What happens to your waistline if you eat only 'healthy' pre-made meals for a week

Eating healthily can be tough, especially when you're in a hurry.

Most people who are trying to improve their lifestyle and lose weight won't have personal cooks and trainers to help them miraculously shed those pounds in a matter weeks like Love Island celebs and social media influencers.

And not so long ago, cheap and convenient pre-made supermarket meals that could be popped in the microwave were more a busy person's guilty secret than something you'd serve up to impress a date.

What's more, pre-made food of old - like the TV dinners from the frozen meals aisle at supermarkets everywhere - were probably not going to help a dieter pressed for time lose weight.

Anyone brave enough to take a closer look at the ingredients found those processed 'mystery meals' tended to contain scary levels of salt, sugar and additives.

Today with trends like plant-based diets gaining popularity and meals able to be ordered to your door with a tap of an app - food producers have sat up and taken notice of the eating habits of today's switched-on consumers.

But while many of us increasingly like to know what's in our food and where it came from - we still want to get it for a decent price.

Luckily for today's shoppers - healthier pre-made alternatives are popping up everywhere.

A journalist, Anna Riley, put the trend to the taste-test to see how a week eating only pre-made meals from LD Nutrition affected her health - and her waistline.

It takes time to pick out semi-decent looking fruit and veg during the weekly foodshop, meat and fish can be a bit on the pricey side, and let's face it, food shopping is pretty boring.

So when I got the chance to try out some pre-prepared fresh meals from LD Nutrition made by former Hull City player Jamie Heard and his partner Michelle McIntyre - who are both personal trainers - I couldn't turn down the offer.

I was provided with 14 meals to last me a week, eating one for lunch and one for dinner.

Each meal was essentially made up of a meat combined with a carb such as rice, noodles and pasta, with some added greenery such as veg or salad, and there was a lot of variety.

Over the week I sampled chicken curry, meatballs with pasta, cold beef with salad, chicken with parmesan and salad, pulled pork with rice and vegetables and chicken with noodles and veg, amongst other meals, and I wasn't disappointed.

Here's what I learnt during my time of eating pre-prepared meals.

The food tasted great

As well as being so easy to eat, the food tasted great.

The salad-type on the go meals were very fresh, despite being in the fridge for a couple of days, and the specials meals that could be frozen easily fitted in the freezer, and tasted just as good after being reheated

My particular favourite was the chicken curry, and I also really liked the pasta with meatballs that I had.

I was told by Michelle that the menu is always changing, which creates much-needed variety with the meals.

She also said that the food they sell is prepared by a professional chef with nutritional input from herself and Jamie, so it is no wonder that the food tastes great.

As the food is also freshly cooked on the day of pickup, there were no additional additives and preservatives in the meals, which can be added to other similar 'ready meal' styles of food.

It made me feel good

As I was eating healthy food every day and also eating a decent breakfast of porridge, I felt a lot better in myself.

My skin was clear, I had plenty of energy and it felt good that I was being so kind to my body by filling it with the vitamins and nutrition that it needed.

My trousers certainly felt a little looser by the end of the week, and I felt like if I kept up the healthy eating regime I would be sure to lose more weight. After all, the key to any diet is consistency in healthy eating along with exercise.

As the food was portion controlled, there was also no temptation to overeat, which can be the case when making a big meal for yourself, even if it is healthy.

Sweet treats were even available

I shared some of the healthy snacks that LD Nutrition offer with my colleagues in the office, and we all found the sweet treats very pleasing.

The doughnuts, protein balls, granola, brownie and muffin were all made without any sugar, and were no more than 150 calories each.

A mixture of fruits, oats, coconut, oats, eggs and even sweet potato went into making the treats, and even though they didn't taste exactly like your normal cake, they were a great healthy alternative to a snack.

It was affordable

With each meal starting from as little as Sh300, eating the pre-prepared meals was cheaper than buying supermarket lunch meal-deals and takeaways.

By the time I would have bought all the ingredients for a weekly food shop, I'd also say that the cost of the meals that I had would be only slightly more than what I would be buying at the supermarket anyway, without having the hassle of cooking.

The package that I had cost Sh.7, 000 for 14 meals, which I thought was good value.

The verdict at the end of the week?

I really enjoyed not having to go food shopping for the week other than grabbing a few essentials like milk for my porridge on a morning and a tin of coffee and other such necessities.

On top of this, it was great not having to cook any of the food that I hadn't needed to shop for.

Even better, I then didn't have to wash up any pots for the food that I hadn't shopped for or cooked, as I ate the meals straight out of the packaging that it came in, and then threw the containers straight into the bin without any fuss.

I really enjoyed the experience of eating healthy pre-prepared meals that took no effort other than lifting the lid of the container, or bunging the food in the microwave.