what are some high calorie foods that are healthy?

[stubbs]

at the moment all i can think of is nuts, but i can't stand to nibble on these all day. i'll be trying to bulk up soonish but i don't want to stop my cardio (i know it'll make it harder to bulk up but i don't want to stop it) so i'll need some fairly high calorie foods that won't give me a heart attack. any ideas?
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[IronFist]

Pizza.

Um ok here't the thing tho. If you want to keep it somewhat healthy, you need to look at the nutrition facts labels on the pizza boxes. I'm talking frozen pizza here. Due to the nature of pizza, being covered in cheese and all, there's a good chance that the saturated fat is pretty high. So, your goal is to find the pizza that doesn't have as much saturated fat as the rest of them. Super four-cheese pizzas are probably out. If you like ham (Canadian bacon), your best bet is probably a ham pizza because ham is fairly lean, and you will get some extra protein from it. Sausage and pepperoni will just add more fat to the mix.

The reason I like pizza so much is because you get a lot of protein, carbs, and fat all at once. This means it will keep you full for a while (as opposed to low fat high carb foods that screw with your blood sugar and you're starving an hour after you eat them ::coughchinesefoodcough:: ). The other reason is because, if you buy the right brands that aren't ripoffs, pizza is very efficient when it comes to calories per dollar. If you do it right you can also get quite a bit of protein. You can even put your own toppings on before you throw them in the oven. It's usually cheaper to do it that way.

Another good food is the frozen Boneless Chicken Breasts Hungry Man dinner. You get two boneless chicken breasts, mashed potatos, corn, and a brownie. I think it's like 650 calories with about 30 or 35g of protein and not that much fat (relatively speaking). You just need to find it at a store that doesn't rip you off for it. Their Turkey and Stuffing dinner is also awesome.

Many frozen dinners are like 30g of protein but also like 80% of the RDA for saturated fat. Screw those.

Oh, if you care at all about sodium intake, pretty much ignore this entire thread

PS. I just remembered you live in England. I have no idea what the frozen food situation over there is like, but they probably still have Pizza and Hungry Mans, right?

PPS. If you're really hungry, there's a Hungry Man XXL that is called Southern Fried Chicken Breasts. It's three friend boneless chicken breasts, mashed potatoes and gravy. I think they leave out the veggies completely with this one. The point is tho, it's like 50g of protein and I think it's 1080 calories. w00t! Not that much fat, either, cuz the only fat is from the fried part of the chicken. They also make an XXL called "Backyard Barbeque" that is two boneless chicken breasts (not fried), two boneless pork chops, and mashed potatoes and barbeque sauce I think. This one is another protein king with not that much fat.

Can you tell I don't like to cook much? I love Hungry Mans. Holy crap I'm hungry now.

[Serpent]

Don't listen to Iron on diets - I'm surpirsed he's still alive at all!

High calorie pretty much means high intake. Lot's of low GI carbs, avoid as much sugar, salt and saturated fat as you can, but otherwise eat up heartily.

Eat stuff as fresh, unprocessed and raw as you can to get all the nutrients.

[Toby]

You could snack on PowerBars if you could afford them. They're too expensive for me. I don't mind the taste, though.

[Serpent]

Originally posted by Toby
You could snack on PowerBars if you could afford them. They're too expensive for me. I don't mind the taste, though.

Watch the sugar content of those things. I prefer to eat more naturally, but that's me.

[abobo]

Pizza might be economical, but I usually don't buy frozen food because the lists of ingredients are usually long and full of wierd things.

Are you looking for things to snack on, or grocery list ideas, recipes, or what?

[Samurai Jack]

I can vouch for Iron's pizza diet. I followed his advice a couple of years ago and ate one large pizza a night for 90 days in addition to a regular breakfast and lunch, plus a couple cottage cheese snacks.

I'm a vegetarian and I stilled gained thirty pounds in that short period with only five of it being fat. Plus, it was the most enjoyable diet I've ever encountered.

If you can afford to eat out though, I'd go for fresh pizzas since they're bigger and tastier. Mmmmmm, pizza!

[stubbs]

cheers for the advice,

**adds pizza to shopping list...**

abobo - i'm looking for any suggestions that can up my calorie intake. a lot of the frozen food makers over hear have cleaned up all the added crap they stick in their foods. i always look for the most natural ingredients i can find.

its not for a while cos im going away for a month and i expect to come back as a skinny runt but i look forward to putting all the weight back on!

Iron - never heard of Hungry Mans but i'm sure i can find something similar over hear.

Serpent - you got any examples you can add?

I think i remember reading somewhere that after a workout Arnie Schwarzenegger used to eat a whole chicken and wash it down with a few beers!! If only i could afford to stay on that kind of diet!!
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Iolite vaporizer

[norther practitioner]

Deep fry everything, who cares about cholesterol, saturated fat, etc...

I'm tellin' you, deep fried twinkies are the bomb.

[abobo]

Ok, the most weight I've ever gained was over several weeks last year when I snacked on a lot of boiled eggs, nuts, and fruit, and made high calorie, high protein smoothies daily out of any combination of chocolate milk, yogurt, cottage cheese, bananas, peanut butter, orange juice, bread, and protein powder.

I've had good results with a lot of dairy products like those above, not the low fat kind either. Eating a lot of dairy gives you gas though.

Just for comparison, groceries I usually have on hand include

breakfast foods: eggs, plain oatmeal, plain yogurt, blueberries, that one power fuel cereal when it's on sale, milk, OJ, bananas, oranges, low fat corned beef hash (the regular kind will probably kill you)

lunch/dinner: bread, PB&J, spaghetti, tomato sauce, canned spinach, canned salmon, vermicelli, rice, packets of sauce mixes, carrots, onions, potatoes, tortillas, red beans, cheese, chicken breasts, tuna, broccoli, asparagus, avacodos, almonds, dumplings when I go to chinatown

That's not an exhaustive list. Beyond that, beef can be good, all kinds of fish are good, eat your fruits and veggies, drink drinks that add calories, eat nuts...

Bulking up is more about quantity over quality though. I think I eat pretty "clean" but it is harder to overfeed that way, and sometimes more expensive.

Last time I put on weight successfully I made sure that I was eating something every 3 hours, and including protein every time I ate. And I always ate before going to bed.

[Serpent]

Lean red meat and lots of other protein sources like tuna, chicken, cottage cheese, etc. are all good. But, you have to fuel up the protein with plenty of carbs.

Go for big bowls of pasta. Good wholewheat fresh pasta or something like that with a sauce you like. Eat plenty of whole grain bread. Lots of rice dishes. Snack on nuts and fruit and try to keep your vegies as raw as possible. Eat a large variety of colours in your fruit and veg and that'll make sure you're getting a good range of vitamins, etc., which will subsequently help your metabolism process everything else.

Pizza is a good plan, but learn to make your own. It's really easy once you get the hang of making the dough, then you can have a nice thick base and pile on all sorts of whatever you like as toppings.

Bottom line, though - you wanna get big, eat big. Eat six or eight meals a day and drink plenty. If you're lifting, then protein powder in high KJ smoothies will be a good way to go too.

[Ka]

Originally posted by Serpent
Watch the sugar content of those things.

Watch the Caffine content as well.
Want to get Big eat Big(and if you can afford it high quality)

[Toby]

Yeah, pastas pretty cheap. Years ago when I was in Austria I'd buy a bunch of dried tortellini. Every day for lunch I'd come down off the slopes and whip up some white sauce and boil the tortellini. I'd add whatever I had handy to the sauce - cheese, ham, mushrooms, capsicum, broccoli, cauliflower. Anyway, that was a pretty tasty lunch and pretty easy to make.

[blooming lotus]

Originally posted by Serpent
Watch the sugar content of those things. I prefer to eat more naturally, but that's me.

alot of those have vitamin additives anyway and if you're already doing a supplement ( particulalry if you're not doing enough water) you'll end up crusty and toxic.

the best way to build bulk is to go high on dry carbs ( rice / pasta / some quality rye bread or linseed for oil content and failing that wholemeal or multigrain is fine) , combine that with sugars ( preferabley the fruictose you'll get from the citrus juice , which as a vego ( or anyone else ) , will help you absorb your iron , or flavoured milk is okay to give your carb something to bond to , or toasties ( toasted cheese + whatever sandwhiches , and a low fat cheese is fine, but tasty or mild 'll get you there too ) ....
same deal as the pizza really, but just healthier.


general rule = dry carb + sugar = slowed absorbtion + workout = density and bulk.....


refined sugar is crap though , so for a healthy choice, fruit is fine, so is juice and a tyrosine and maltrose from like a redbull or similar will cause the same insulin spike to inject your carbs deeper into your muscle.
to loose weight / fat / bulk :- reverse it.

I put my little brother ( 26 yrs old ) on the same plan and the guy added 15 pounds + in 3 weeks ....

If you do go high fat with it, just make sure when you reach your target , you cut back on mixing fats and carbs, and do sugars seperately.

Ps: to avoid feeling heavy, do a fruit with high water content ( and watermelon is a good choice ) .

cheers

side note :- alot of ppl here in china eat bulk carb but extremely low protein and end up tiny......... I think this is because your muscle fibers are like very very tiny bundles of strips which expand and tear like a rubber band would and has potential to accept a protein bit on one end and carb bit on the other , pending what your eating.....if one side is missing it doesn't repair properly and bonding back together is much slower, therefore you don't increase mass, because the carb is used or uncoverted turns to fat before absorbed.

[IronFist]

Look, here's the thing. You can't really eat a lot of calories and still have it be healthy. The calorie-dense foods generally aren't healthy to begin with, and past a certain point it's too hard to eat enough "clean" food to get enough calories. So, you kinda gotta compromise.