How To Survive Eating At Chipotle

I go to Chipotle, a lot. I love it. Best of all, it can be incorporated into your diet without ruining any of your progress. It’s good for someone looking to bulk, and it’s also a quality post workout meal. The big knock on it would be the high sodium levels so below is the best way to minimize that damage.

On your end, make sure you drink plenty of water, get plenty of potassium in your system and be sure to bust your ass in the gym.

Here’re your best options at Chipotle.

The first thing I’m going to tell you is eliminate the flour tortilla (300 calories, 690 mg’s of sodium, 46 grams of carbohydrates, 10 grams of fat, 7 grams of protein). It’s not necessary, and you shouldn’t order it.

So for starters, Rule #1 is your going to order a bowl.

Go with brown rice over white rice.(200 mg less sodium) Go a bit lighter on it as well.
Black beans over brown beans (tad more fiber).
Load up on the fajita vegetables.
Choose between chicken or steak (carnitas and barbacoa have more sodium and less protein).

Rule #2 Brown Rice, Black Beans, Fajita, Chicken OR Steak.

Your only option on salsa is the fresh tomato salsa (mild) or the medium. The corn has more sodium and more carbs, and the hot salsa is ridiculously high (double the mild and medium) sodium levels.
No Sour Cream
No Cheese

Rule #3 Mild or Medium Salsa (both works). No Corn, No Sour Cream, No Cheese.

If it’s post workout, avoid the guacamole. If it’s not post workout and you are on a higher fat day (carb cycling), then it can be ok. If you see below it can alter your numbers drastically so be wise about it.

Rule #4 Guac is ok (based off  your current daily fat total, be smart about it) and Lettuce is fine.

Lastly, No Chips, No Sodas, No Beers. Just get Water

Rule #5 Water and ONLY Water 

 

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Here’s the breakdown of a Chicken Bowl and a Steak Bowl.

 

Chicken Bowl w/ brown rice, black beans, fajita vegetables, mild and medium salsa, and guacamole.

785 calories, 37 grams of fat, 75 carbs, 46.5 grams of protein, 1745 mg of sodium

Remove the guacamole and it’s as follows:

555 calories, 15 grams of fat, 67 carbs, 44.5 grams of protein, 1370 mg of sodium

 

Steak Bowl w/ brown rice, black beans, fajita vegetables, mild and medium salsa, guacamole

795 calories, 37 grams of fat, 77 grams of carbs, 44.5 grams of protein, 1755 mg of sodium

Remove the guacamole and it’s as follows:

565 calories, 15 grams of fat, 69 grams of carbs, 42.5 grams of protein, 1380 mg of sodium

 

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• You can always choose to go for a salad. That is fine as well. If you put everything in the salad mentioned above it’s basically a bowl. For that reason, I didn’t discuss salads.

• You don’t have to order all of the ingredients mentioned. If you only chose one salsa rather than both, the numbers would be lower. If you didn’t want the rice or beans, that’s cool as well.

• These are rough estimates based off of Chipotle’s Nutrition Facts. Understand that the bowls are hand prepared so you might get more or less based off of the employees. Use this as an estimate.

• Sodium is ridiculously high so if you’re concerned about it then don’t eat at Chipotle, go see a Doctor, or do the best you can to minimize the sodium intake by playing around with the website.

Hope This Helps!