, your body requires time and energy to digest the food. During this period, your body stops sending hunger signals that prevent you from feeling hungry. If you are not hungry, you won’t feel like eating the meals containing the necessary calories and macros you desire.
To address this, you can eat smaller meals more often. This allows your body to never be excessively full and allows your appetite to be reserved for more meals.
4. Eating Earlier
The logic behind eating earlier is straightforward. The longer you are awake, the longer your eating window will be. This implies that your body will have more time to recover from meals, allowing you to eat more and effectively increase your caloric intake.
5. Lowering Your Fiber Intake
While fiber is essential for digestive and overall health, its satiating properties prevent you from feeling hunger for extended periods. During a bulk, this is undesirable because you want to be in a caloric surplus by eating frequent meals.
However, you should not cut fiber completely from your diet because of its numerous benefits such as decreasing risks for heart disease and bowel cancer. Instead, try to replace your high-fiber meals with lower-fiber alternatives or even fulfilling your fiber goals for the day with a small high-fiber snack such as an apple.
6. Less Cardio
During a bulk, your goal is to end the day on a caloric surplus. However, if you frequently do high intensity cardio such as running, you burn too much calories to remain in a surplus.
Since many of you likely lift, you already burn some calories. By stopping high-intensity cardio, you can minimize the amount of calories you burn and stay in a caloric surplus to optimize muscle and strength gains. Nonetheless, that does not mean you need to eliminate cardio completely. You can still substitute running with more moderate cardio activities such as walking and still reap the same benefits, such as improved cardiovascular health.
By incorporating these changes into your diet progressively, you’ll find that bulking with a low appetite becomes significantly easier. Good luck on your fitness journey, and feel free to follow if you found these tips helpful!
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