Ironic Bulking Tips

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About

Ironic Bulking Tips refers to ironic hustle culture memes made about the calorie counts of pets, animals and people that would provide enough nutrition to "bulk" amid weight-lifting, dieting, bodybuilding and physical fitness in general. Satirical text posts, infographics and TikToks were made about kittens, dogs and homeless people, predominantly using sigma male and Chad signifiers related to pick-up culture. The ironic trend started in early 2022 within "GymTok" circles.

Origin

In general, "bulking tips" are advice for weight-lifters and bodybuilders trying to build muscle with limited fat. The tips involve high-powered exercises alongside the mass consumption of protein-based, low-carb foods, similar to what one would eat on a Keto Diet. Bulking tips are widely shared on forums like Bodybuilding.com ^[1] and subreddits like /r/Fitness.^[2]

Earnest bulking tips were additionally present on TikTok^[3]^[4] within fitness circles commonly referred to as "GymTok." The saturation of this content led to ironic bulking tips. The first video of this nature was posted on April 12th, 2022, by TikToker^[5] elijahoh1 who wrote in text overlay, "bulking tip: a medium sized dog is roughly 97,000 calories." The video received roughly 335,300 plays and 28,600 likes in two months (shown below).

Spread

On April 13th, 2022, TikToker^[6] kraigbtw posted a video of him wearing Pit Viper Sunglasses that added to the trend, writing in text overlay, "Bulking tip: a girlfriend is roughly 126,000 calories." The video received roughly 79,000 plays and 9,600 likes (shown below, left). On April 15th, 2022, TikToker^[7] swole.lando posted a video of him picking up a puppy with one hand and writing, "Bulking tip: a small dog has approximately 10,000 calories 😈 🍽," gaining roughly 10.5 million plays and 1.8 million likes in two months (shown below, right).

On April 18th, 2022, the TikTok^[8] account sigma.quadrillionaire posted a video that included a GigaChad infographic reading, "Bulking TIp #1 / An average homeless man is roughly… 26,000 calories / Let that sink in." The video received roughly 1,200 views and over 100 likes in two months (shown below, left). Sigma.quadrillionaire originally posted only the image macro to Instagram, however, its account has since been deleted. Regardless, it was reposted to platforms like Twitter^[9] on May 5th, earning roughly 27,800 likes in one month (shown below, right).

On April 24th, 2022, Instagram^[10] page owen_kung posted a similar meme that listed a homeless man's calorie count, earning roughly 22,700 likes in two months (shown below, left). Additionally, ironic bulking tips spread to Twitter. For instance, on April 28th, 2022, Twitter^[11] user SolBrah tweeted an "esoteric" bulking tip, being, "6-8 tablespoons of coconut oil daily." The tweet received over 590 likes in two months (shown below, right).