Are Chipotle Chicken Bowls Good For Bodybuilding and Is It Healthy?
I don’t know about you guys, but the American Establishment, Chipotle, is a life saver for all millennials. Who doesn’t like cheap and good tasting food, cooked with “fresh ingredients?” We all know Chipotle is notorious for its salmonella and E. coli scare about 5 years ago. Many people gave up Chipotle as they were afraid to get sick. Funny enough, that was the time I started trying Chipotle! And I fell in love. I now eat Chipotle probably 3 times a week. I’m in there so often I get buy one get one FREE coupons and all the workers know me by name! In addition to that I have Chipotle napkins littered all over my apartment, but I digress….
So is Chipotle healthy for you? Well that question is subjective. Are you eating Chipotle to gain muscle, lose weight, or maintain a healthy physique? Personally, I believe the food options you can get at Chipotle fuel all of those goals.
For Gaining Muscle:
This is what I get at Chipotle: A chicken bowl with brown rice, pinto beans, black beans, corn, and romaine lettuce. Pretty simple ingredients but essential for hitting your macros!
Macronutrients
You need macronutrients (a type of food (e.g., fat, protein, carbohydrate) required in large amounts in the human diet.) to get big and muscular. For macros you need about a 1 lb of protein per bodyweight a day. I weigh 180 lbs. so I need to hit 180 grams of protein in a day! This bowl has 55g of protein, so it helps me get about 1/3 of the way there!
Surprisingly you need .3 to .6 lbs. of bodyfat to gain muscle, contrary to public opinion! This chicken bowl has 17.5 grams of fat, again 1/3 of the way there to reach my minimum fat macros. I usually get my other 2/3 of fat from peanut butter, avocados (or in this case guacamole!), or eggs (all healthy fats).
The third important macro that I take into account is caloric intake. If you have an sedentary job and you work out 3-5 times a week, general rule of thumb is to multiply your weight by 18. So my 180 pounds multiplied by a factor of 18 would require me to have 3240 calories in a day. The calories in this chicken bowl displayed are about 760, I get extra rice usually and that bumps it up to about 900 calories. So three Chipotle like equivalent meals and a snack or two could get me to my 3240 calorie goal for the day!
Micronutrients
The corn and lettuce also provide for some MICROnutrients (a chemical element or substance required in trace amounts for the normal growth and development of living organisms.) Corn has boron (B), chlorine (Cl), copper (Cu), iron (Fe), manganese (Mn), molybdenum (Mo), and zinc (Zn).
Romaine lettuce is a good source of Riboflavin, Vitamin B6, Calcium, Magnesium, Phosphorus and Copper, and a very good source of Dietary Fiber, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Vitamin K, Thiamin, Folate, Iron, Potassium and Manganese.
So are there parts of Chipotle that are unhealthy?
One of the biggest criticisms of Chipotle is the amount of sodium in a typical meal. However, a lot of the sodium lies in its flour tortillas. The sodium in my meal was relatively high, 1800 mg. Conventional nutritionists recommend you do not eat more than 2300 mg of sodium a day. Almost my whole daily serving was in that one chicken bowl! High sodium has been linked to cause high blood pressure and risk of heart disease. Although this meal includes a lot of sodium you can counteract the sodium you act by two well-known methods: drinking extra water and eating potassium. Drinking water and eating bananas that contain potassium help flood the extra sodium out from your blood!
Chipotle uses GMO products in some of its ingredients. It publicly states on its website which foods contain GMOs. Although GMOs haven’t been proven totally unhealthy and there is a lot of debate up in the air on both sides. GMOs are so recent that we don’t know the long term effect on humans.
Conclusion:
Chipotle is an inexpensive and convenient meal for most Americans. It contains both the macro and micro nutrients required in a healthy diet for building muscle. It contains the right amount of protein, fats, and calories; as well as some vegetables that provide a lot of essential vitamins and minerals. Chipotle does have some unhealthy components such as high sodium and GMOs but these can be counteracted by consuming water and bananas and being wary of which ingredients you are eating. I hope this article helped you guys and maybe you’ll be convinced to add Chipotle to your diet!
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