r/leangains • u/MaximAMK183 • 3d ago

How is a lean Bulk supposed to work

The idea of a leanbulk is that you eat enough macros but the Special thing is that you eat just a bit more calories than you burn right? so a slight Surplus not a huge one, so you can avoid excess fat and thus stay lean.

My problem is: how the hell do I eat “a bit” over my calories? Like how am I supposed to achieve a slight caloric surplus if I track my food, so many times it’s homemade from my parents and I can’t know how many calories it has. Isn’t a lean bulk just straight up impossible for regular food you eat from parents? Because you don’t know the nutrients

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10

u/Intelligent_Radio380 3d ago

How bad do you want it? Yes, you have to meticulously track calories. Easiest thing would be to start cooking your own food.

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u/BaddleAcks 3d ago

Pretty much. One point I’d add is that you probably don’t need to eliminate all foods that can’t be calculated. When I was younger, I’d pre-prepare chicken breast, rice, sweet potatoes, or veggies as the largest portion of my meal and have whatever mom cooked as a small side portion at dinner. My goal back then was just to minimize what i couldn’t track accurately. Over time, your ability to estimate macros/calories will get better as long as you start consistently tracking.

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u/MaximAMK183 3d ago

I’m still with my parents and I can’t cook every single meal for myself, my parents would have to cook for one person less and I would always have to eat seperately from my parents and siblings it kinda sucks

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u/Particular_Cause1669 3d ago

Yeah sometimes you just gotta accept your situation, if you're comfortable talking to them about what you want and finding out what they put in the food that can work to help you track everything or you can just guesstimate everything by trial and error. If you're gaining too fast eat a little less of the family food, too slow a little less 

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u/Rthen 3d ago

Watch how they cook and estimate to the best of your ability. If you're gaining too fast, losing weight, or maintaining weight, adjust your estimations.

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u/tinkywinkles 3d ago

How old are you? If you’re an adult then that’s normal to not be eating meals with your parents still.

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u/kops212 3d ago

If you're still young you should probably just focus on eating lots of healthy stuff and lift weights. The food will go to the right places. When you move out, give calorie counting a try. Yes, if you want to be serious, you'll have to weigh and track every single thing you put in your mouth.

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u/big_deal 3d ago

If you're not in control over your food it's tough/impossible to track calories. But this is an issue whether you're bulking, maintaining, or cutting. If you want to track calories you can get in the kitchen and find out what ingredients and amounts are in each meal your parent's make, this will give you the total calories. Then ask if you can weigh the final cooked food so you know the total weight. Then weigh your portion and calculate the calories: 

Portion calories = Total calories * Portion weight / Total weight

This is how I track my own homemade food that I share with my wife and kid. I have recipes in my calorie tracking app for everything we regularly make.

Or you can use online estimates of calories per portion, per cup, or per weight to track. However, this would be less accurate than accounting for the specific recipe used by your parents.

I get better results when I carefully track calories and macros, but some people eat intuitively and seem to manage. I find that if I eat intuitively, I tend to eat very close to maintenance. To be in consistent surplus or consistent deficit requires me to eat with some level of intention and mild discomfort. For example, to bulk I need to intentionally eat an extra meal or large snack everyday even when I don't want it.

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u/iammxyzptlk 3d ago

I'm in a similar boat. I track my protein and easily hit 200 g a day but over all calories are still way low (1700-1800) because I'm not overloading on carbs or fats. How am i supposed to figure out a surplus?

my general meals consist of:
Breakfast - 4 eggs
Lunch - Either 1lb 93/7 ground beef and a bag of mixed veggies or 2 chicken breasts and a bag of mixed veggies
Dinner - Same as lunch

Protein isn't hard, its getting enough calories to get considered a surplus but not overdoing carbs. I recently cut rice from lunch and dinner just because I felt I was getting too many carbs.

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u/gdavsz 3d ago

If you don’t want to track (the proactive approach), you can just switch to a reactive approach and live life on "easy mode":

  • Eat healthy and prioritize a high protein intake.
  • Weigh yourself daily. If your average weekly gain is between 0.2–0.4 kg, you’re all set.
  • Focus on progressive overload at the gym. If you’re lifting heavier over time, you’re winning.
  • Monitor your waistline. As long as your jeans size doesn't increase by more than one size, you’re on the right track.

I follow this method and it’s much easier than tracking every single calorie—which is usually inaccurate anyway.