Most current frozen meals are not only convenient but also healthy for different people. It is possible to have frozen meals as a main dish or side dish suitable for your muscle gain plan. To reach the goal of gaining lean muscle, both regular exercises and more calories are the key factors. Let’s find out what are the benefits of building muscle and what are the best frozen meals for muscle gain?
Benefits of building muscle
- Help to strengthen bone
- Strong muscle can support joints better
- Contribute to controlling blood sugar at an acceptable level
- Improve your strength and stamina
- Help to remain body fat stable
- Make you feel more confident and less depressed
Which food is needed for muscle gain?
Protein plays an important role in gaining muscle. Besides, carbohydrates and fats are the macro-nutrients that your body needs for building muscle.
There are some necessary foods you should have to make sure that you can build muscle effectively. Here’s the detail:
Meat, fish and poultry:
- Eggs: high protein, healthy fats, and essential vitamins like B or choline
- Chicken breast: protein, B vitamins niacin and B6
- Tuna: vitamin A, B (including B6, B12, and niacin), omega-3 fatty acids
- Salmon: omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin B, protein
Fruits: Apples, oranges, bananas, grapes, watermelon and berries
Veggies: Broccoli, spinach, leafy salad greens, tomatoes, green beans, cucumber, zucchini, asparagus, peppers and mushrooms
Starchy foods: Potatoes, corn, green peas, green lima beans
Dairy: Low-fat milk, cheese, yogurt, cottage cheese
Grains: like cereals, crackers, oatmeal, quinoa, popcorn, rice or bread. They contain phosphorus protein, fiber, magnesium.
Do not forget foods such as seeds, nuts and oils like olive, flax-seed and avocado oil, other different kinds of beans. Soybeans provide the body with pro-phosphorus, vitamin K, iron, unsaturated fats, and protein.
What food and drinks should be avoided?
Even though you should have a variety of foods in your muscle gain plan, some things that need a limitation as below:
- Alcohol: With negative effect, it will reduce the ability to build muscle and lose fat.
- Sugars: You need to stay away from cookies, doughnuts, ice cream, cakes or any food that have added sugars. They have a lot of calories but do not provide many nutrients.
- Fried foods: You should have limitations on eating fried fish, French fries, onion rings, chicken strips and cheese curds
Why frozen meals for muscle gain?
Variety of flavors: It is not easy for many people to achieve a daily suitable nutrition without having to eat bland or tasteless foods. In these cases, frozen ready meals can be a good choice.
Portion control: As the frozen meals provide portion-controlled servings, you know exactly what you are eating, which ingredients included in the meals and their nutritional content. Therefore, it is easy to control of your energy intake by looking at the carbohydrates, fat, sugars and sodium levels.
Convenience: If you are busy with work, kids and housework, frozen meals from freezer will provide not only the readiness but also the excellent foods for gaining muscle that compatible with your workout plan.
You may also like: Best Frozen Meals for Weight Loss
Best frozen meals for muscle gain
Best frozen chicken meal
Healthy Choice Chicken & Wild Rice Soup
Each serving will offer you 20g of protein through many highly nutritious ingredients. The tasty soup combines white meat chicken, carrots, celery and rice in the chicken bone broth.
Best meal kits
HORMEL COMPLEATS Protein Variety Pack
The set offers you a big source of protein with several healthy varieties. To be more specific, you can pick up Chicken and Mashed Potatoes, Chicken Alfredo, Roast Beef and Mashed Potatoes, or Turkey and Dressing.
HMR Entree Variety Pack
The set from HMR is highly recommended for those who want to keep up a healthy diet. It offers you several options to make your meals more interesting. With each serving, you can get from 11 to 20g of protein, and from 200-250 calories.
Best meat meals
LEAN CUISINE Deep Dish Three Meat Pizza
With Lean Cuisine, you now can enjoy a healthy pizza suitable for your muscle gain plan. The tasty and crispy pizza contains 420 total calories, 9g of fat, and 21g of protein. A mixture of beef, low-fat mozzarella cheese, Italian sausage, and pepperoni makes it even more attractive.
Chef Boyardee Beef Ravioli
If you are adhering to a muscle building plan, the Chef Boyardee dish can be a great alternative for any unhealthy snack. A single bowl can give you 200 calories, 6g of protein, and no trans fat.
Best meals for vegan
Saffron Road Chickpea Masala
It is a great mixture of green chilies, chickpeas, tomatoes, onions, and spices. So you can get a sufficient amount of protein needed for muscle building per day. Besides, it has no toxic ingredients which have a negative impact on your health in the long run.
Kitchen & Love Cauliflower Quick Meal
This is a plant-based dish which is made from organic and fresh veggies. So it can provide you with several necessary vitamins and minerals. With each pack, it contains 6g of fiber, 5g of protein, and 170 calories.
Seeds of change
The main ingredients of the meal is organic brown rice and high quality quinoa. With the Seeds of change dish, there are no preservatives or any artificial colors and flavors. And only after 90 seconds, it will be ready to use.
Green Giant Vegetable Blend
You can use this can of vegetable blend to make soup or for stir fry recipes. All veggies provided are selected carefully from high grade sources to maintain great freshness. And it is also totally free of unhealthy fat.
WonderSlim Protein Meals
As its name stated, it is a convenient dish which is low in carb and high in protein and fiber. All ingredients included are natural with no artificial additives. Each serving can make you energized throughout the day.
Bottom line
It is now convenient for you to have frozen meals to catch up with your own muscle gain plan. High quality frozen meals can give you many important nutrients to build muscle effectively.
References
1. Foods That Help You Build Lean Muscle, healthline.com, Retrieved on Sep. 6, 2021
2. Best healthy frozen meals, menshealth.com,
