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Ok, everthing we read about weight training says that we must eat big to get big. Two questions. Can you eat big cheaply? It would appear that to get the amount of protein and carb intake needed involves large quantities of food. This can be expensive. Anyone got any thoughts on the subject?
Second question. Should one eat differently on the days that we don't workout?

First thing that came to mind was this series of arcticles:

http://www.t-nation.com/jumpLast.do?id=460331
http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=460327

and the sequels:

http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=459429
http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=459431

I'd say you could do this and expect to spend about $2-4/meal depending on your location and food choices. Buy items in bulk that you will be eating regularly, visit places like Costco and Sam's and the big warehouse chains. I eat about 3-4k cal for cutting and about 4-5k cal when bulking and manage to keep my cost/meal around $3. I live in a low cost of living area which might be helping me out a bit...

Eggs milk and bread are all pretty cheap.

Places like costco have 6 lbs of chicken breast for $13 dollars.

That doesnt sound very expensive to me.

Milk's a dirt cheap source of protein.

True. But a lot of people can't drink milk due to lactose intolerance and/or allergy to milk protein. Others can handle it in limited amounts, but would be up the creek if they used milk as a major source of protein.

With all the bulking/cutting phases bodybuilders go through, one wonders if it makes more sense to achieve one's natural weight and then maintain it, more of less.

Tuna (no, it only matters if you are pregnant) is cheap. Eggs as was suggested before. Canned Spinach. There is ham and chicken that comes in a can. Corn beef hash too if you can choke it down. Peanuts and peanut butter. Some cheese is cheap. Really price per gram, white tuna is probably the cheapest. It is 32 grams a can, and I thinked I paid less then a dollar each for the shop n' save brand. Maybe get the chunk at aldis, it is albacor I think which should be like 26 grams a can, but I have seen them as cheap as 3 for a dollar when they are on sale. I would think a can would be under 50 cents for sure at aldis.

I could be off though, I don't really look at the prices much when it comes to food.