I ate pizza for every meal for a week — and I somehow didn't gain any weight

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Last week I completed an experiment that I've dreamed about completing for most of my life: eating pizza for every meal for a week straight. Pizza is one of the most universally loved foods and it also happens to be my personal favorite food.

I set some rules for myself: I had to have pizza for every meal but I could vary the toppings. I could also drink whatever I wanted, so water, alcohol, etc. were all on the table. In this story, I took "pizza" to be pretty much your standard, traditional pizza with tomato sauce, cheese, and the occasional toppings.

I knew going into this experiment that what I was doing was not healthy in any way, but I wondered if there was any way healthy way to make pizza work for every meal. I asked a nutrition consultant Amy Gorin, MS, RDN (owner of Amy Gorin Nutrition in the New York City area) if there was any possible way to make the dream of eating pizza for every meal a reality.  

"The only way I can think of to make this work would be to vary each component of the pizza so that you're eating a variety of foods and plenty of fruits, vegetables, lean proteins, whole grains, and healthy fats," Gorin said. "So for instance, you could swap out traditional crust for things like cauliflower crust, a Portobello mushroom, or even a Wasa cracker or two. You could use refried beans or pesto in lieu of traditional sauce. I would load up the pizza with a ton of vegetables and I wouldn't recommend eating cheese on pizza for every meal."

She also told me that by eating traditional pizza three times a day, my body was taking in lots of saturated fat from cheese and toppings like pepperoni and sausage and too much saturated fat can increase cholesterol levels.

Still, I gave it a shot. Here's how it all went down.  

I start my experiment with a Brooklyn Pie.

Austen Tosone

I Seamless a Brooklyn Pie from Williamsburg Pizza around 2 p.m. Williamsburg Pizza is a classic move — and it tastes just as good when you heat it up a few days later so I know this is the move to kick off a pizza-filled week.

I eat two slices for lunch and pop the rest in the refrigerator. Then I meet up with two former interns for some happy hour margaritas at Lupe's LA East Kitchen. I was prepared to forego my normal order of shrimp chipotle tacos but I wasn't prepared for the temptations of the complimentary chips and salsa that were brought to our table. On the way home I stopped by Ben's Pizza in SoHo to grab a buffalo chicken slice — my protein for the day.

Slice count: Three

On Friday, I enjoy eight slices of pizza.

Austen Tosone

I AM BLOATED. For breakfast, I heat up one of the leftover slices of the Williamsburg Pizza pie but scrape off the cheese to give my body a break from the dairy and drink a black iced coffee. I head to a morning meeting in SoHo and on my way back to Brooklyn I stop by Pomodoro to pick up one of their vodka sauce slices.

The vodka sauce is a nice change from classic tomato sauce and I feel good about consuming cheese again. My friend comes over for a few hours in the afternoon to hang out and around 6 p.m. I heat up a slice of the Williamsburg pie and add some prosciutto and brie cheese on top, which was absolutely delicious.

I made plans to meet with another friend for a quick bite and a beer with her and her mom and they were happy to grab some 'za to keep me on track. We order two pies from Evil Olive: one margarita and one mushroom and ricotta and I have two slices from each. If you think this sounds like a lot of pizza, there's still more.

My roommate and I are currently watching through an old season of "The Bachelorette" because this season was too predictable and at around 12:30 a.m. after a glass of wine I could feel my stomach grumble. I put together another prosciutto and Brie slice for myself and fell asleep feeling all kinds of content.

Slice count: Eight

On Saturday, I discover pizza avocado toast.

Alonso M.yelp

I wake up craving so many different foods. Remember steak? How about tacos? Sushi? French fries? But at this moment I am mostly missing my go-to breakfast dish, avocado toast. I grab an avocado from the refrigerator and heat up a slice in the oven. I scrape off about half of the cheese to make room for avocado slices. I take one bite and it's actually surprisingly delicious. There's something about the garlic-y pizza bread that is meshing well with the avocado.

I head to Hungry Ghost, one of my favorite Brooklyn coffee shops to do some freelance and blog work for the day. I order an iced matcha latte with almond milk when I get there and hang for a few hours. When the hunger sets in around 4 p.m., I run across the street to Carmine's and devour a plain slice. My boyfriend comes over for dinner and we order in from Milly's Pizzeria. Lucky for him, they offer more than just pizza and I try to hide my jealousy as he eats his shrimp scampi and I consume two more plain slices.

Slice count: Four

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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