What To Order At Mexican Restaurants For Fat Loss

The chip basket reaches the table long before the waiter takes your order. Coach Brian walks a Mexican restaurant meal one stop at a time from the chips to the last round. You leave with the number behind each stop and three orders that fit a fat loss day.

The chips reach the table before the waiter takes your order. By the time you pick an entree you can already be several hundred calories in. This episode walks a Mexican restaurant meal in the order it reaches the table.

The Meal Starts Before You Order

Your hand is in the chip basket. The queso sits in front of you. The margarita is half gone and nobody has asked what you want for dinner yet.

Then the fajitas come out sizzling in the pan. You picked grilled chicken because chicken and vegetables is the logical order. The tortillas and rice and beans and cheese and sour cream arrive on a side plate that comes with it.

So the meal gets decided in five stops. Here they are in the order they hit the table.

Stop One: The Chips

One tortilla chip runs about 10 to 15 calories. Twenty of them lands at 200 to 300 calories before any dip or entree reaches you.

They are hot and fresh and sitting within arm's reach. Whatever is close gets eaten. That is not a character flaw, it is proximity.

I eat plenty of chips at the local Mexican place my family goes to. I am in marathon mode right now and the calories and carbs are on my list. If I were not training that much I would cut that meal down.

So decide before the basket lands. You are having the chips or you are not.

If you are having them then pull back on the rice and the beans and the tortillas to make room. If you are skipping them then push the basket to the far side of the table and you will manage.

Stop Two: The Dips

A full appetizer order of queso runs about 450 to 500 calories. A large order of guacamole runs closer to 300 because it carries no cheese.

An avocado alone brings about 30 grams of fat. A large guacamole order can land you 30 to 50 grams of fat depending on the size.

Every chip you dip carries the chip plus another 20 to 30 calories of queso or guacamole. Five dipped chips move like an appetizer of their own.

A full queso order can also run upward of 2,000 milligrams of sodium once the salt goes in.

Sodium that high pulls water on board and the scale reads heavier the next morning. Drink extra water for the rest of the day and read that jump as water rather than fat.

Stop Three: The Combo Plate

The American style combo plate is enchilada, taco, rice, beans, cheese and sour cream with a small island of lettuce on the side. That plate lands at a thousand to fifteen hundred calories depending on which proteins you pick.

Most restaurants are not serving the leanest cut they can find. Leaner meat costs more and tastes less rich.

Think about the difference between a sirloin and a ribeye. All that marbled fat is what makes the ribeye taste dynamite, and it is also what moves the number.

So the same dish varies by who cooked it and how much butter or oil went in. That is why chain numbers are useful as an anchor.

A corn tortilla runs about 50 calories. Street taco style is often double wrapped, so that is 100. A flour tortilla runs upward of 100 calories with 20 to 25 grams of carbohydrate.

A basic street taco anchors at about 250 calories with meat and a little sauce. Add a quarter cup of cheese and that is another 100.

Stop Four: The Drink

A house margarita runs about 200 calories on the rocks. A frozen sugary one can reach 500.

Count a shot of liquor at about 100 calories, because the pour usually runs heavy.

The first one arrives strong. The second one does not register because you are already having a good time.

Stop Five: The Extras

More chips are always on the way. Another cerveza or another margarita lands on top of everything before it.

Add it all up and you can walk out of a Mexican restaurant with 2,000 calories in your belly.

What Chicken Fajitas Cost

Chicken fajitas sound safe. The number moves a long way depending on where you sit.

Chuy's chicken fajitas can run close to 1,000 calories. El Torito lists its grilled chicken fajitas around 800 to 900, and that figure comes from an older published guide rather than a current one. Both of those include the tortillas and the rice and the beans.

Abuelo's lists its fajitas at 430. That looks like the winner until you read the line on the menu that says the figure excludes all sides and condiments.

So start at 430 and stack the plate as served. Rice takes it to 530. Beans take it to 630. Sour cream takes it to 730. Two tortillas take it to 930.

You end up right back around a thousand calories.

These chain figures come from Coach Brian's own research for the episode rather than from a fresh check of each menu. Treat them as approximate and look at the restaurant's current nutrition page before you count on one.

That is the real lesson here. When a local place posts nothing, borrow a comparable dish from a national chain and use its number as your anchor.

The Chip And Dip Rule

Decide before the basket is pushed in front of you, then plan the rest of the meal around that call.

If you are having the chips and dips then eat less rice and fewer beans and tortillas.

If you are having the guacamole then take the chicken or the shrimp instead of the steak or the beef. Those cuts are naturally higher in fat.

If you are having a beer or a margarita then pull back a starch somewhere else.

If you keep one starchy carbohydrate on the plate, make it the beans. Beans bring protein and fiber, and both of those help a meal land more filling.

You can always order double vegetables. Ask for salsa and pico on the side. Pass on the sour cream and go light on the rice.

Water Before Food

Mexican restaurants keep the water coming. Use it.

Drink one glass before anything goes in your mouth. Drink another before the entree arrives.

This one holds up in the research. Adults given roughly a pint of water before a meal ate less at that meal and reported more fullness and less hunger.

Three Orders Worth Knowing

Here is the tight one. Order one enchilada with grilled chicken plus a second grilled protein, which can be another chicken breast. Take beans instead of rice, light cheese, and salsa in place of sour cream. That keeps you under 1,000 calories with plenty of protein.

Here is the social one. Order the combo plate exactly as served and split it with the person across from you. Cutting it in half cuts the calories in half.

Here is the hidden one. Ceviche or grilled fish with heavy pico on the side gives you protein and citrus and almost no starch. Ask how it is prepared and stay away from anything crispy or fried. Two or three street tacos do the same job.

Menu Words Worth Knowing

Pollo asado is grilled chicken. Carne asada is grilled steak.

Carnitas is pork cooked in its own fat. Al pastor is pork roasted and marinated on a spit. Barbacoa is slow cooked meat and it is usually beef on American menus, though it is sometimes lamb or goat.

Once you know that asado means grilled, the rest falls into place. Pollo is chicken. Carne is steak. Carnitas is pork.

Carnitas Against Grilled Chicken

Carnitas get slow cooked in their own fat, which is why they taste the way they do.

A serving can run upward of 200 calories with about 12 grams of fat. Grilled chicken can come in around 50 calories lower with roughly half that fat.

Same taco. Different number.

Watch The Word Salad

The word salad on a menu tells you almost nothing.

Chili's Santa Fe salad runs about 540 calories. Their Quesadilla Explosion salad runs almost twelve hundred. You could eat two of the first for one of the second.

On The Border's stacked nachos can reach 2,000 calories, and that plate sometimes arrives as an appetizer.

These three figures come from the same recall as the fajita numbers above. Check the chain's current nutrition page before you build a meal around one.

Action Steps

• Decide on chips before the basket reaches the table.
• Drink a glass of water before you eat and another before the entree arrives.
• Take beans instead of rice when you keep one starch.
• Ask for salsa and pico on the side and pass on the sour cream.
• Split the combo plate on a social night.
• Borrow a national chain's number when the local place posts none.
• Send questions to brian@brianparana.com.

More From Driven For Health

• Episode 161 covers what to order at CAVA.
• Episode 145 opened the what-to-order series with Chipotle.

Get The Guide

I built a guide for eating away from your own kitchen. It runs 25 plus pages and covers restaurants and travel and airports in one place.

Grab the Eating On-The-Go Guide at go.brianparana.com/eatingonthego.

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Frequently Asked Questions

How many calories are in restaurant tortilla chips?

One tortilla chip runs about 10 to 15 calories. Twenty of them lands at 200 to 300 calories before any dip or entree arrives.

How many calories are in queso and guacamole?

A full appetizer order of queso runs about 450 to 500 calories. A large order of guacamole runs closer to 300 because it carries no cheese.

How many calories are in chicken fajitas?

Chicken fajitas run anywhere from about 430 to close to 1,000 calories depending on the restaurant. A low listed figure often excludes the rice and the beans and the tortillas that arrive with it.

How many calories are in a house margarita?

A house margarita on the rocks runs about 200 calories and a frozen one can reach 500. Count a shot of liquor at roughly 100 calories because the pour usually runs heavy.

What does pollo asado mean on a Mexican menu?

Pollo asado is grilled chicken and carne asada is grilled steak. Asado means grilled, so one word gives you the protein and the other gives you the cooking method.

Are carnitas or grilled chicken better for fat loss?

Carnitas are slow cooked in their own fat and can run upward of 200 calories with about 12 grams of fat per serving. Grilled chicken comes in around 50 calories lower with roughly half the fat.

What should you order at a Mexican restaurant to lose fat?

Order grilled chicken or grilled fish with beans instead of rice, light cheese, and salsa in place of sour cream. That keeps most plates under 1,000 calories and lets the protein do the filling.

What is the Call To Rise program?

The Call To Rise is a 100-day fat loss challenge built around strength training, personalized nutrition and real accountability. Most men lose 20 plus pounds and rebuild the confidence that comes with it.

Listen to the full episode of Driven For Health.

Read the companion article on brianparana.com.