The Chipotle diet is another fad diet that has been around for a while.
While I applaud the company for developing such a viral and seemingly truthful diet, shame on them for creating a shitty diet and passing it off as something that works.
I’d like to say that even though I rarely eat at Chipotle, I do like their foods.
How is this a fad diet?
Pretty much anything named ___ Diet and you’ve heard of through friends or publications are fad diets.
Eating a healthy diet includes eating a variety of fresh and healthy regular foods. There are no secret formulas, you just eat fresh healthy foods (most of the time).
This diet is a marketing ploy (a great one, actually) to get people to buy their food as a way to lose weight.
Just like the cabbage soup diet, this has some things that are just not right and I want to bring them out into the open.
How is this a marketing ploy?
If you Google “Chipotle diet” you will find many sites touting how they have lost an (un)usual amount of weight simply by eating their foods.
Weight loss stories vary from losing 35 pounds in 6 months (which could very well happen) to an astounding 120 pounds in 6 months with no exercise.
I’m not sure how you can lose that amount of weight that quickly regardless of what you eat unless you are completely wrecking your metabolism, losing all muscle mass, and forfeiting any type of healthy lifestyle.
Why doesn’t the Chipotle Diet work?
From a reddit post:
“There are 300 calories in a tortilla ALONE. That, plus all the calories in everything else, you could easily have a burrito with 1500 calories or more,” And there’s a ton of sodium in everything. Pretty much the only purely healthy thing there is the brown rice.”
Upon further research, the usual burrito is anywhere from 1200-1500 calories. If you add chips it’s something like another 500 calories on top of that.
So at the upper end of the scale, a regular burrito with chips will land you in the 2000 calorie area.
Burrito Breakdown
If you look at the header picture, you’ll see I posted a diagram I found of a regular chicken burrito with white rice and all of the goodies with it.
It is ~1200 calories which come from 117 grams of carbs, 53 grams of fat, and 62.5 grams of protein… oh lets not forget the 2.4 grams of sodium (2400mg).
I’m not against using salt or having sodium in dishes, but I think 2400mg is a bit overboard, especially if they expect you to eat this every day.
I’ll come back to the protein here in a second.
So can you lose weight on this diet?
So in order for someone to have a chance of losing weight on this diet, you are going to only be able to eat the burrito, or a more healthy option like a burrito bowl (which saves you 300 calories).
Since you are going to be eating all of your calories in one meal, (which is fine, I believe in intermittent fasting if it works for your schedule) this is a piss poor macro layout.
62.5 grams of protein isn’t enough protein for anyone to maintain muscle mass, let alone build muscle or perform in the gym.
You may be able to squeak in a small snack or two around the meal but you are going to go somewhat high with calories.
What do you suggest?
I am all about re-feeds and cheat days and I think they are good for your metabolism and your overall mental health.
Schedule one or two days out of the month to go eat at Chipotle; skip the rest of your meals and drink a couple of protein shakes.
Doing this will let you get in your favorite meal without wrecking your goals.
Conclusion
The Chipotle diet is stupid, regardless if you get the burrito, bowl, or a low-calorie salad.
You are giving up healthy nutrient dense foods for highly processed crap. (which tastes great)
How many people do you know that have tried this diet and it’s failed horribly for?
I’ve watched a friend “try” the Chipotle diet as well as eating out every other meal just to watch her gain a bunch of weight and then blame the weight gain on something else. (I don’t have to worry about them reading this since they have no care for anything fitness related except how to tell me I am wrong) ;-)
It’s not rocket science guys, it takes some discipline, planning, and commitment to lose weight; these fad diets don’t do anything but make people money or ruin any progress you’ve had so far.
This is part rant, part educational, and 100% truth. If you have any questions, leave them below.
I can’t believe I’m even wasting my time on replying to this article. But I am currently on a Chipotle diet. I eat at least one burrito bowl a day. I order sofritas, black beans, brown rice, fajita veggies, tomato salsa, corn salsa and romaine lettuce. 590 Calories, 20 grams of fat, 1600 mg of sodium and 25 grams of protein. What makes you think that anything at Chipotle is highly processed? Have you ever visited there website? Nothing is processed. Animals are grass fed and humanely raise. What part of this process is considered crap to you? Its amazing to me that you focus on the tortilla which is ridiculous because in a recent interview Chipotle has stated that the burrito bowl is the most common vessel of choice. It seems to me like you based this article not on your preferences on the way you like your food and your girlfriend who became fat. I’ve lost 30 lbs in about 6 weeks. This article is tailored to the way YOU prefer your food. “The Chipotle Diet doesn’t Work.” You being an author to this website doesn’t work. You should take up another hobby. Because as of now you’re coming off extremely ignorant.
I would say you should look at other articles from (what you may think) is more authoritative than this one about how unhealthy Chipotle is but we all know you are trying to justify you being lazy and unable to cook. I was presenting facts, like facts that are on their site but somehow it’s turned into me and my preferences. Maybe before you come attack someone about an article that is based off of facts you should learn that you just might be an outlier that actually makes sensible decisions at places.. http://lmgtfy.com/?q=Is+Chipotle+really+healthy%3F
Cutty
I worked at Chipotle for about a year. During that time I was allowed 1 free meal during my shift and 50% off any other time. So for that time Chipotle was pretty much all I was eating (for my wallets sake.) I lost about 30 pounds in 7/8 months with little exercise. Chipotle is definitely among the healthier options in fast food and i think when paired with a multi vitamin daily and regular excersize this “diet” could be successful. But expensive if you don’t work there. Knowing the menu helps too. Stay away from tortillas and chips. try corn tortillas or crunchy taco shells as substitute. Stay away from carnitas (pork) as well, it’s saturated fat content is a lot higher than the other meats. personally, i don’t believe in diets. Being healthy is a lifestyle change.
Ahmani,
Thank you for the fresh perspective. I am glad to hear you think of lifestyle instead of restriction when you think of the word “diet.” I agree that Chipotle is one of the healthier options when compared to other fast food chains, they offer foods that are more nutrient dense and seemingly less processed. If you are sensible and rational about your eating habits and actually plan your meals I believe you can eat Chipotle and still lose weight. I don’t think I made that clear in the article and I may have to edit it to reflect that. My point was that that majority of people that I’ve noticed try the Chipotle diet replaces one of their poor choices in a meal with a meal from Chipotle. This plus adding rice and other calorie dense foods makes this diet fail.
Thanks for the comment and fresh point of view.
Cutty
As an example of the alarmist nature of your little write-up, the recommended daily amount of protein for the average person is 0.36 grams per pound of body weight. So in your example burrito with 62.5 grams of protein, this is sufficient for a day’s worth of protein for anyone who weighs 173.6 lbs or less. Might want to double check your “factual” article that is based off of a lot of conjecture.
Since you didn’t leave an email to get a notification of a reply you probably won’t see this but there are many studies that show that 0.64 to 0.82 grams of protein per pound of body weight is the minimum recommended amount of protein in a strength athlete to maintain or build muscle. Knowing this and considering the fact of higher satiety in higher fat, higher protein, lower carbohydrate diets help with building a leaner body, it is ludicrous to say that 62.5 grams or protein is sufficient for a day’s worth of protein. I’ll agree that your calculations are correct for 173.6 pounds or less sedentary person would suffice.
I also don’t recommend super high levels of protein intake per day but 0.62 per pound is the bare minimum that I would recommend anyone to eat. While I admit I don’t sit around reading studies and books all day, my experience has proven that 0.82 or a little higher per pound of body fat is appropriate to make steady and healthy muscle and strength increases in healthy normal males. I’m not sure how breaking down how the Chipotle diet doesn’t work (you must agree if all you are going to pick apart is my protein intake statement) is writing in an alarmist nature but I do thank you for commenting.
Cutty
Most people eating a clean diet and strength training have used rice and chicken as a staple… the Chipotle burrito bowl isn’t that much different: rice, beans, chicken, lettuce, fresh tomatoes and avocado.
Such a bowl would be around 800 calories and 53g of protein.
One could eat 2 of them daily, get a good amount of protein, carbs, vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients in just 1600 calories. I don’t think Chipotle can be considered refined food, knowing the don’t use anything canned, microwaved or frozen and basically every ingredient is a clean as it gets food.
I’m hungry now lol
I get a bowl with brown rice, black beans, fajitas, double chicken, green salsa, and roman lettuce. Then I split that bowl into two meals. The bowl alone is about 700 calories, 20g of fat, 70g of carbs, 6g of sugar, and 66g of protein. In between my two meals i eat healthy snacks alongside my protein shakes. So again tell me how this is not a healthy option?
Also i started this routine about 3-ish months ago and have lost 30+ pounds with very moderate exercise. I initially started this because i work about 60-70 hours a week and don’t have time to meal prep as well as i like and i used to eat out a lot. So in my experience, this so called diet/routine works
Again, you are the top 5% that actually understands moderation, macros, and how to actually eat healthy. Keep up the good work and let me know how you are progressing!
You must have missed the jest in the article. There’s nothing wrong with Chipotle, their food, or the choices they offer. The problem is the people who think they can eat a candybar and 44 ounce soda for breakfast, eat McDonalds for lunch, and then get pissed off when they have eaten Chipotle for dinner but haven’t lost weight.
This was honestly a stab at this fat bitch that I can’t stand. She stopped talking to me after I wrote this article.
Keep up the healthy choices. I make the same foods at home, Chipotle has some great flavors and splitting the meals up is definitely a reasonable decision. You sir are winning.
LOL I guess i missed the point. I get defensive when anyone talks crap about my chipotle.
I would eat it more often if it wasn’t in such a hard to get to strip mall here haha.