How Effective is the GOMAD Diet?

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Well I did, and I’m going to share what it was like being on the GOMAD diet. Did I see a difference was the GOMAD diet worth doing? I’ll give you my real experience of going on the GOMAD diet.

I’m going to talk about probably one of the most unusual bulking strategies that I have actually tried in order to get more calories into my diet. The gallon of milk a day diet or GOMAD.

You may watch this because you have an ectomorph body type, or a hard gainer as they call it, or somebody who is really skinny and wants to add some muscle to their frame in a short period of time. 

I will not tell you whether you should or shouldn’t do it, I’m just gonna give you my experience with it and let you decide if it’s something you want to try..

Table of Contents

• The Basics of the GOMAD Diet
• What’s in a Gallon of Milk?
• How I Managed To Down A Gallon Of Milk Everyday
• Does The GOMAD Diet Work Though?

The Basics of the GOMAD Diet

The GOMAD diet is simple: you drink a gallon of whole full fat milk every day in addition to your regular intake of food. That’s assuming your regular intake of food is somewhat balanced.

There’s really nothing else to it.

I did the GOMAD diet it about 8 years ago for a month straight, I wouldn’t say I was super skinny ‌but my situation was that I was struggling to get in enough calories per day in order for me to bulk up and add muscle to my frame which is what I wanted to do‌. 

My work schedule at the time was crazy, it didn’t allow me the time or really the space to prepare or heat up pre-prepared meals all the time, and I didn’t have the money to buy food every day, we all know how expensive eating can be. So I was in a tricky situation, trying to think of ways to stick to a certain amount of calories per day consistently while still maintaining my work schedule. And that’s how I came across an article talking about the idea of drinking a gallon of milk a day.

What’s in a Gallon of Milk?

A gallon of whole full fat milk gives you around 2400 calories, 130g of fat, 187g of carbs and a whopping 123 grams of protein.

I’m 6ft5 and according to my calculations, the amount of calories i needed to hit per day if I wanted to bulk up was 3800 calories, so already you can see what I was up against. In order to hit that amount of calories from normal food while doing the work hours I was doing was just unrealistic for me. A lot of the time, taller people struggle to add muscle for this very reason, the amount of calories we need to add muscle to our frame is going to be more than somebody of a shorter stature. 

Which leads a lot of people down the path of dirty bulking, which isnt something I recommend at all, but a lot of people do it and in the long term it can be really bad for you.

How I Managed To Down A Gallon Of Milk Everyday

So a gallon is about 8 pints throughout the day, so that’s how I split it up.

What you’ll notice right away is two, maybe three things. 

• You will be going to the toilet a lot more. When I did it, I had to make sure that when I drank each pint I wasn’t going to be anywhere that would be too far from access to a toilet. So most days I’d be in an office or at home and I didn’t do any super long car journeys after drinking a pint of milk either.

• Your belly will grow like crazy. The milk bloat is very real. After two days, my stomach got so bloated but I knew the cause and I just powered through it. 

3rd thing you might notice is milk can really make you sleepy. The casein in milk or the casomorphin which comes from the digestion of cow’s milk can really make you tired, I don’t know if it’s different depending on what else you have in your diet, but personally, I was feeling really sleepy everyday, I was like a zombie. You know that feeling after you’ve had a big meal, your thanksgiving turkey or Christmas dinner? It was like that all the time.

All those things aside, after about a week of drinking this milk, people who knew me started telling me that they could see my body changing, I wish I had some photos from the time to show you guys, but my face got noticeably wider and I really did see a difference on the scales. 

But my workouts did suffer a bit as a result of drinking so much milk. I was still able to lift my weights 5 times a week and get good workouts in, but that sleepy, bloated feeling kind of messed my energy levels up a bit.

Worth noting, my fridge at home looked crazy. It was just full of milk! And after a while, maybe two weeks or drinking all this milk, the sight of milk just made me feel sick. After doing the month, I had enough. I had to stop.

Does The GOMAD Diet Work Though?

As a bulking strategy, technically, it works.

But I wouldn’t recommend it. Why? Because eating normal food is just much better. 

Since then, I’ve learnt a lot about bulking up for the body type I have as a taller guy, and I’ve found much better ways to get more calories in everyday as a hard-gainer or what some may call an ectomorph without turning to doing things like the GOMAD diet. 

Almost drowning myself in milk everyday was an interesting experience. Even though it works, to a degree, I don’t think it’s something I could do on a long-term basis.

So let me know, are you thinking of trying the GOMAD diet out yourself? Drop a comment below.

With that being said, thank you for watching and I’ll see you on the next one.