Basically I am trying to bulk up. School makes this tough to do as it is (GCSEs coming up), but now I have realised that I have another major problem.

I started basing a lot of my diet around milk and dairy products as they contain a lot of Calories/Protein. After a week however, my acne started playing up. Usually I have little acne, if any. Maybe 3 or 4 spots at the most. What happened though is that I started getting loads of spots around my chin area. My acne soon turned from little to fairly mild. I knew there was a connection between milk and acne beforehand as I have read about it and my friend mentioned it. As soon as I cut down on the milk/dairy my spots started getting better.

BUT: I am finding it very hard to fill in the extra 500 - 1000 calories and 20-40g of protein and my bulk is no longer moving at all. Would lots of ham be a good alternative on the protein side? As I can get a around as much protein per slice as I can out of 100ml of milk. Then toast could make up the calorie losses elsewhere if I got up earlier in the morning and had that with my cereal.

Anyone else got any other ideas though? Or experiences with milk and acne?

Thanks for your input. I just justify getting spotty over 7 lbs.

Get some whey protein maybe and if you really wanted to cram calories you could put some olive oil in.

I have whey.

Yeah, thanks. I'll try olive oil.

Chicken?

eat tins of tuna......you can get ocer 30 grams of protein out of a small tin.

I wasnt aware that milk effectred acne. I had an acne problem in my teens and was always told it is has nothing to do with diet but hereditary.

Milk only affects acne if you have some kind of allergic reaction to it. MOST of the population has some kind of allergic reaction to milk, even if they don't know it.

Just lay of the dairy and it will go away.

Soy milk

ya girl

yes tuna is very good way

i just ate a tin of it.

6 oz.(170 g)
1 g of fat X 4=4 g fat
15g of proteinX 4 =45 g Protein
calories:70 X 4=210 calories

this is 2 oz. serving.. so times everything by 4 and thats a full can

Cans are 5oz. So you multiply everything by 2.5.

Cheers guys. I've got loads of tuna downstairs I'm pretty sure.

In relation to milk not contributing:

I heard that it did maybe a year ago from my extremely vain friend. I didn't believe it and didn't really find any evidence to back it up.

However, this time when I started drinking serious amounts of milk my spots came out of nowhere. Thinking about it, the last two outbreaks I've had were milk related. The dermotologist told me that it's generally thought that full fat and semi skinned milk, due to what they use to remove the fat/ the hormones in the milk in the first place, they can cause acne to get worse. I'm sure this depends on the person though. But yeah, it helps me not to drink it. So I'm going to see what happens when I lay it off a bit.

Milk consumption and acne in adolescent girls. [Dermatol Online J. 2006] - PubMed Result
Milk consumption and acne in teenaged boys. [J Am Acad Dermatol. 2008] - PubMed Result
Nothing conclusive, that I have found anyways, but there is some evidence of a connection.

Cheers Trevor. Yeah, exactly. There is nothing conclusive to say it causes acne, but there is something behind it.

The good thing about my milk over here is that there are no hormones added and all of the process is very strictly controlled in order to make sure that the milk is top notch. Its pretty much farm fresh sometimes.

Have you thought about soy like tony said?

I don't do milk either. And like others mentioned, maybe give unsweetened soy milk a try or even almond milk (which I prefer over soy).

I can shed some insight into this situation from first hand experience. Now, everyone is different, so I'm not claiming this to be conclusive evidence, but this is my brief history.

I had acne as a teenager, but everyone did back then so I didn't think much of it, and it cleared up by the time I was 18. I'm 21 years old now. About a year ago, I started getting a few pimples on my forehead. Nothing major, I thought, but things got much worse. Little by little, it got worse and worse, until I looked in the mirror and realized I was dealing with full-blown acne, not just the odd pimple. This time it bothered me a lot, because most people are walking around with decently clear skin when they're 20+. Month after month, the condition steadily worsened until I decided to do a lot of research and try to put a stop to this crap. I wasn't sure how much merit there was to what I read, but I was pretty desperate, so I tried everything.

THE RESULTS:

I used over the counter acne products -- nothing.
I drank two cups of green tea a day -- nothing.
I completely stopped masturbating -- nothing.
I stopped smoking weed -- nothing.
I cut out all refined sugar -- nothing.
I drank copius amounts of water -- nothing.

*AND*

I stopped consuming any and all dairy products for 3 full months -- nothing.

During this time, my acne got even worse. Even with zero dairy, I was breaking out pretty bad, and I had no idea why. I was an avid milk drinker, so I was optimistic that this might be the root of the problem, but it certainly wasn't.

Finally, I went to the doctor and she gave me oral antibiotics. They did nothing as well, so now I'm one month into Accutane treatment. The Accutane is working wonderfully right now. I've had one new pimple on my face in the last two weeks, which is a miracle considering I would be ecstatic if I lasted 24 hours without getting a new pimple before. I can actually run my hands over my face while I wash in the shower and feel smooth skin, which I haven't been able to do in a LONG time. Unfontunately, my forehead scars easily, so I have A LOT of acne scars, but I'm not a shallow person, and I accept my imperfections, so they don't bother me so much.

Moral of the story: In MY experience: milk, as well as a host of other things, has nothing whatsoever to do with acne.

Oh, and if you're reading this and suspect you may have acne (not just a couple pimples here and there, but actual acne) get to a doctor right away! Drop the Proactive and Clearasil crap, and go get a professional opinion before you wind up with permanent scarring like me.