cheap food for bodybuilding

“You have to eat big to be big”

You hear that phrase a lot because it’s true. The bad news is that food is expensive, especially foods high in protein. Anyone who takes a serious interest in training will find that they are spending much more on food than on supplements, but most never think about how much they are actually spending and wouldn’t think of buying some packaged food at their local grocery store for lunch most days. .

Say you wake up and buy half a dozen free-range eggs at Tesco, a couple of hours later you might have some high-quality complex protein, followed by a local store-bought chicken sandwich, maybe another smoothie afterwards. training, then a hearty steak and potatoes for dinner topped off with some cottage cheese before bed. All pretty basic stuff and nothing really flashy. But if you buy this at your local supermarket and don’t choose wisely, this diet could cost upwards of £300/month (that’s just over £10 a day, or £1.65 a meal if you eat 6 meals a day).

So here are some tips that could cut your grocery bill in half when it’s time to save a few pennies. It may be a bit bland, but the amount you can save is substantial.

Tips:

Use protein shakes – Protein shakes, at least the basic whey, are cheaper than solid food, in fact. If you’re trying to save money, then unflavored whey is the way to go. This together could save you 50p plus 3 servings a day. That’s £30/month saved right there.

Buy in bulk – This is important. It’s going to be expensive at first, but you can save a bundle. Places like Makro, Costco and Westin Gourmet can turn out to be considerably cheaper than standard supermarkets like Tesco, Asda and Sainsbury’s.

keep it simple – Do not buy pre-cooked meat and other meals. That Rustler burger you bought for £1.50 that seemed like a good idea is probably twice as expensive as making it yourself, plus it’s probably going to be a lot worse because of all the added condoms and E-numbers, and it won’t taste as good either!

Use protein shakes

Whole foods are generally considered to be superior to protein powders, but in reality the differences, as long as you’re not seriously deficient in something, will be marginal and you’ll be able to progress either way, even with basic whey concentrate. . as long as it is consumed regularly. 5kg of whey might set you back £40, but will give you 80 servings containing 50g of protein. So that’s 50 pence a serving. If I wanted the same protein content in chicken, I would look for at least 50% more, and that’s without adding any flavoring to the chicken.

Buy in bulk

You obviously can’t, or at least probably don’t want to live on smoothies all the time. Not only wouldn’t that be good for your health, you probably wouldn’t smell very good either! So for solid foods, try to buy in bulk as big savings can be had. A carton of eggs in a supermarket costs many times more than what you could buy at places like Makro. Last time I checked a carton of 60 medium eggs at Makro cost you less than £5 and even free range eggs are a fraction of the cost of supermarkets. That’s a great source of cheap protein.

Chicken and other meats are also great value and are generally of higher quality as well. For example, 5kg of chicken breasts are currently under £20, or £17 if you freeze them. Fish is cheap too, costing around £20 for 3kg of white fish.

Carbohydrate sources are much cheaper than protein, but can still be saved. A big bag of basmati rice and oats can be bought for half the price in supermarkets and you can also buy giant bottles of olive oil, so you should watch your fats!

keep it simple

You pay a hefty premium for anything that’s already pre-cooked, flavored, or similar. Companies make money by increasing their perceived value more than their actual value. So if you want to add flavoring, buy the flavoring in bulk too and you’ll save a packet by cooking it yourself.

Buying all groceries in bulk means it will take up more space in your fridge/freezer and will also cost a bit up front, which means you may need to be a bit more limited with your food options. After all, not many have the space to store 10kg of chicken, 5kg of steak, 5kg of fish, 5kg of sausages, 10kg of basmati rice and a carton of 6 dozen eggs at once! So you may need to go through periods where you eat one or two types of meat at a time, but you can turn the same food into different meals to keep things interesting.

Buying frozen food is usually a good decision, and in the case of vegetables, it will actually be more nutrient-dense than the fresh variety. High-value bags are usually the ones to go for, unless you have very specific requirements.

Follow all of the tips above and you could cut your grocery bill. It is possible to get a diet with 3500 clean calories and 300g of protein per day for less than £5.