One of the main things you learn from being a student is how to be resourceful and work to a budget, unfortunately, one of the main requirements for building size is a calorie surplus, meaning you going to be needing to intake more calories than your burning. Considering your working out at a high intensity that’s going to be a lot of calories, so what offers the best bang for your buck when it comes to muscular hypertrophy?
The things to consider here are that in order to gain mass, you will need a high amount of protein, testosterone supplements, and calories, most body-builders subscribe to the thought of consuming at least your equivalent weight in lbs in grams of protein. Most literature suggests at least a 500 calorie surplus for muscle growth, meaning you need to be eating 500 calories above your resting metabolic rate, your basal metabolic rate (BMR) to gain mass, there are various tools around the net to calculate this and I will be making some for this site soon, but for now, try clicking here to find out your BMR. Now you have how many calories you need to be consuming to add muscle on a resistance program, I will be covering this soon. Bear in mind most of your calories should be coming from carbohydrates, followed by protein and fats.
Here are my top five foods for students on a budget:
Tuna
In terms of price, tuna is pound for pound one of the cheapest sources of protein available and tasty to boot, not to mention the abundance of omega 3 healthy fats you will find inside the can. Have in brown bread, a wholemeal sandwich for a great post-workout meal for carbohydrates and protein. A regular can of tuna contain around 30 grams of protein. Try to buy your tuna in brine rather than oil for less fat.
Pasta
You will need fuel for your workouts and there aren’t much better sources of carbohydrates out there than pasta which also happens to be extremely cheap, combine with tuna for a double whammy of protein and carbohydrates post-workout.
Beans
For the best of both worlds, make sure you eat your beans, truly one of nature’s super food’s packed full of protein and carbohydrates.
Milk
Full of protein and unfortunately some fat too, try to avoid full cream milk, considering the cost this is an excellent ‘bulking’ food for people on a budget. Milk protein is slowly digested by the body so is a great choice before bed so that your muscles aren’t starved of protein during your sleep.
Eggs
Yet another dairy product, but no one lifting weight should be without eggs, the protein found within them is literally the benchmark on which all protein is judged against and is the most easily absorbed by the body you will find out there. If you are conscious of fat, avoid the yolk or split 50/50 egg whites with full eggs for building muscle.
