Is Ice Cream Good For Bulking?

Bodybuilding is one of the most brutal sports out there. You go into this gym and force your body to destroy its own muscles over and overexerting yourself to your maximum capacity. So, maybe you want a little dessert, like a reward? So- is ice cream good for bulking?

Yes! Ice cream is good for bulking. While it’s not the best item in the world, it does have some protein and a bunch of carbs to refuel you after a workout. Furthermore, it is super easy to eat, making sure you hit your calorie limit for the day. And if you choose the right brands of ice-cream, you can get a lot more protein and still have a tasty snack.

While ice cream isn’t the best food for bulking, you certainly can add it into your diet periodically and still see incredible muscle gains.

So, let’s cover this more in-depth!

Is Ice Cream Good For Bulking? YES!! Photo by Lukas from Pexels
Is Ice Cream Good For Bulking? YES!! Photo by Lukas from Pexels

Ice Cream Nutrition

To first answer the question: is ice cream good for bulking?- We need to look at ice cream’s nutrition.

So I’ve sampled a normal ice-cream pint from Ben & Jerry’s (because Rich Piana loved it and I do too) and a specialized protein ice-cream (that actually tastes really good!). Take a look at both of their nutritional values, it’s one of the most critical parts of understanding why ice cream is good for bulking.

Ben & Jerry’s Half Baked

So I chose the Ben & Jerry’s Half Baked flavor as it is one of the most popular flavors out there. Furthermore, it’s a great benchmark of most of the ben & jerry’s ice cream flavors. Most of them will fall in line somewhere around these numbers.

  • Calories: 1100
  • Fat: 57g
  • Carbohydrates: 134g
  • Protein: 18g
  • Calcium DV: 30%
  • Potassium DV: 20%
  • Iron DV: 30%

Halo Top

Halo Top is basically like a super healthy ice-cream. It has way more protein than normal ice creams and actually tastes really good.

  • Calories: 1100
  • Fat: 57g
  • Carbohydrates: 134g
  • Protein: 18g
  • Calcium DV: 30%
  • Potassium DV: 20%
  • Iron DV: 30%

So, Why Is Ice Cream Good For Bulking?

Now that we’ve looked at the nutrition, we can answer the question, is ice cream good for bulking?

Yes, it is! However, it’s not the greatest food you could pick. If you’re looking to splurge, you’re better off buying a pizza (is pizza good for bulking?) just for money/dietary sake.

But, ice cream does have some great benefits which make it good for bulking. This is because ice cream has a TON of carbs and a decent amount of protein.

If you’re looking for a food with a lot of protein, this really isn’t the best item to get. However, because it does have around 20g or so, it’s not that bad of a buy.

But the biggest reason you’d want this food for bulking is not the protein…it’s the carbs.

Carbohydrates Help Your Muscles Grow

I always recommend having like an ice-cream day after hitting a huge PR attempt or after an INCREDIBLY tough workout.

By incredibly tough, I mean like you did a combination of Arnold’s Blueprint to Mass with The Calum Von Moger Arms Workout.

Or better yet, do the Rich Piana 8 Hour Arm Workout. My point being, this is not for your ‘normal’ workouts, this is when you really go above and beyond.

When your muscles are really exercised and burnt out, they deplete their glycogen stores. If you don’t eat any carbohydrates, your body will figure out a way to repair these muscles: protein. Oh, but the protein that you don’t have (you haven’t eaten any since the workout), so your body will break own other muscles to repair those muscles.

Yep, it’s as horrible as it sounds. This is why most bodybuilders in the world always recommend having food right after a workout to make sure those glycogen stores get replenished.

So now that you’ve absolutely destroyed your muscles in every which way. You eat those carbs from the ice cream, the glycogen stores get replenished, now any protein you eat will go straight towards building bigger muscle.

The Carbohydrates Also Replenish Your Energy For Next Workout

A big reason why I recommended only eating ice cream for bulking after a super tough workout is for the big energy gains you’ll see next gym session.

In my post, Is Spaghetti Good For Bulking?, I discussed how many sports teams have pasta-feeds the night before a big tournament to make sure their players have a ton of energy and aren’t tired before a match.

The same thing can be said here. After a super tough workout, eating that ice-cream will give your body much needed energy for tomorrow’s workout. If you spent the whole day destroying your arms, you might feel fatigued for tomorrow’s leg day if you don’t replenish properly.

With nearly 100g of carbs, there is almost no way you will be tired tomorrow.

The Super High Calorie Per Serving Content

No matter what happens in bodybuilding, there is one law that never changes: If you eat more than your body burns, you will gain weight.

The first law of thermodynamics is the Conservation of Energy law. Energy cannot be created or destroyed.

Your muscles don’t just pop out of nothing! Truthfully,yYour body NEEDS energy, via the calories in your food/drinks, to grow. Your muscles simply won’t grow without having the energy to do it.

Ice cream has a TON of calories per serving. I mean for one pint of ice cream, getting 1100 calories is just TOO EASY. I would rather eat a pint of ice-cream than try to consume 11 chicken breasts. It’s just way easier, you don’t have to eat as much.

This means you’ll be able to reach your calorie goal for the day way easier. And with that, the muscle will come.

Ice Cream Tastes Incredible

Bodybuilding is a tough sport as it is. Why make it harder by eating foods you don’t like?

Here’s the fact. If you do bodybuilding and force yourself to eat disgusting things like only egg yolks and like protein powder (not mixed) you’re just going to end up hating the sport.

Ice cream tastes, well, incredible. And that’s probably why you asked the question, is ice cream good for bulking, in the first place!

Sure, I love eating rice and chicken (why do bodybuilders eat rice and chicken, anyways?) but ice cream always has a special place in my heart.

But, it’s important to keep the sport fun. “Aint nobody want to live no heavy *** weights” is a popular quote in bodybuilding, and truthfully so.

It’s tough to go to the gym everyday and lift all that heavy weight. Sure, I fell in love with it, but on some of my toughest days, I know that at the end of it I can reward myself with some ice cream or something else delicious.

And if you need to motivate yourself with a little cheat meal, go right ahead. You’re bodybuilding, your body needs that energy to grow muscle, and you’ve done an intense workout so….you earned it!

It Does Have Some Protein

Ice cream does have a little bit of protein. Although, not much. I mean- it’s better than just eating like french fries or something with virtually 0 protein at all.

It, well, works, kind of. It’s not ‘completely empty’ calories if you want to look at it like that. It’s at least helping with the protein goal a tiny bit.

Certainly, you should be aiming to get your protein from another source to reach the average 100-150g of protein needed a day.

But, there are some ice-creams that are super high protein.

Consider High Protein Ice Creams

Consider trying a high protein ice cream. For what it’s worth, they usually don’t taste bad at all.

I’m a huge fan of Halo Top. Halo Top ice cream has like 360 calories and 20g of protein. That’s in one pint!

There’s also other brands. I don’t recommend buying ice cream online, because well, that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. But, go to your local grocery store and see what they have.

At my local store, they have Halo Top and Breyers delights. They’re both incredibly high protein ice creams that are pretty low in calorie/carbs.

This makes it easy to have ice-cream if you’re cutting. Or if you’re trying to avoid dirty bulking (even though it’s the secret to getting big) you can also try the low-calorie variants.

Also, the low calorie variants are just in general better for your health.

Conclusion, Yes Ice Cream Is Good For Bulking!

Yes, ice cream is good for bulking. While it’s not the best food by any means, it does have its ups and downs. With a ton of carbs to refuel your muscles and glycogen stores, you’ll be able to recover and grow muscle fast. Plus, it’s delicious and will get a ton of calories in you fast!

I recommend Half Baked from Ben & Jerry’s- by the way. Now, get out there and get big!

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