Bulking Meals: 12 Meals with the Calories and Protein Counted
Quick answer: A bulking meal has to clear two numbers at once: enough calories to push you into a surplus, and enough protein to make the surplus build muscle rather than just weight. In practice that means 700 to 1,100 calories and 30 to 50 grams of protein per meal, four to five times a day. Miss the calories and nothing changes on the scale; miss the protein and what changes isn't what you wanted. This page gives you twelve meals that clear both numbers, with every component counted in UK portions, plus the batch-prep maths, the cost per portion, and what to do when appetite, not knowledge, is the thing holding your bulk back.
This is the meals layer of our bulking content. The strategy, how big your surplus should be and how to run a bulkwithout getting sloppy, lives on the main bulking guide, the raw ingredients live in high calorie high protein foods, and the numbers behind your target live in how many calories you need to gain weight. This page is the plates.
A note on who's writing this. I'm not a bodybuilder, I'm an endurance athlete and the founder of Phoenix Bars, and I got here from the same problem from the other direction: needing far more calories than my appetite wanted to supply, day after day. Everything below is built around that reality, because in ten years of talking to people trying to get bigger, I've never met one whose real bottleneck was not knowing that chicken and rice exists. The bottleneck is eating enough of it, repeatedly.
What makes a meal a bulking meal?
Two numbers, checked together. The calorie floor comes from your surplus: most people gain well on 300 to 500 calories above maintenance, which our guide on eating in a calorie surplus without obsessing covers properly, and spread across four to five sittings that lands each meal in the 700 to 1,100 range. The protein floor comes from the standard sports nutrition range of 1.6 to 2.2 grams per kilo of bodyweight per day, which works out around 0.4 grams per kilo per meal, so 30 to 50 grams for most people. Every meal below states both numbers, because a meal that hits one and misses the other is only doing half its job.
Three bulking breakfasts
Protein oats, about 810 calories and 49g of protein. 80g of oats (300 calories, 10g), 300ml of whole milk (190, 10g), a scoop of whey stirred in off the heat (120, 24g), a banana (105) and a tablespoon of peanut butter (95, 4g). The bodybuilding classic for a reason, and the density tricks that stop it becoming a bucket of food live in our high calorie porridge guide.
The four-egg omelette stack, about 980 calories and 54g of protein. Four eggs (300, 26g) with 40g of mature cheddar folded through (165, 10g), cooked in butter (75), with two thick slices of buttered toast (250, 8g) and a glass of whole milk (190, 10g). Ten minutes, one pan, and the strongest protein-per-minute ratio on this page.
Breakfast burritos, about 855 calories and 44g of protein each. Two large tortillas (300, 8g), three scrambled eggs (270, 19g), 40g of cheese (165, 10g) and half a tin of black beans (120, 7g). Make eight on Sunday, freeze them, microwave from frozen. More morning structures in high calorie breakfast.
Three batch-prep lunches
Teriyaki chicken thigh and rice, about 840 calories and 52g of protein. 180g of cooked chicken thigh (300, 42g), 250g of cooked rice (325, 7g), broccoli (35, 3g), a tablespoon of oil in the pan (120) and teriyaki sauce (60). Thighs, not breast: cheaper, more calories, impossible to dry out across five days in the fridge.
Chilli con carne, about 1,000 calories and 50g of protein. 150g of 20 percent beef mince (380, 28g), half a tin of kidney beans (110, 7g), 250g of rice (325, 7g), 30g of cheddar on top (125, 8g), plus the sauce and oil (60). The 20 percent mince is a decision, not an accident; swapping to 5 percent removes about 150 calories a portion, which on a bulk is the wrong direction.
Tuna pasta, about 760 calories and 42g of protein. 100g of dry pasta (350, 12g), a tin of tuna (130, 28g), two tablespoons of mayonnaise (200) and sweetcorn (80, 2g). The cheapest complete bulking meal we know of, usually £1.50 to £2 a portion on own-brand prices.
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Highly compact, low-volume, calorie-dense bars. Soft, easy to eat whole or as a warm porridge. Vegan, gluten-free and contain up to 66g of carbohydrates, 19g of protein & 8 vitamins & minerals.
Three bulking dinners
Steak night, about 1,095 calories and over 60g of protein. A 225g rump steak (400, 55g), 350g of potatoes roasted in oil (465, 7g), peppercorn sauce (150) and greens finished in butter (80).
Salmon teriyaki bowl, about 905 calories and 47g of protein. A 150g salmon fillet (300, 30g), 250g of rice (325, 7g), 80g of edamame (100, 9g), half an avocado (120) and teriyaki (60).
Fajita night, about 1,230 calories and 70g of protein. Three tortillas (435, 12g), 200g of chicken thigh cooked in oil (450, 46g), 40g of cheese (165, 10g), guacamole (120) and soured cream (60). The biggest numbers on the page, built for training days.
Three snack slots that earn their place
The bulking shake, about 865 calories and 53g of protein. 400ml of whole milk (260, 14g), a scoop of whey (120, 24g), 50g of oats (190, 6g), a banana (105) and two tablespoons of peanut butter (190, 8g). Liquid calories bypass fullness, which is why every serious bulk leans on one of these; more builds in homemade weight gainer shakes.
The Greek yoghurt bowl, about 435 calories and 21g of protein. 200g of full-fat Greek yoghurt (190, 17g), 40g of granola (185, 4g) and honey (60). The between-meals slot for days the big meals are doing the work; more ideas in high calorie snacks.
The pocket slot, about 920 calories and up to 38g of protein. One Phoenix Bar (up to 557 calories and 19g of protein in a 120g bar) with a pint of whole milk (365, 19g). Full disclosure, the bar is ours, and honest positioning matters here: it's a calorie tool with useful protein, not a protein product, so it fills the slot where bulks actually fail, the 3pm gap, the commute, the post-work hour before dinner, when nobody is cooking chicken thighs. Vegan, gluten-free, up to 66g of carbohydrates, and it lives in a jacket pocket, which the omelette does not.
Assembling the day
An 85kg lifter maintaining on about 2,800 calories and targeting 3,500 to 3,700 for a steady gain picks four: the omelette stack (980, 54g), teriyaki chicken at lunch (840, 52g), the pocket slot mid-afternoon (920, 38g) and the salmon bowl for dinner (905, 47g). Total: about 3,645 calories and 191 grams of protein, which is 2.2 grams per kilo, the top of the evidence-based range, from four sittings and one Sunday prep session. Scale the same structure up or down; a full worked week at higher intakes lives in the 4,000 calorie meal plan.
Bulking meal prep and the cost per portion
Batch the lunches five at a time and the whole system takes about ninety minutes on a Sunday. On cost, the staples doing the heavy lifting here, oats, rice, pasta, eggs, whole milk, 20 percent mince and peanut butter, are among the cheapest calories in the supermarket, which is why a full bulking day built from this page runs £6 to £9 on own-brand prices while the meal-delivery bulking services charge that per meal. The tuna pasta and chilli are the budget anchors; the steak and salmon are the payday dinners. If money is the constraint, run the cheap three on repeat and spend the savings on food volume, not supplements: the only powder on this page is one scoop of whey, and even that is optional if the meals are landing, as calorie-dense whole foods cover the same ground.
When appetite is the real bottleneck
Most stalled bulks aren't a knowledge problem, they're a fullness problem, and if you've been eating big for weeks while the scale sits still, our guide on why you can't gain weight walks through the usual causes. The fixes that work: put a shake or the pocket slot where a fourth plate of food keeps failing, build meals from high calorie low volume foods so the plate shrinks while the numbers hold, and stop drinking water with meals. And if you're bulking on a plant-based diet, the same two-number rule applies with different tools; high calorie vegan foods and how to gain weight on a vegan diet cover the swaps, and the bars fit unchanged since they're vegan already.
Frequently asked questions
How many calories should a bulking meal have? 700 to 1,100 for most people, so that four to five meals land 300 to 500 calories above your maintenance. Smaller meals work only if there are more of them, which is usually harder, not easier.
How much protein should a bulking meal have? Around 0.4 grams per kilo of bodyweight per meal, which is 30 to 50 grams for most people, adding up to 1.6 to 2.2 grams per kilo across the day.
How many meals a day is best for bulking? Four to five sittings suits most people: big enough to matter, frequent enough that no single meal has to be heroic. Three giant meals work for some; six small ones mostly create washing up.
What are the cheapest bulking meals? Tuna pasta, chilli con carne and protein oats, all £1 to £2 a portion on own-brand prices, because oats, rice, eggs, milk and mince are the cheapest calorie-and-protein combination in any UK supermarket.
Do bulking meals need to be clean? The surplus drives the gain either way, but meals built from mostly whole foods digest better, keep appetite workable, and make the bulk sustainable past week three, which junk-heavy bulking rarely is.
Written by James Frost, founder of Flaming Phoenix. I hand-pack every order from Surrey and answer every email myself. Last updated July 2026.
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