Familiar with this scenario? You just got off work and don’t have the energy to make a healthy, nutritious meal that will help with your weight loss plans, so you open your freezer and reach for a frozen pizza instead. However, the convenience that frozen food offers will often cost you nutrition, and could even cause you to gain abdominal fat.
So, before your next trip down the frozen food aisle, see what Caleb Backe, a certified personal trainer and health expert, and Trista Best, a registered dietitian at Balance One Supplements. They said that frozen pizza and frozen chicken pot pies could cause visceral fat because they are highly processed and end up ruining your metabolism. Read on to learn more!
READ MORE: A Nutritionist Tells Us How To Reduce Visceral Fat
Frozen Pizza
Frozen pizza is tasty—we get it! There's nothing quite like a slice of ooey-gooey cheese pizza. But, as you also probably know, frozen pizza is one of the worst offenders when it comes to visceral fat and is definitely not something you should be eating on the regular. It's made with processed dough, sauce, pepperoni, and cheese which all lead to weight gain because of their fatty ingredients.
"One of the biggest culprits of frozen foods that causes weight gain is frozen pizza," Backe warns. "Delicious, easy to cook, and with a very long shelf life, frozen pizzas seem to be the perfect dinner for when you can't be bothered cooking."
However, Backe also notes that you shouldn't "be fooled by the seemingly simple ingredients of pizza base, sauce, and cheese." The average total calories in a serving of frozen pizza are 400 calories, which he says accounts for "close to half of your daily sodium and saturated fats recommended intakes." Guess we shouldn't be eating frozen pizza anymore. Instead, it's always best to use fresh ingredients and toppings like basil (which can help boost immunity). Make your own pizza from scratch. You can even use cauliflower crust to make your pizza that much more helpful for your weight loss journey!
Chicken Pot Pies
Best, on the other hand, notes that frozen chicken pot pies are the worst frozen meals you can stock up on. Even though chicken pot pies promise a lot of protein with the chicken, Best says, "The health aspect as it relates to treating the common cold or flu is the cysteine content of the chicken. Cysteine is an amino acid present in chicken and is the primary reason chicken pot pie seems like an effective remedy for the common cold. Unfortunately, this is where the healthy characteristics end and can certainly be obtained through more nutritious chicken recipes."
She acknowledges that frozen chicken pot pies' extremely high fat content can lead to visceral fat as well. "While chicken is a lean animal protein, the other ingredients like milk, butter, and oil are high in saturated and trans fat. A diet containing large amounts of these fats can lead to heart disease and obesity," Best explains.
So there you have it! The worst frozen meals that cause visceral fat, according to Backe and Best, are frozen pizza and frozen chicken pot pie. Luckily, you don't have to give up these meals altogether. You just shouldn't be eating them frequently if you want to lose weight. And, there are healthy alternatives to frozen pizza and frozen pot pies. Make your own with healthier, natural ingredients that are so much better for you than their frozen counterparts. And if you feel a little frustrated by this list, fear not, check out the dietitian-approved frozen food meals for your weight loss goals.
