Are Elotes Healthy? (5 Tips For Weight Loss)

If you love eating Elote but want to make sure that you’re eating healthy, then this is the article for you. Find out what goes into your favorite Mexican street corn and see whether or not this popular Mexican dish can fit into your lifestyle.

Elote basically translates to “tender cob,” and is corn on the cob that is roasted over the grill, or boiled, and then smothered in a coating of butter, spices, mayonnaise, Mexican cheese, and lime juice. 

This popular Mexican dish is quite delicious but is it also healthy? 

Elote is actually a healthy dish, as it offers a balance of all three macronutrients, which translates to a suitable range of calories. 

Here are five steps that explain the calorie amount in one Elote, as well as the ingredients that go into making Elotes the traditional way, and how to stay in shape, while eating this classic Mexican dish. 

1. What Goes Into Making Elotes?

2. How Many Calories Are in One Serving of Elote?

3. Try to Make a Healthier Version of Elotes at Home

4. How to Stay in Shape Eating Elotes

5. Make Sure To Increase Your Activity Level When Eating Elotes

Now that we know our five steps, let’s get into the details that will help you stay in shape while enjoying some delicious Elote. 

Tip 1: What Goes Into Making Elote?

Elote is made by either boiling or grilling corn on the cob, and then covering it with butter, chile powder, salt, mayonnaise or crema fresca, cotija cheese, lime juice, and cilantro. 

Elote is a simple, yet flavorful and satisfying dish since it gives you fats, proteins, and carbs. 

It is also versatile and easy to be customized to your liking or diet restrictions. Which we will further discuss in this article. 

The best part of Elotes is the marinade that consists of so many different flavors, from the butter, spices, mayonnaise, to the Mexican cheeses and lime juice. All flavors complement each other. 

Since it’s a classic dish in Mexican cuisine, you can find it in many authentic Mexican restaurants and street vendors all over Los Angeles. 

Now that we know what Elotes are, let’s take a look at the nutrition facts and see how many calories go inside one serving of Elote. 

Tip 2: How Many Calories Are in One Serving of Elote?

If you live an active and healthy lifestyle, it’s important to understand how many calories you need to consume on a daily basis. 

Let’s take a look at the nutrition facts. As you can see, one serving of Elote - has 220 calories with a macronutrient ratio of 18 grams of carbs, 6 grams of protein, and 15 grams of fat. 

This is not bad necessarily, you just have to make sure your calorie intake regarding fat is lower in other meals, you are planning to eat that day. 

The reason for the whopping 15 grams of fat per Elote is because of the amount of butter, mayonnaise, and Mexican cheese that is used to make this dish tasty and the traditional way.

Since there are only 2 grams of fiber in one Elote, chances are you might not stay full for long and could easily overeat, which is one of the main reasons for weight gain.

Staying healthy and fit is all about calorie or energy balance, which means that you can still eat your carbs and stay in shape. However, the carbs are not that bad in this dish and can be easily incorporated into your daily carb intake, as long as you are working out. 

You just have to understand how many carbs you need to eat in a day and to make sure not to overeat on your total accounted calories for the day. 

The key to dieting is keeping a nice balance of macronutrients. A great ratio is sticking to 30% carbs, 40% protein, and 30% fats. 

This is why we recommend you try to make this at home and substitute certain ingredients to make this dish even healthier. 

In the next section of this article, we will show you how to make a healthier version of Elote, when you prepare it at home. 

Tip 3: Try to Make a Healthier Version of Elote at Home

Elote is a pretty simple dish that doesn’t require much time to make, neither does it require a lot of ingredients. And the best part about Elotes is that it’s budget-friendly.

Here we show you, how to make a healthier version of Elotes. 

For example, instead of using butter, you can use low-fat sour cream. And instead of using mayonnaise, you can use avocado and blend it with cilantro to make a sort of “crema” instead. Avocado contains healthier fats - especially saturated fats, it is also lower in calories. 

By making a few changes and substituting a few ingredients, you will increase the protein intake, and lower the fat amount in this dish, so you can get a more balanced meal throughout the process. 

Now that we know a little bit more about the nutrition facts of traditional Elotes, let’s take a look at how you can eat Elotes, stay in shape, and get nice and lean.  

Tip 4: How to Stay in Shape Eating Elote

As we have mentioned in section two of this article, it’s important to understand how many calories you need to eat in order to stay in shape. 

You can easily over-eat unhealthy, processed foods that are high in fats and carbs, especially when something is as delicious as Elotes. Overeating is usually the quickest way to get out of shape. 

Eating Elotes, which is customizable and filled with whole, fresh ingredients, is a great dish if you are looking to stay in shape.

However, if you are ordering this dish at a restaurant and the serving size is for two, either split it with your friend or take the rest to go.

To decrease the calories and fat amount, you can order Elotes without butter, or you can say “light on the mayonnaise and cheese,” since Elotes are prepared per order. 

To stay healthy and in shape, we need to first go over your daily caloric needs and figure out how many calories you need in a day, as well as figure out how much of each macronutrient you should be consuming. 

There are a few factors that determine your daily calorie intake. If you are a male, your calorie intake per day is usually higher than that of a female, also height matters. The other factors are if you want to gain weight, lose weight, or maintain it. 

So, how do you know how many calories you should be eating in a day? 

The answer is through trial and error and finding a calorie range that allows you to lose 1-2 pounds of fat per week. 

However, a good place to start is to multiply your body weight by 12 or to use an online TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure) calculator. 

It is suggested, however, to not decrease the calorie intake below 1,200 per day for women, or below 1,500 calories per day for men. 

Once you know your calorie intake based on your weight and height, you can then decide how much you want to decrease it. If you want to lose 1 to 2 pounds per week, we suggest you start with 100 calories less than what you are currently consuming and see if you notice a difference within a week. 

If you don’t see any changes in your weight, decrease your calorie intake by another 100 calories and see how that works. 

Most likely, you don't have to drop your calorie intake too low, as you’ll get a pretty low number to start off, with this dish.

So, how do you stay in shape or even lose weight eating Elotes?

As you can see, one serving of Elote has 220 kcals with macros, with 18 grams of carbs, 6 grams of protein, and 15 grams of fat. You can just add this into your day and subtract this from your total daily calorie intake. 

The key here is to find foods that keep you full longer and still deliver a balanced amount of macronutrients. 

You don’t want all of your calories simply coming from carbs or fats, you want there to be a balance coming from carbs, protein, and fats as mentioned in section two of this article. 

If the 30% carbs, 40% protein, 30% fat ratio is not working for you, and you live an active lifestyle, you can increase the carbs intake to 40% and decrease the fat intake to 20%. This will be the case, once you substitute certain ingredients by making Elotes at home. 

So, just do the calculation of whatever calorie range that you find, and split up your calories by following those macro guidelines. 

Tip 5: Make Sure To Increase Your Activity Level When Eating Elote

If you love to eat, and love to eat Elotes the classic way they are prepared and are not satisfied with just one cob of Mexican street corn, you have to make sure your activity level is higher than usual, especially if you want to lose weight. 

Keep in mind that weight loss is really the concept of calories in vs. calories out.

After you’ve figured out how many calories you need to consume on a daily basis, you need to make sure that you are exercising regularly and are building muscle throughout every week. 

Building muscles, allow us to burn calories at rest, which means we can eat more and still lose fat.

This is really the goal of working out and is what keeps us healthy as our metabolisms increase.

The best way to increase your activity level is with resistance training, and incorporate high-intensity-interval-training sessions (Hiit) into your workout. This combination is a good way to improve your heart health and maximize fat burn. 

Although it can be a little intimidating to start working out by lifting weights, you can start small by using your own body weight, as well as dumbbells that are up to 8 lbs. Make sure you don’t add too much weight too soon because that could result in injury if you are unfamiliar with the correct body position. It is better to start small and then increase the weight level. 

You can either work out at your local gym with a personal trainer, or invest in some workout equipment, so you can start exercising in the safety of your home.

It’s crucial to understand the importance of diet and workout, so you can enjoy foods like Elote. 

Here is a basic workout plan designed for both men and women, when you first start getting into resistance training.  We recommend working out at least three times per week in the beginning, since the rest days in between are important to build muscles. 

WOMEN 

Day One (Full Upper Body):

• Seated Shoulder Press: 4x20 

• Lateral Raises: 4x15

• Lat Pulldowns: 4x12

• Dumbbell Row: 3x10

• Dumbbell Fly: 3x10 

• Knee Push-Ups: 4x20

• Weighted Crunches: 3x35 

Day Two (Back/Hamstrings/Biceps) 

• Assisted Pull-Ups: 3x10

• Lat Pulldowns: 4x12 

• Cable Row: 4x15

• Stiff Leg Deadlift: 4x15

• Hamstring Curl: 4x15

• Bicep Curls: 3x10

• Hammer Curls: 3x10

Day Three (Legs/Butt/Abs): 

• Squats: 5x5 

• Goblet Squats: 4x20

• Glute Bridge: 4x20

• Glute Kickbacks: 4x20 each leg

• Jump Squats: 4x20

• Weighted Crunches: 3x35 

• Leg Lifts: 3x35

MEN

Day One (Chest, Shoulders, Triceps, Abs (Push Day):

• Bench Press: 3 sets 10 reps

• Dumbbell Press: 4 sets 12 reps

• Shoulder Press: 3 sets 10 reps

• Lateral Raises: 3 sets 15 reps

• Triceps Rope Push Down: 3 sets 15 reps

• Cable Crunches: 4 sets 15 reps 

Day Two (Legs & Abs):

• Goblet Squats: 4 sets 20 reps

• Weighted Walking Lunges: 2 sets 20 steps

• Stiff Leg Deadlift (Romanian Deadlift): 4 sets 15 reps

• Glute Bridges With Weight: 4 sets 20 reps

• Jumping Squats With Resistance Bands: 5 sets 20 reps

• Weighted Sit-Ups: 4 sets 25 reps

• Weighted Toe Touches: 4 sets 25 reps

Day Three (Back & Biceps - Pull Day):

• Assisted Pull-Ups: 3 sets 10 reps

• Lat Pulldowns: 4 sets 12 reps

• Dumbbell Rows: 4 sets 10 reps (Each Side)

• Seated Cable Rows: 4 sets 15 reps

• Bicep Curls: 3 sets 10 reps

• Hammer Curls: 3 sets 10 reps

Working out allows you to be more flexible in your diet and lifestyle, which is so important if you want to sustain a lean body and stay healthy. 

THERE IT IS!

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