Bulking - Sources of carbs for a cheapass/picky eater

[JeanLannes]

How do I do it? I tried oats and rice; even through they're great for price there's just no way I can stomach them. Thought about trying keto but I like eating fruits

[BenM]

Bread, pasta, crumpets... what sort of foods do you like?

[BostonRugger]

You can also learn to make better, more palatable oats and rice. They don’t have to taste like animal feed.

[broseph]

Breakfast cereal

[Wilhelm]

Thought about trying keto...

I promise you, bulking on keto is no picnic.

[GrainsAndGains]

I would hate to share a bathroom with someone bulking while on keto.

Plain pretzels - the plain, salted kind you get in the snack aisle with no added flavoring - are pretty decent. No added sugar, they have a bit of fat but it shouldn't be enough to bust your macros. Ditto with rice cakes - the plain kinds are best but the white cheddar and caramel rice cakes have OK macros as well. Also, zero prep.

I like Honey Nut cheerios a lot, especially as a pre-workout meal. Most of the nutrition comes from healthy whole grain oats, but there's a good dose of sugar to give you additional energy for your workout.

[augeleven]

Stolen from Andy Baker-Breakfast chocolate pudding: 1 cup of Greek yogurt, 1 scoop chocolate Protein powder (I like myprotein’s chocolate brownie) .5 cup of instant oats. Add water until it reaches your preferred consistency (I add coffee cuz breakfast). But you wanna be fancy, so through some breakfast cereal, or some tasty nuts nuts or chocolate chips from cupboard.
Rice isn’t really a good as much as it’s a vehicle for eating tasty sauces. If you can’t cook (it sounds like you can’t cook) hit up your local Trader Joe’s and get some of their summer sauces. They got a got a good Korma and Some great curries. Mix that in with your meat and rice (and beans, you can put black beans or lentils in anything). When you find one you like, try to reverse engineer it, so you don’t have to spend money on water and a bunch of spices.

[Wilhelm]

@GrainsAndGains, the input is where i struggle most.
But then again, i have a hard time imagining steadily getting 3,600+ for maintenance/slow gain on a standard diet w/o doing sugar.
No way i could eat that much rice.

I just think bulking is harder than cutting either way.

I also think OP is looking for the cheapest bulk carbs. Breakfast cereals aren't that.
Honestly though, i don't think there is an answer for as cheap as bulk oats or rice.

[augeleven]

The key to making oats and rice tasty is good spices.

Also both rice and oats have all this starch that begs to be turned into a yummy sauce with some cooking skills.
Stronger by Science did a bit on making a risotto, check that out.
If you’re not bothered by cultural appropriation, check out Thug Kitchen. They are vegan recipes, but you what makes a vegan recipe pop? Chicken. Maybe some butter or yogurt.
https://www.thugkitchen.com/recipes/cur ... d-potatoes

Also also, you know what has calories? Fat. What about some eggs or pork shoulder? Those are cheap and have protein as well as some fat. I really don’t buy the whole can’t bulk without sugar line- I can super bulk (all too well, unfortunately) on pantry staples like rice, dried beans, oats no problem.
Maybe the issue is when you want to grow all the muscles and no fat. I’m not sure if that’s possible, I don’t know.

Ok, enough dreaming about real food for me, I’ll go back down to the cutting thread where I belong...

[Wilhelm]

Yeah, i think you could push a little more fat and not have it be an issue.
I mean just enough to hit your target after the bulk of the rest of your food.

@augeleven, for me, trying to picture a bulk with carbs but no sugar, it's just the sheer volume of food that makes it sound undoable for me personally.
It's probably a lot more manageable for many people.

[GrainsAndGains]

I'm not so sure added sugar is a bad idea when you're bulking, as long as you're meeting a fiber minimum from other intake. If you're bulking, presumably you're living a relatively active lifestyle, right? So if you truly cannot eat anymore bulky, healthy carbs like rice, fruit and oats - which can definitely happen, especially when you're making sure to get 30+ grams of fiber - nothing wrong with a little sugar to get you over the macro finish line. It might even improve your athletic performance when timed around workouts.

[slowmotion]

I get most of my carbs from bread and potatoes.

[Wilhelm]

I'm not so sure added sugar is a bad idea when you're bulking...

Yeah, i just injected my own preference into the convo on that point. : )

My mind has wandered to this basic question though. CarbsXeconomyXvolume of food required w/o using sugar.

[5hout]

I'm not so sure added sugar is a bad idea when you're bulking...

Yeah, i just injected my own preference into the convo on that point. : )

My mind has wandered to this basic question though. CarbsXeconomyXvolume of food required w/o using sugar.

I can't find the link right now, but somewhere there is an ultralight backpacking spreadsheet of every food, the nutritional content and the weight pulled from USDA database. I think some excel-fu would let you find your answer.

[Wilhelm]

Eh, hopefully the last sidetrack (for me) on this.
I've used data bases for food values, and i am not really likely to follow this question all the way at this point, because switching isn't in the cards for me now.
But i can already see the sheer volume of food, for me, would be intolerable.
K, sorry for the derails.

[augeleven]

@Wilhelm well if you ever find yourself in north jersey, not on keto, and looking to really bulk, I’ll be your Italian aunt proxy cook for you

@JeanLannes, it sounds like your real question is “How do I cook food I want to eat?”

[JeanLannes]

@JeanLannes, it sounds like your real question is “How do I cook food I want to eat?”

I also think OP is looking for the cheapest bulk carbs. Breakfast cereals aren't that.
Honestly though, i don't think there is an answer for as cheap as bulk oats or rice.

You can also learn to make better, more palatable oats and rice. They don’t have to taste like animal feed.

In regards to cooking, I definitely need work on that, especially with oats. I find I can't really get the right consistency I want. I'm used to eating a crapload of weetbix and I wanted to replace that with oats seeing as I have this idea in my head that cereal is bad, but trying to make oats with the same texture feels really tough; It always ends up feeling too oat-like if that makes sense.

[mettkeks]

[mgil]

Wonder Bread

[BenM]

@JeanLannes there is nothing wrong with WeetBix as a carb source. I grew up on that stuff - at least 4 every morning with milk and brown sugar.

WeetBix does have some added sugar (here in Australia anyway) but not a lot and it's whole grains otherwise. There are higher fibre variants now and all sorts of other cool stuff too.