As they’re so cheap and versatile, you may be wondering whether plain old oats are good for bulking.
Bulking can take a lot of effort. You want to gain mass while maintaining nutrition and giving your body enough healthy fuel to use in your exercise routine.
In fact, oats are one of the best sources of complex carbohydrates and can be an exceptional addition to your bulking diet!
If you’re looking for an affordable, healthy, nutritious, and versatile addition to your diet, oats are an excellent choice to bring into your regime so you can gain size healthily and efficiently.
Whether you’re bulking for a competition or working out in the gym in your own time for your health and well-being, oats can greatly boost your odds of success. We will cover:
- The nutritional value of oats
- How to incorporate oats into your diet
- How you can use oats to bulk more effectively.
Let’s get started!
Table of Contents
Nutritional Value Of Oats
Oats have been a nutritious staple in human diets for thousands of years. They are grown all over the world in temperate climates and are an affordable food you can pick up in bulk just about anywhere.
Oats are one of those unique foods that are both affordable and nutritious, meaning it doesn’t cost much to level up your bulking diet with this impressive food.
Complex Carbohydrates
Oats are a complete source of complex carbohydrates, meaning they provide long-lasting, slow-release energy.
Complex carbohydrates, unlike simple ones like sugar, don’t bring with them a spike and then crash in energy levels. They will allow you to work harder on building muscle and are a great choice for resistance training.
Oats have a low glycemic index, which means they are digested gradually and generate slow-releasing energy. This means that they can provide you with a strong foundation for your bulking diet.
Since oats are a complex carbohydrate, they help prevent you from needing sudden spikes of energy throughout the day or night so you won’t need to drink sugary sports drinks or constantly snack to keep your levels up!
Vitamins and Minerals
Oats are also a great source of vitamins and minerals to help your bulking.
Key vitamins and minerals in oats are important in supporting muscle repair and growth and help with the absorption of all-important protein.
Chief among its vitamin and mineral offerings are manganese, magnesium, iron, phosphorus, and B6 vitamins. These micronutrients are fundamental in supporting muscle growth, good body functions, and general health and well-being.
In particular, the magnesium content of oats is highly important. As you work out, you lose a lot of liquid through sweat, but you also lose magnesium.
Magnesium is a crucial mineral in supporting healthy bones and healthy heart function. As such, if you’re taking on intense exercise as part of your bulking routine, magnesium is an important ingredient to consider.
Fiber
Fiber is a key ingredient when it comes to overall body health. It helps you maintain regular bowel function, regulates blood sugar levels, and helps with mineral and protein absorption.
While fiber isn’t integral to the bulking process, its benefits to general health and well-being are crucial.
Protein
As a source of protein, oats aren’t bad at all. Everyone who’s bulking knows just how important it is to get regular and consistent protein into your diet.
Protein is key to muscle growth and repair and is the macronutrient that powers the replacement of protein chains as your muscles rest.
While oats aren’t the world’s greatest source of the macronutrient, it contains enough per serving to be a valuable supplement to your bulking diet.
What’s more, oats helps with satiation to keep you full courtesy of its filling nature and high fiber content!
Here is a table of the nutritional value of cooked oats:
| Nutrient | Amount per 1 cup (cooked) |
|---|---|
| Calories | 606.84 kcal |
| Protein | 26.35 g |
| Carbohydrates | 103.38 g |
| Fat | 10.76 g |
| Fiber | 16.54 g |
| Manganese | 7.67 mg |
| Phosphorus | 815.88 mg |
| Iron | 7.36 mg |
| Magnesium | 276.12 mg |
| Thiamine | 1.19 mg |
| Niacin | 1.5 mg |
| Vitamin B6 | 0.19 mg |
How To Incorporate Oats Into A Bulking Diet
Now that we’ve established that oats are a no-brainer inclusion in your bulking diet, you might wondering exactly how to incorporate them.
Of course, the most classic method of cooking oats is to make porridge either with milk or water and eat them straight!
This is a very simple, very cheap dish; however, it’s not necessarily the most inspiring of meals. If you’re looking for more palatable suggestions for cooking with oats, read on.
Firstly, there are a variety of different types of oats on the market. The important thing to note is that these are all oats, and though there are some variations, they are largely the same when it comes to their nutritional value, flavour, and uses.
- Raw oats are oats that have not been dehusked. They are harvested when the oat is fully grown and dried. Raw oats are pretty tough, and you probably won’t use them very often because of it.
- Whole oats have had the hard outer husk removed, so they are more able to be cooked and eaten.
- Rolled oats are your classic idea of oats and the item you’re most likely to come across when buying oats. Rolled oats have been dehusked, steamed, and rolled flat – making them quicker to cook and keeping them fresher for longer.
- Steel-cut oats are whole oats that have been sliced into pieces. These are faster to cook than whole or raw oats, but not as fast as rolled oats.
- Quick oats are rolled oats that have been pressed thinner and sliced into smaller pieces. They are the fastest oats to cook and are the oats you will find in an instant porridge sachet.
- Oat flour is made from milled oats and is another oat product you can incorporate into your diet in place of wheat flour.
You’re most likely going to be eating oat dishes like porridge, overnight oats, bircher, or oatmeal. These dishes can be combined with a wide variety of toppings and extra ingredients to support their overall nutritional value and make them tastier!
Recipes
Here are a few recipes you can use to incorporate oats into your bulking diet. They’re cheap, easy to make, and delicious:
Overnight Oats
Overnight oats are an easy and nutritious meal that you can prepare to get oats into your diet.
Overnight oats are traditionally a breakfast dish, but you can have them any time you like for a healthy, tasty meal:
Ingredients
- ½ cup rolled oats
- ½ cup milk
- ¼ cup Greek yogurt
- 1 tablespoon chia seeds
- 1 tablespoon maple syrup
Method
Overnight oats are phenomenally simple to make. All you need to do is mix the ingredients in a bowl and leave them in the fridge for at least two hours.
When they’re ready, normally the morning after you make them, you can top them with fruit, nuts, or anything else you like and enjoy!
Bircher Muesli
Bircher is much like overnight oats, but has a more fruity flavor and is extra creamy:
Ingredients
- 1 apple, grated
- 50g oats
- 25g mixed seeds
25g mixed nuts, chopped - ¼ tsp cinnamon
- 100g yogurt
- 1 banana, sliced
- 25g sultanas
- 50ml water
- 50ml juice of your choice (optional)
Methods
Much like overnight oats, all you need to do to make bircher is combine all of the ingredients, mix them well, and refrigerate them overnight.
If you like your bircher a little more tart, you can add lemon juice. When it comes time for breakfast, you can dress them with whatever toppings you want!
Granola
Granola is a classic breakfast food you can prepare in advance and have with yogurt or milk.
It’s a little more involved than making bircher or overnight oats, but nothing you can’t handle!
Ingredients
- 4 cups rolled oats
- 1 ½ cups nuts and/or seeds
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- ½ cup coconut or olive oil
- ½ cup maple syrup or honey
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ⅔ cup dried fruit
Method
Combine the oats, nuts, salt, cinnamon and mix them well. Add the syrup or honey, vanilla extract, and oil to the mix and stir to coat everything.
Place the lot in a baking tray in an oven at 350F, and stir occasionally until lightly golden (about 20-25 minutes).
Following that, leave the bircher to cool completely and store it in an airtight container. Serve with yogurt or milk!
There you have it: three simple recipes for getting oats into your bulking diet.
You’ll be able to include a variety of toppings and extras to suit your taste, and can even add your workout supplement powders to help boost their bulking value.
How Much Oats Can I Eat While Bulking?
You don’t want to eat oats for every meal – not only because you’ll get bored, but also because you need to balance your nutritional intake with other important ingredients!
Oats make for a great breakfast, and because of the slow-release nature of their complex carbohydrates, they’re a great option for before or between workouts.
How many oats you eat is dependent on the rest of your diet: your caloric goals, vitamin and mineral intake, and anything else you need to balance out with a variety of foods.
With a solid meal plan, you’ll be able to work out the right balance for your diet and your goals and establish where you can incorporate oats.
FAQs
Are oats better than rice for bulking?
Rice has more carbohydrates and calories than oats by weight, and it is a faster-release, less-complex grain than oats.
As such, it can cause a spike and crash in energy! For that reason, oats are more useful for bulking and exercise in general. Oats also contain more protein by weight than rice.
How much protein is in 100g of oats?
100g of rolled oats contains 13.15 g of protein.
Can I eat oats three times a day?
Sure. However, you probably wouldn’t want to! A more varied and balanced diet will help your bulking far more than simply eating a lot of oats. Oats are not the perfect bulking food, only a great addition to a varied diet.
Is 100g of oats too much?
Not at all. It depends on how hungry you are and what your bulking goals entail. The only real risk is that if you eat solely oats you’ll miss out on other key sources of nutrition.
Why do bodybuilders use oats?
Bodybuilders eat oats as they are a complex carbohydrate with a lot of nutritional value they are a common component in body building diets.
Summary
In the end, while oats are not the perfect food for bulking nor the only food you need on your bulking journey, they are an excellent inclusion in your bulking diet.
Oats contain valuable vitamins and minerals to help support muscle growth and repair, healthy bodily functions, and protein absorption.
They are slow-release carbohydrates, so they will give you long-lasting energy for your exercise regime.
Oats are also very affordable, so you can include them in your diet as a cheap yet reliable source of nutrition.
All in all, if you haven’t yet incorporated oats into your bulking regime: it may be time to seriously consider the many benefits they have to offer!