Muscle building diet on the cheap?

[KnightBrolaire]

I'm mainly quoting this so it isn't buried. The other discussion is also important and I think still on topic but this is more directly on topic.

Beans are great and easy food. Don't discount them if you think you don't like them, there are lots of different ones and you should be able to find some you can enjoy. The great thing about beans is although the preparation is long it isn't time consuming and they can and should be prepared in bulk and then frozen for quick easy eating. Soak them, cook them then freeze them and reheat as needed.

Peanut butter can be great at the end of a day when you haven't met your eating targets and don't feel like preparing food, it's an easy choice that helps you sleep if you have it on bread a couple of hours before bed.

I'm not sure how it is in the states but canned tuna is not really cheap over here, it seems cheap when you buy a can but when you work out the unit price you can better off financially buying wild caught frozen fish and cooking it yourself. It might be different over there.

canned tuna in the us is pretty cheap, though there is varying qualities (basically how many guatemalan children's fingers you want ground in with the meat, some or none). Canned fish can be had for anywhere from .50-1$ a can depending on the size of the can. Good albacore tuna costs like 2-3$ a can/bag. Frozen tuna is pretty pricy at around 7-10$ a pound iirc. Frozen chicken is like 2-3$ a pound. Basically it's the same here as there, buying frozen and in bulk is the cheapest (if you're dollar cost averaging) but for the OP's purpose canned goods are just fine.

 

[domsch1988]

I'm not going to quote all the things again.

Saying IIFYM is restrictive and works when you watch your micronutrients is 1. like saying You could swim from europe to america if you where a whale and 2. not what all the hip guys do.
By definition IIFYM ignores micronutrients because they are irrelevant to whom ever came up with that. It says so in the name. I won't argue it's restrictive. But eating nothing is too and will loose you fat too. That doesn't make it healthy.

But really, the fitness world is so full of opinions and people with no scientific credibility spewing pseudo truths around, that i don't care anymore. If you feel IIFYM lets you reach your goals, more power to you.

Second thing is, if you are really poor (in like, you struggle to come up with the money to eat), canned tuna is pretty bad bang for your buck. If it's about the protein, chicken and turkey deliver much better protein for your money. If it's about eating something that makes you full for long on the cheap and still leans you out a bit, you can't beat brown rice and frozen vegetables. I can get 1kg of good brown rice for .5€. And that is a minimum of 5 meals worth of eating. Adding about .5€ of frozen vegetables per meal makes you really full for 1€ here. Even with chicken you're at 2€ max. A can of tuna cost nearly the same and won't make you full for half a day.

 

[Winspear]

Whole milk, peanut butter, cheap whey protein (cheapest $/g of protein by far). There is plenty of detail in this thread and elsewhere but eat a healthy balanced diet and use these items to boost your calories and protein on the cheap and you really can't go wrong.