What To Order At Chipotle For Fat Loss (Men Over 40) - 145

Coach Brian Parana (0:7.768) Neil is standing in the Chipotle line 12 minutes until his next meeting. He's feeling a little rushed. But his phone buzzes yet again in his pocket for the third time since he walked in. He picked this place on purpose today. He drove past the drive-thru next door. He parked here instead. Chipotle feels fresh. Like it's the smartest move that he could do. They have fresh ingredients. Build it yourself. Nothing fried. Coach Brian Parana (0:37.526) Nothing sitting under a heat lamp, nothing in a microwave. So he's proud of himself for even stepping up into this place before he even reaches the register. Here's the problem. He has no idea if any of that is true for the specific thing he's about to order. He's just guessing, hoping that's gonna be a healthy bowl or a burrito or whatever he ends up ordering. The menu is built in a way that makes you wonder what you should be picking. Coach Brian Parana (1:7.006) In a sense, and it can become an expensive habit, like calorie-wise. It costs him one bowl at a time, and he doesn't notice that it is actually impacting his waistline as well. By the end of this episode, you'll know exactly what to order at Chipotle. There's not going to be any type of guessing, and give you some tips, tricks, and help you manage this best so that you're not just trying to figure out what is on the menu. Coach Brian Parana (1:34.386) And how many calories you're actually eating and the macros for it. Welcome back to Driven for Health. This is Coach Brian Parana, episode 145. Chipotle is one of the most common lunch spots for the men that I coach. They get to it. They're business owners, sales guys, anybody who's got 20 minutes between meetings and needs something that is a real meal instead of something that's out of a vending machine and a wrapper and Coach Brian Parana (2:3.851) just full of just garbage junk food, in a sense, like say McDonald's, which will come on in another episode. And today we're really gonna dive in on what to eat at and what to order at Chipotle. And here's my stance: that fast casual restaurants can get blamed for a lot of the damage that they don't cause. Meaning the real damage happens at the counter. It happens when you order the same. Coach Brian Parana (2:31.885) Plate, the same bowl every single time that you go, and it's like autopilot. You just go in, you just boom, boom, boom, and off you go, and it tastes good. But that is the challenge. This is the episode that kicks off a short series for Driven for Health. Every episode for the next ideally 15 plus are going to cover one restaurant, start to the finish of getting that stuff in your belly, from walking in to in your belly. And one trap to avoid, one better order. Coach Brian Parana (3:1.665) That will work really well for your fat loss and fitness goals. One thing to remember if you forget anything else that I say, and no lecture on nutrition science today. All right. The exact moves, you will know how to make specific menus work for you, specific combinations that will keep you in line with your goal every single time that you walk in, one order at a time. Coach Brian Parana (3:30.328) Getting this right is just as simple as just one sentence of saying the right things in the right order as you reach when they ask you bowl or burrito and what meat are you gonna have? And let's jump in. So, what's the trap of Chipotle? Let's start with building it in general. The healthiest thing on the whole board is the sofritas, brown rice, pinto beans, fajita veggies. Coach Brian Parana (4:0.363) Corn salsa, guac on top. Those are all really healthy food choices. That's the [unclear] own version of a plant-based bowl. And it is very good to order. And it's something that if you're serious about your health, you would want to pick that. But that bowl can run eight hundred and twenty calories. And that's just if they don't overserve you the beans and the brown rice. Coach Brian Parana (4:28.909) All right, it only has 26 grams of protein as well. So it's not gonna be a large amount of protein in one go. Now put a chicken bowl next to it on the same counter with the same amount of brown rice, pinto beans, add cheese, chili sauce instead of the corn salsa. That bowl runs about six hundred and sixty calories with fifty grams of protein. So it ends up being a pretty big difference. Lower calories, more protein, and Coach Brian Parana (4:58.899) it moves us more in line with what a general macro goal could look like. So if we read these two numbers back to yourself one more time, the chicken bowl beats the plant-based bowl on both ends at the same time: fewer calories and nearly double the protein, which is great. The word plant-based makes the sofritas bowl sound like it's a super healthy thing on the menu. And it's not that it's bad, it's just a plant-based food and it has a lot more carbo- Coach Brian Parana (5:27.693) -hydrates associated with the protein that comes in it. The real numbers are what you can find in the Chipotle nutrition calculator on their website or even in their app when you build it. And that's a power move: build it in the app first or online, and we can get that link inside the show notes for you as well. Here's why plant-based is doing a lot of work on the menu. Coach Brian Parana (5:57.378) But it doesn't necessarily help us. It has nothing to do with the rice sitting under it and nothing to do with the beans mixed in it either, the guac on top. These are all healthy things, but your brain reads that one word and credits the whole plate for what it is that you're going to be eating. The calories on the plate don't end up moving you in the right direction because of it. It ends up being a higher carbohydrate. And if you add guac, Coach Brian Parana (6:27.329) going to be a lot more fat as well, even though it's a healthy fat. Here's where the rest of the damage can get you into trouble. And even outside of that bowl that you end up doing, if you end up getting it on a tortilla, that thing can cost some like 300 calories. It's giant, it's a flour tortilla, and it is one of the highest calorie items on the menu itself. Coach Brian Parana (6:55.241) Ordering a burrito instead of bowl and you've spent a third of the calories on just the wrapper alone. This is before you put anything else in it. If you add the vinaigrette dressing, which is so tasty and I know the youngins, the twenty somethings and the teens and all are always going for the vinaigrette, but that can add an extra two hundred and twenty calories as well because it's a fat-based vinaigrette, not a vinegar-based vinaigrette. Coach Brian Parana (7:24.593) And that can carry 850 milligrams of sodium alone, which really can spike your blood pressure, in a sense, and get your overall amount of sodium in that particular meal up. And most guys never ask what's in the dressing before they pour it on, ever. They just, hey, this tastes good, and that's what they're thinking, and it's vinaigrette, so it must be healthy. Now, just having a typical Coach Brian Parana (7:54.478) two serving bag of chips could run upwards of four to five hundred calories as well. A tortilla chip is roughly about 15 calories a piece, and there's plenty of them in there, and so they end up multiplying again. If you add it with the guac or queso, then we can definitely have five, six hundred calories pretty darn quick. And it's very easy to eat the whole bag in with the burrito itself. Add it up the way that Coach Brian Parana (8:23.927) Chipotle frames it, this is a reasonable order to have. The sofritas bowl and their own general guidance is about 220 for just the sofritas. And then we talk about getting a drink. If you're like most guys, you're going to get one of the special lemonades because it tastes really good, but that could be over 200 calories in the cup there. And my goodness, you can start seeing how these calories start stacking. You can be easily over 1200 Coach Brian Parana (8:53.789) for your lunch and you think you're doing good, but it's actually gonna put you in a carb coma come two, three o'clock in the afternoon. And it's supposed to be working. Neil doesn't think anything is wrong here. He actually walks past the drive-thru on purpose, like the McDonald's situation in his head. He already knows that he's doing better. And this is great, but unfortunately we need to make sure that Coach Brian Parana (9:20.929) we realign the choices that are there to win the day out. Now I'm not saying there's nothing wrong with sofritas. That could be a choice that you make. We just want to make sure probably having beans instead of rice as your starchy carb additive and definitely skip the wrap to help prioritize the carbs and the calories around the plant-based protein sources thereof. Black beans, pinto beans, Coach Brian Parana (9:51.212) they're basically the same. Now we do want to pile high the vegetables here and minimize the rice because that's where the rice can be a high calorie amount. 200 calories are roughly a cup of rice, of cooked rice, and that adds up. If you're eating at Chipotle a couple times a week, all of a sudden you've got a couple thousand calories going in your body, and that will tell a big different story of how that impacts Coach Brian Parana (10:19.531) your day, day and week. If you want a deeper version of problem, I broke some things down on how to read nutrition labels in episode 74 on what a nutrition label is and how to understand it. Meaning that if you use the Chipotle app or the website, then you'll be able to quickly see and understand servings, calories, protein, carbs, fats, fiber, Coach Brian Parana (10:49.611) and how much of it is going into the meal that you want. So check out episode 74, Driven for Health. That will help you understand that. I broke it down in a super easy way. And of course, there's an undertone of Chipotle being healthy because they cook their own food and health is just a generalized term. That's something I'll probably say a lot in the series is the word healthy is — ask 10 people. You're going to get 10 different answers of what healthy actually looks like. Coach Brian Parana (11:20.001) What's the better order to make here? Again, there's nothing against sofritas, but we can totally build those into a healthy day with getting adequate amounts of protein. We just want to make sure that we can maximize, say, specifically a Chipotle order. The base, we're doing a bowl or salad depending on what you're getting on top of it. And depending on your activity level. If you're lower activity in the day, or you're gonna have lower carbs at other meals and we're then Coach Brian Parana (11:47.184) we — if we're having, excuse me, if we're having lower activity in the day and eating carbs in other meals of the day, that's what I meant to say, then we're gonna be doing more of a salad base. If you have calories available to burn, you had a light carb breakfast and you're moving a lot, then we're gonna go to the bowl and start off with some of the other starchy carbs. But again, we're not gonna hit the tortilla 'cause it's like three hundred calories and it ends up costing a lot Coach Brian Parana (12:16.617) of the actual meal, say a third of the calories there. And this will cut out the single biggest calorie density item in there before you start piling it up with our toppings. Because every topping is gonna add fifty to a hundred plus calories depending on how much of it gets on there. Most guys don't think about whether they should or should not Coach Brian Parana (12:42.813) get the tortilla just as a burrito, and that's what they usually get. So we want to eat things with a fork, usually, and you have significantly more control, and it can be a lot more filling. All right. Next is the protein: chicken, steak. I love carnitas, it's something different than I eat at home. I eat a lot of chicken at home and steak, occasionally, but not too much. I don't usually go out and eat chicken when I'm ordering out because I want something different. So, what does that mean? Coach Brian Parana (13:12.577) That means that I can then have something different while I'm going out. Coach Brian Parana (13:20.223) Now we definitely want to just pay attention to the steak because it does have more fat in it. It's a red meat and it's not the leanest cut of meat that Chipotle is serving up to you. Now there's a big difference in ordering the different meats because we can then start to multiply the fat, a lot more fat in the steak over chicken or whatnot. Now Coach Brian Parana (13:50.902) we can go double protein. If you're gonna have a lower protein day, this can be a really easy way. And even you can strategically make sure that they scoop enough. You can ask for an extra — can you do a little bit more, please? And then they usually do a little bit more to get a bit more protein in there. We're looking for double fajitas for sure. Fajitas are the peppers and onions, gonna be really a lot more fiber, a lot more food volume with less calories. Coach Brian Parana (14:20.845) We're definitely gonna run the salsa as well. We want the salsa. Now, if this is on a bed of lettuce, it could be three, four hundred calories. If it ends up being on the beans and rice, obviously it's gonna be more, but it'll be six to eight hundred calories, which is a lot more reasonable for you to fit into your day than something that is over a thousand. Coach Brian Parana (14:46.461) Now, when we have a serving of the protein, it's 35-45 grams of protein, and we get double protein, we can get a bit more. And with the other things in there, it can add up. So all of a sudden, we have 50 to 60 grams of protein in there. And chicken is going to be the biggest win for your protein intake with that particular meal. So that's the trade you definitely want to make every single time you're standing at the counter because it will Coach Brian Parana (15:15.179) make a big difference in protein intake in the rest of your day, which would be good. Double the meal up with other vegetables besides the fajitas, the mild and medium salsa will bring tons of flavor without a lot of calories. Again we have to decide if you're gonna have rice or beans. If you have a lot of vegetables in other meals, Coach Brian Parana (15:39.042) then you could probably get away with rice. But if you don't, you probably need more beans because the fiber, the protein are gonna be really good things to be able to do and add it. And that's something that you have to just be conscious of. Now the stomach only knows you're full when it's piled high with a lot of food, but it doesn't necessarily know if you're piling all the calories in there, and vegetables will keep those calories down at a fraction of the Coach Brian Parana (16:9.259) cost compared to rice. Here's a move that definitely fixes almost a lot of things and cuts down: is skip the dressing entirely. We avoid the vinaigrette, the high amount of sodium in it, and the salsa because a cup of salsa can be roughly thirty calories and it provides tons of flavor and taste to the mix. None of this is — Coach Brian Parana (16:34.685) you don't need to require special requests or an awkward conversation with the person behind the counter about how to build or what's every single ingredient in the ingredients that are there. We can just go down the line, pick these things and boom. So one that I like to do is a carnitas, double carnitas with some beans, a little bit of rice. Coach Brian Parana (17:1.899) I'm going double or triple for heat — I'm literally gonna try and get them to put as much on there as I can. Tomatoes, the pico for sure, double [unclear] and have double of that. Then I'm gonna get the red salsa because that's a little bit hot. That's fire. I like the heat a little bit more from there. Then we go into — I might top it with some lettuce, but that usually just makes a mess and the lettuce isn't very high calorie. Or Coach Brian Parana (17:29.917) at that point in the bowl it's just too much. So I might do a little bit of corn as well. Yes, that's a starchy carb, but they put some on and a little, not a lot. And that's actually a lot lower calories than rice. So a cup of rice is about 200 ish, a cup of corn is about 140. So you end up running out with a lot more, say, volume there with lower calories. And that ends up being an order that I like to do. Coach Brian Parana (17:57.366) I spare the guac or the cheese because they just multiply calories. Now, here's another order for you to actually say, hey, I'm gonna do the salad, double chicken, double fajita peppers, mild and medium salsa, pico, no dressing, and boom. You're gonna walk out of there with a pretty good amount of food, with maybe 400, possibly 500 calories. You could add the corn in there too, just add more volume. Coach Brian Parana (18:25.919) And that would be okay. You're gonna end up flexing about 40-50 plus grams of protein. If you get the double serving, you'll get on the higher. And it ends up being really easy for you to not only remember, but make sure you consistently order it every time you go in there. And the extra protein will cost you, but everything else is just there, and you can ask for doubles of stuff and it won't add to your actual tab. Coach Brian Parana (18:53.127) And the flavor is going to be undeniable. They do have excellent, tasty food there, and then we don't need to worry about it being bland or have to add the vinaigrette, in a sense. So if we can go up there and order something like that, or with beans, because you get those proteins and fiber, that is going to be a healthier version for you. So everything in that sentence is designed to gear you toward a high Coach Brian Parana (19:22.679) fat loss meal at Chipotle and I have had so many people win with it. Now one super hack is of course to talk about the calculator. You can go in and manipulate extra or light servings of things to look at what a protein carb fat ratio — we're gonna, off the top of my head, we're looking for a serving of Chipotle to be roughly 500 calories with 40, 50 grams of protein, 40, 50 grams of Coach Brian Parana (19:52.952) carbs and 20 grams of fat or less, ideally. That could be just a generalization of a macronutrient profile for you to have. So picture yourself standing in Neil's place, placing that exact same order when you jump in there and you've been waiting in line, you can just knock it out. And of course you got buzzing going on. There's just a lot of distraction in there too, right? It's a pretty loud place. Coach Brian Parana (20:17.811) And they like to keep the line moving so you don't get up there and panic order and change your order at the last minute. So you can lock this in and it'd be your new Chipotle order. One thing, this is a big full meal. This should last you three, four, five hours at a time to be able to stay full but not compromise your overall fat intake or your body fat loss that you're going for. Coach Brian Parana (20:46.749) And we just have to get in the repeat of saying this. One rule to think about: you can eat at Chipotle literally every single day. I literally have had clients do it and have amazing results. And there's a couple hacks that we can do in the way of this too. One is take your bowl and turn it into a thousand calories and then eat it for two meals. Coach Brian Parana (21:13.953) That could cover about six or seven hours. Don't say that loud by your kids, but yeah, for sure you eat around noon and you have the other serving around four and that's a thousand of your day. And then you still have a thousand ish, eight hundred more calories, depending on what your goals are for your calories and your body, that will give you around, say, eighteen hundred, two thousand total for the day and keep you in check for, say in quotations, breakfast and dinner. And knowing that you're going into dinner, you can just balance out Coach Brian Parana (21:44.162) whatever was inside the bowl to have a reasonably portioned amount of carbs at dinner and calories as well. Ordering here is just like running a P&L in your business. We need to know what your budget is. We need to know how much money you can allocate toward it in terms of calories, in a sense, and you should be able to have an understanding generally of what is inside Coach Brian Parana (22:14.411) the actual cost of the burrito that you're getting. Of course, whatever you plug in in your app is not gonna be exactly what comes out in the bowl because individual people serve you individual portion sizes, and that is perfectly fine. Now, every fast casual dining restaurant can become an ally in the way that you use it Coach Brian Parana (22:43.357) as part of a strategy for fat loss. So eating it once a week, every couple days. If you can cut out those 500 plus extra calories that you get from some of the extra things of the vinaigrette, the drink, the chips, the guac, the cheese, maybe swimming down or reducing the rice and having the beans, we can have a slam dunk option for you. Coach Brian Parana (23:10.873) I wanted to bring back the fast five. It's been a minute since I've done the fast five. These are five quick questions with five quick answers, just a variety of different things on the menu at Chipotle and dealing with Chipotle. And I think the last episode's probably under 50 that I did, and it's just a segment that I really like to do. So you're gonna hear these moving forward. So question number one. Coach Brian Parana (23:39.618) What's the real calorie range of a scoop of guac? Is it a hundred to two hundred and fifty calories? And it depends on how heavy-handed the person behind the counter is that day. Yes, it's real food, but it's real fat. One avocado can be three hundred and thirty calories with twenty-nine grams of fat. And if you're in a fat loss phase, that could be roughly 50% of your fat intake for the day, in a sense, and yes, it's healthy, but it adds calories Coach Brian Parana (24:10.361) and the overall fat gram. So that's something to just pay attention to. That the guac is something that you probably would want to actively skip or have lower fat in other meals. Number two, what's the fastest way to control your portions without saying any extra words at the counter? Well, we order in the app before you walk in. You'll have complete control over selecting light, regular, or heavy. Coach Brian Parana (24:38.901) And that will make a big difference for you as well. Now, the app will also calculate your macros in there, and you can always lean on the lighter side of things. And I've experienced this, they serve you less portions. It's a smaller burrito. If you were to get a burrito, I've seen it with my kids. We've ordered online and it's literally smaller. They give you larger portions at the counter. So that's just something to acknowledge too. So if you're trying to manage Coach Brian Parana (25:7.233) calories and you just want to stay full for four or five hours, then you can order on the app and they will serve you a reasonable amount of calories and not overdo it. Number three, what's the single move that turns one trip into two full meals? Well we want to build a bigger bowl on purpose. And that was one of the hints I gave earlier. Eat half of it at one time and the other half later. So you can have a $10 or $12 Coach Brian Parana (25:32.440) Chipotle bowl and that ends up being five dollars per meal, which is completely reasonable, especially in our marketplace and inflation and all the things that are going on at the grocery store. If you can have convenient food that works for you and hits dots, then five dollars, six dollars for a serving of five to six hundred calories is great because if you were to get factor meals, you're gonna be paying twelve dollars, thirteen dollars for four hundred calories. Number four. Coach Brian Parana (26:1.131) Besides the sofritas, what two toppings add up fastest without you noticing much? Sour cream and the cheese, all right? They are amazing and they add quite a bit of taste and creaminess to the mix and deliciousness, but man, again, a quarter cup of cheese is a hundred calories. And the sour cream, every dollop could be easily 50 calories pretty quick. Coach Brian Parana (26:31.501) So there's 200 calories straight away just from those two. Question five. What's Chipotle's own general calorie target for a man's order? It's about 600 calories. So the sofritas bowl from the top of this episode gives you an extra 200 and some calories alone before you even start adding anything else. So that's the fast five for this episode. Hope that you have learned some things from this Coach Brian Parana (27:0.557) and can improve the way that you order at Chipotle moving forward. So next time you're standing in line and you only have 12 minutes on the clock, one, you probably should order ahead because 12 minutes to get in and out of Chipotle is a risk because they could be super busy and you might not even get to the counter at 12 minutes, that's for sure. So know what your order is. Have it memorized, write it down if you have to. Have it as a repeat order that you just constantly do in the app. Coach Brian Parana (27:28.511) And then you can just walk in, grab it, and walk out. The whole series that I'm going to be doing on the "what to order" series is building for you right now is one order ready before you need it. So every time that you go to these particular restaurants, you know what to get and how to better serve your own goals. And this is gonna be important. It's gonna be a lot of brand chain restaurant types that Coach Brian Parana (27:54.060) most people do. So the goal is to get 20 here in the next 20 episodes. So it's gonna make boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. And my goal is to keep these short, actionable, and on point so you can get in, get out, and keep on with your health goals. Now, if you are interested, I do have an eating on the go guide. This is something that I have and I've had for a long time. I regularly give it out. It's at Coach Brian Parana (28:19.351) go.brianparana.com/eatingonthegoguide, one word, and it'll be in the show notes as well. So you can download it for free and it'll talk about Chipotle, it'll go over Starbucks, Panera, Subway, and dozens of others. It's literally 40 pages. It's got a table of contents that make it really easy for you to understand. So I want you to go grab that right now, and you can use it and leverage it for future Coach Brian Parana (28:48.201) opportunities. And one thing possibly in the future is actually making an app on your phone that you can use to help order at these restaurants really quickly. That's something I'm starting to work on in the back end and develop. So we'll see how that goes and if it's something I can offer by the end of the series here. Now, if you actually want to take action on all the things that I ever talk about on Driven for Health podcast, Coach Brian Parana (29:14.123) then that's what the Call To Rise is. So I got this cool hat here. If you're looking on Spotify or on YouTube, I got this cool hat. And it is my one year anniversary gift to myself on holding to everything that I've been doing with the undertone of helping men show up as a leader and a father, a husband, a partner, and someone of authority. And that's what the Call To Rise is about. Coach Brian Parana (29:41.546) It's got five pillars. We have identity, the call. We have the forge, which is on fitness and exercise. The fuel, which is on nutrition, eating the right foods at the right times in the right amounts. The code is your mindset, how we live and think and perceive about what healthy is and lifestyle should be for you, and the brotherhood. This is something I'm super proud of because guys in their forties do not have similar health driven people to be around. And that's what Coach Brian Parana (30:11.647) I'm fostering in the brotherhood in the Call To Rise. Like-minded, driven men who have responsibilities in life, kids, they got their house, they got their mortgage, they got all these things that are going on. They're running businesses, they're doing big things in their life, but they struggle with health. And that's where we can come together to truly support each other. Even this week, on a round table, which was last night, we decided that as a group, we're gonna pick one food we're gonna avoid for the next week. And if any one of us Coach Brian Parana (30:40.459) does it then we have a five minute squat hold which is yikes. Mine was cookies. My kids make cookies occasionally and it's still summer. And I've been known to be a little cookie monster and end up eating too many cookies. So that ends up being a big challenge. So if you actually want to apply and implement, that's what the Call To Rise is. Take all this information you've been learning and actually do something with it for long term success. And I have countless episodes Coach Brian Parana (31:9.457) throughout the Driven for Health podcast that said, do that. Episode 140, Jamie, and episode 53, Andy, both lost thirty-eight pounds, which is incredible, in the hundred days. And the coolest part is they can show up for their kids. They can participate with their kids. They can be leaders in that. And both of them have 13ish, 14-ish, 10-ish young kids. Andy has two and Jamie has one. We've got Coach Brian Parana (31:38.434) who else? 120 is Chris. He travels for a living. He was out multiple weeks throughout the hundred days and was still able to lose over twenty pounds. And he has an on-the-go travel standard that he holds to, which is awesome. And even 113 is Mike. He showed up, he lost seventeen pounds, he lost twelve percent body fat, which is undeniably crazy because you can see abs on this guy now. Coach Brian Parana (32:7.207) And what it allowed him to do — while he had a lot of challenges in the beginning of starting a new job. Unfortunately, his mother passed away and he needed to take control of his health because it was starting to get to 200. This guy needs to be in the 170s. So we were able to get him in the 170s. But even more importantly, which is really cool, is that he was able to be the father of the bride, walk his daughter down as she got married, really just beaming with confidence, energy, and be able to pass Coach Brian Parana (32:36.811) his daughter onto the man that she is marrying and now son in law and have that standard. So if that strikes you and you actually want to do something, then calltorise.com, 100-day fat loss challenge. Let's lose twenty plus pounds and let's even improve blood panels too. If this resonates with you, share with a friend. I would appreciate that. If you have questions or have a specific restaurant that you want, you could Coach Brian Parana (33:6.165) message me at brian@brianparana.com. And of course if you love what we're doing here, a review would be amazing on Apple, Spotify. So thank you so much for listening to Driven for Health. Let's train hard, eat smart, and I'll catch you in the next episode.