You’re gaining muscle, you’re hitting the gym hard, but now you gotta eat. So, now you’re sitting at some fancy restaurant with your girlfriend asking yourself, Is Spaghetti Good For Bulking?
Well, the answer is: yes! Spaghetti is good for bulking. Spaghetti gives a ton of needed calories and carbohydrates to replenish your depleted muscles. Furthermore, depending on the cheese/meats you have on the spaghetti, you can have an incredible amount of protein with the meal.
Let’s cover this a little bit more in-depth.
The Nutrition of Spaghetti
To understand why spaghetti is good for bulking, we need to understand first and foremost the nutrition of spaghetti.
So let’s just look at the noodles first. Here is a typical serving of spaghetti noodles with no added anything.
- Calories: 220
- Carbohydrates: 43g
- Fat: 1g
- Protein: 8g
First and foremost, that’s about 1 cup of cooked spaghetti. Which to some is a lot of food, but to me and many other bodybuilders- is nothing!
In that cup, you’re getting 8g of protein for 220 calories, and 43g of carbohydrates. We will cover this a bit more in-depth, but at first glance, that’s really good nutrition!
What About Different Cheeses on Spaghetti?
A lot of people, myself included, enjoy eating spaghetti with different cheeses on it. For most people, this will typically be parmesan cheese. But, it can differ depending on your preferences.
I know some people put mozzarella in, if so, just add that nutrition. In general, however, any cheese is really good for bulking. Cheese in itself is just milk, and you should know by now that milk has incredibly good nutrition for bodybuilding.
If you’re putting Parmesan cheese on, here’s the nutrition facts:
- Calories: 22
- Carbohydrates: 0g
- Fat: 2g
- Protein: 2g
So for every 20 calories or so, you’re getting 2g of protein. And that’s for 2 tsp of parmesan cheese.
If you’re like me, and you can sprinkle on like half of the bottle, you’re going to be golden when it comes to your protein intake.
Different Sauces on Spaghetti?
I know when people are asking, is spaghetti good for bulking?- They always somehow forget the sauce.
But the sauce is kind of important. Well, not in the way you’d hope.
Tomato Sauce Nutrition
For tomato sauce, you’re looking at nutrition that bores anybody that’s not even a bodybuilder.
- Calories: 90
- Carbohydrates: 7g
- Fat: 7g
- Protein: 1g
I mean, I’ll give it this: the sauce does have a lot of fat. And since spaghetti itself is lower in fat, but high in carbs and protein, it might just balance out. But overall, the sodium is really high and there’s not a whole lot of nutrition in it.
How about Alfredo Sauce?
- Calories: 110
- Carbohydrates: 2g
- Fat: 10g
- Protein: 2g
Same thing here too. Not a lot of great nutrition, but it has a lot of fat if you’re trying to balance that out. While fat isn’t a bad thing, it’s up to you if it fits your macros for the day.
What About Different Meats on Spaghetti?
There are many different meats you can have in your spaghetti. Honestly, it all depends on your preferences.
But for this, we’re just going to assume you have meatballs in your spaghetti, pretty common I think, right?
Here’s the normal nutrition on a meatball. (Hint, it’s likely pretty good for bodybuilding since it’s meat!)
Meatball Nutrition
Honestly, meatball nutrition is incredibly hard to find. This is because well, excuse the innuendo, but meatballs come in all different shapes and sizes.
So..I decided to like use the national school guidelines for meatballs? Those meatballs aren’t big sized, but it should give most of us a decent idea of what we can expect.
I mean, hopefully all of us here have completed high school and can remember the “food” we were served. So here’s the nutrition on 6 of those tiny meatballs.
- Calories: 160
- Carbohydrates: 34g
- Fat: 8g
- Protein: 15g
That’s really not that bad, at all. A ton of protein, a ton of carbs, and a good amount of fat. In fact, the nutrition looks similar to peanut butter!
Why Is Spaghetti Good For Bodybuilding?
Now that we’ve covered the nutrition, let’s finally answer the big question: Why is Spaghetti Good For Bodybuilding?
Well, I think based on the nutrition so far, you can make some good guesses.
#1 – A Good Amount of Protein
I have always been one to attribute most people’s hunger problems to a lack of protein.
Think about it, what do most Americans eat? Generally speaking, not a lot of protein. Protein is actually becoming harder to find these days. People go out and order the wrong foods at McDonald’s. Buying a box of large fries will barely net you any protein, period.
Spaghetti is great because the noodles have a great amount of protein alone, but so do the meats/cheeses you add.
Having 2-3 cups of spaghetti with a ton of meatballs and parmesan cheese can easily bring your protein total to nearly 60g! That’s similar to almost eating an entire pizza!
But, as we all know with bodybuilding, protein is essential to making sure your muscles grow. Your body needs that protein to repair and create more muscle in your body. Without it, what is your body supposed to do?
It’s like a construction worker trying to build a house without any wood, it’s just not going to work.
#2 – Spaghetti Gives A TON of Energy
If you played sports in high school, you’ll know what a pasta-feed/carb-load feed is. All the players on the team have a ton of pasta/carb-filled foods the night before the match to make sure they have a ton of energy for the next big game.
Even in wrestling we did this before some tournaments. (Let’s just say that was cut back since some of us couldn’t make weight @preston @tyler g @preston @tyler g)
But it’s the truth. The highest macronutrient in spaghetti is carbs.
Carbs are incredibly good in bodybuilding for two reasons.
First, when you’re bodybuilding every day, your body becomes incredibly exhausted. You need a ton of carbs to keep going to the gym with enough energy to keep pushing that heavy weight up.
There’s no way you would be able to do 5×5 squats of 300 lbs everytime if you had a low number of carbs. (unless you’re on keto, but I digress)
Secondly, eating carbohydrates replenishes your muscle’s glycogen stores after a workout. This means your body will be able to use all that protein you just ate specifically just for the muscles.
If you don’t restore those glycogen stores, your body will actually end up using that protein to repair the muscle (not grow it) or even break down other muscle tissue to do that.
With the tons of carbs, you won’t have to worry about that, and you’ll have a ton of energy for the next workout.
#3 – Spaghetti Has a TON of Calories
The golden rule of bodybuilding is this: If you eat more calories than you burn, you will gain weight, and gain muscle.
Spaghetti has a TON of calories.
Point in case: would you rather eat 30 steaks every day, or three large servings of spaghetti every day.
You’d likely take the spaghetti just because it’s easier. (I personally don’t like spaghetti, so I might choose the steak but…)
You, as a bodybuilder, are eating way more food than all of your peers. From your intense gym workouts, to need to actually gain weight, you’re looking at eating near 3,000 calories a day.
It’s hard to actually eat this much food day-in and day-out! So, spaghetti makes it easy by having a ton of calories to help you reach that goal every day.
Let’s not even talk about what happens if you put some butter or whatever in the spaghetti, you’re definitely going to be gaining weight then! (Not a bad thing…)
What Spaghetti Should I Have To Maximize My Gains?
Well, in general, any spaghetti will do fine.
But there are ways you can change your spaghetti to make it better for you.
For one, try to put any and all meat on it. I mean like, put 15 meatballs on there if you can. Or if you got something else like chicken alfredo spaghetti or whatever, get extra chicken.
Furthermore, if you can put any cheese on it, MAX THAT OUT TOO. Put like half of that parmesan cheese grater on there, or if you have shredded mozzarella, max that out too.
The entire goal is just put a ton of meat and cheese if you’re able too. If not, that’s fine, regardless, the spaghetti is fairly good for bulking.
Conclusion – Spaghetti Is GREAT For Bulking!
Overall, spaghetti has a ton of protein, carbs, and fats. Plus, if you put a ton of meat/cheese on it, you’ll be in an even better spot!
So get out and start eating. Your muscles will thank you later for it.
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