Bulking Grocery List

Set your daily calories and what you can spend, and this builds the actual week's shopping list — every item with the quantity you need, what to buy, and what it costs. No signup, no email, nothing to wait for.

Most people bulking at 3,200 calories a day can hit 200g of protein for about $55–$60 a week, buying whole milk, chicken breast, eggs, rice, oats, dried beans and peanut butter. Salmon and steak are what a bigger budget buys you — they are not what makes a bulk work.

Weekly list — 3200 calories a day on a $100 budget

3227 kcal and 209g protein per day for $73.61 a week.

Food	Per week	Buy	Protein	Cost
Whole milk	4100 g	1 × gallon	131g protein	$4.21
Black beans, dry	650 g	1 × lb bag	140g protein	$2.56
Salmon fillet	650 g	1 × lb	130g protein	$15.73
Chicken breast, boneless skinless	600 g	1 × lb	135g protein	$4.61
Lentils, dry	525 g	1 × lb bag	131g protein	$2.30
Shrimp, frozen	425 g	1 × lb bag	102g protein	$8.42
Sirloin steak	325 g	1 × lb	85g protein	$6.79
Textured vegetable protein	250 g	1 × lb (covers ~2 weeks)	128g protein	$2.75
Pea protein powder	100 g	1 × 2 lb tub (covers ~9 weeks)	80g protein	$2.76
Rolled oats	725 g	1 × 42 oz canister (covers ~2 weeks)	123g protein	$2.73
Pasta, dry	725 g	2 × lb box	94g protein	$2.06
White rice, dry	700 g	1 × 5 lb bag (covers ~3 weeks)	50g protein	$1.69
Avocados	225 g	1 × bag of 4 (covers ~2 weeks)	5g protein	$2.81
Cheddar cheese	150 g	1 × 8 oz block (covers ~2 weeks)	35g protein	$2.31
Peanut butter	125 g	1 × 40 oz jar (covers ~9 weeks)	31g protein	$0.77
Almonds	100 g	1 × lb (covers ~5 weeks)	21g protein	$1.76
Olive oil	75 g	1 × 25 oz bottle (covers ~9 weeks)	0g protein	$1.09
Frozen broccoli	400 g	1 × lb bag	11g protein	$1.31
Frozen mixed vegetables	400 g	1 × lb bag	12g protein	$1.14
Yellow onions	400 g	1 × 3 lb bag (covers ~3 weeks)	4g protein	$0.88
Baby spinach	400 g	1 × 10 oz bag	12g protein	$4.93

Prices are a us national average, july 2026. Costs are prorated to the week.

What each budget buys

$60/week → $53.84 actual, 3190 kcal and 222g protein a day
$100/week → $73.61 actual, 3227 kcal and 209g protein a day
$140/week → $73.61 actual, 3227 kcal and 209g protein a day

How this list is built

The list is arithmetic, not a guess. Each food carries its macros per 100g and a national-average package price, and the list is filled cheapest-first for each macro: protein first because it is the expensive constraint, then carbohydrate, then fat, with the calories reconciled at the end.

Every food also has a ceiling on how much of it a person will realistically eat in a day. This matters more than it sounds. Ranked purely on cost per gram of protein, dried beans and lentils beat every meat by roughly double — so a solver without ceilings returns five pounds of legumes a week, hits every target on paper, and produces a list nobody would follow. The ceilings are what put chicken, eggs, milk and rice back in the cart.

Costs are prorated to the week. A 5 lb bag of rice covers about three weeks, so only a third of its price counts against this week's budget — otherwise a single shopping trip would look wildly more expensive than the weeks that follow it, and comparing budgets would be meaningless. The buy column tells you the whole package to pick up.

Protein usually lands above target rather than exactly on it, because rice, oats, pasta and bread all carry protein of their own. On a bulk that is fine — protein is a floor to clear, not a number to hit precisely.

Common questions

How much does bulking actually cost per week?

At 3,200 calories a day, roughly $55 a week at national-average prices if you shop the cheap staples — whole milk, chicken breast, eggs, rice, oats, dried beans, peanut butter. Around $100 buys variety and some salmon or steak. Above about $130 you are buying convenience and preference, not additional muscle.

What is the cheapest way to hit a high protein target?

Per gram of protein, dried lentils and black beans are the cheapest by a wide margin, followed by whole milk, chicken breast and pork shoulder. The catch is volume: you can only eat so many beans in a day, which is why a workable cheap list leans on milk and chicken rather than legumes alone.

Do I need protein powder to bulk?

No. Powder is convenience, not value — it costs more per gram of protein than chicken, milk or eggs. It earns its place when you struggle to eat enough, since drinking calories is far easier than chewing them, but the list works without it.

How many calories should I eat to bulk?

A common starting point is about 300–500 calories above maintenance, which for most people lands somewhere between 2,800 and 3,500 a day. Work out maintenance first with a calorie calculator, then add the surplus and set that number above.

Can you bulk on a vegan or vegetarian diet?

Yes, though the protein gets harder as calories climb. Set the diet filter and the list rebuilds from seitan, tofu, tempeh, edamame, soy milk, lentils and pea protein. At very high calorie targets a plant-based list can run into the limit of how much of those foods is realistic in a day, and the page will say so.

Are the prices accurate for my store?

They are US national averages, so treat them as a planning baseline rather than a receipt. Regional differences, store brands and sales all move the real number — usually downward if you buy the larger package and the store brand.