Is Al Pastor Healthy? (5 Tips For Weight Loss)

If you’re a fan of Al Pastor but also want to stay in shape, or want to lose weight, this article is for you. Find out what goes into making this popular Mexican dish and see whether, or not Al Pastor can fit into your lifestyle.

Al Pastor is a classic Mexican dish, traditionally made with rotisserie-grilled pork. This method dates back to the Lebanese immigrants who came to Mexico and introduced lamb shawarma - which is similar to Al Pastor. The pork is marinated and stacked in a rotisserie grill. It is usually served in tacos, burritos, or quesadillas.

Although, Al Pastor is quite delicious, is it actually healthy?

Al Pastor is 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 serving of Al Pastor and the ingredients that go into making Al Pastor the traditional way, and how to stay in shape while eating this classic Mexican dish. 

1. What Goes Into Making Al Pastor?

2. How Many Calories Are in One Serving of Al Pastor?

3. How to Make a Healthier Version of Al Pastor at Home

4. How to Stay in Shape Eating Al Pastor

5. How To Increase Your Activity Level When Eating Al Pastor

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

Tip 1. What Goes Into Making Al Pastor?

The traditional way of making Al Pastor is with pork loin, which is marinated in a wet spice rub made with pineapple juice, guajillo chilis, ancho chilis, garlic, onion, oregano, thyme, pepper, cumin, paprika, and salt. The meat is then stacked in a rotisserie grill and grilled to perfection. The meat is then thinly sliced off the rotisserie grill and served with diced pineapple, chopped onions, and cilantro, as well as lime and salsa. You can eat Al Pastor in many different ways, the most popular way is in tacos. 

Al Pastor 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. You can use different ingredients to make this dish leaner, all flavors will still complement each other. 

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

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

Tip 2. How Many Calories Are in One Serving of Al Pastor

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 Al Pastor has 260 calories with a macronutrient ratio of 4 grams of carbs, 25 grams of protein, and 15 grams of fat. 

This dish has a good ratio of all three macronutrients. And it consists of only 4 grams of carbs, which is pretty low. 

If you burn more calories than you consume, then you will find yourself in a “caloric deficit” which is the only way fat loss can occur. 

Staying healthy and fit is all about calorie or energy balance, which means that you can still eat your fats and stay in shape. The calories are actually not too high in this dish and can be easily incorporated into your daily calorie intake, as long as you are not over-eating and are working out. 

The key aspect is to understand how many calories you need to eat in a day and to make sure not to overeat on your total accounted calories for the day. 

A good rule of thumb for 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 dish at home and substitute certain ingredients to make an even healthier version of Al Pastor.

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

Tip 3. Try to Make a Healthier Version of Al Pastor at Home

Al Pastor is a pretty simple dish, that is quick to make and it doesn’t require many ingredients, and it’s also budget-friendly.

Here we show you, how to make a leaner version of Al Pastor.

Instead of using pork, you can use other leaner meats, such as chicken, and instead of fried tortillas you can use soft ones, or skip tortillas, and make a side salad, with lettuce, tomatoes, onion, and avocado. 

Now that we know a little bit more about the nutrition facts of traditional Al pastor, let’s take a look at how you can eat Al Pastor, stay in shape, and lose weight.

Tip 4. How to Lose Weight and Stay in Shape Eating Al Pastor

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

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 lose weight and stay in shape. 

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. 

Eating Al Pastor, 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, skip the tortillas, and order a side salad instead.

There are a few factors that determine your daily calorie intake. Such as weight management, weight loss, or weight gain. Other factors that play a big role, are your gender and your height. 

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.

Your TDEE relies heavily on how active you are and how much movement you see in your day.

Within your TDEE lies a subsection, which is called TEPA (Thermic Effect of Physical Activity) which accounts for 15-30% of your entire day’s worth of calories.

This means, you are in control of 15-30% of how much you can eat, which is a huge portion of calories.

If you’re someone who loves to eat a lot while staying fit, then the activity is the key to a balanced lifestyle that allows you to eat whatever you like, such as Al Pastor, and stay in shape. 

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. 

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.

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, with this dish.

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

As you can see, one serving of Al pastor has only 260 kcals with macros, with 4 grams of carbs, 25 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%. 

So, just calculate whatever calorie range you find, and split up your calories by following those macro guidelines. 

Tip 5. How To Increase Your Activity Level When Eating Al Pastor

After you’ve figured out how many calories you need to consume daily, you need to make sure that you exercise regularly and build muscle throughout every week. 

Building muscle, allows you to burn calories at rest, which means you can eat more and still lose fat.

This is really the goal of working out and is what keeps you healthy as your metabolism increase.

So if you love eating Al Pastor the traditional way, in tacos, you have to make sure your activity level is higher than usual, especially if you want to lose weight. 

We talked about the importance of understanding how many calories you need to eat in a day but now it’s time to shift the focus on why calories and building muscle go hand in hand. 

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

Although working out and building muscle takes priority, having a consistent cardio schedule can help with expediting the fat loss process as it raises the energy expended throughout your week.

There are two types of cardio that you can do in your week that will speed up the fat loss results. Those two types come from LISS (Low-Intensity Steady State) cardio and HIIT (High-Intensity Interval Training) cardio. 

Although it can be a little intimidating to start working out by lifting weights, you can start small by using your body weight, as well as dumbbells that are up to 8 lbs, however, a good start is 2 lbs to 3 lbs dumbbells. 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. 

Here is a workout plan where you can get started if you are someone who hasn’t ever done a resistance training regimen.

There’s a plan for both, women and men, so check it out and learn the workouts online or through a trainer. 

WOMEN

Day One (Full Upper):

• Weighted Crunches: 3x35 

• Lateral Raises: 4x15

• Lat Pulldowns: 4x12

• Knee Push-Ups: 4x20

• Seated Shoulder Press: 4x20 

• Dumbbell Row: 3x10

• Dumbbell Fly: 3x10

Day Two (Back/Hamstrings/Biceps):

• Hammer Curls: 3x10

• Bicep Curls: 3x10

• Hamstring Curl: 4x15

• Stiff Leg Deadlift: 4x15

• Cable Row: 4x15

• Lat Pulldowns: 4x12

• Assisted Pull-Ups: 3x10

Day Three (Legs/Butt/Abs): 

• Leg Lifts: 3x35

• Weighted Crunches: 3x35 

• Jump Squats: 4x20

• Glute Kickbacks: 4x20 each leg

• Glute Bridge: 4x20

• Goblet Squats: 4x20

• Squats: 5x5

MEN:

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

• Cable Crunches: 4 sets 15 reps 

• Triceps Rope Push Down: 3 sets 15 reps

• Lateral Raises: 3 sets 15 reps

• Shoulder Press: 3 sets 10 reps

• Dumbbell Press: 4 sets 12 reps

• Bench Press: 3 sets 10 reps

Day Two (Legs & Abs):

• Weighted Toe Touches: 4 sets 25 reps

• Weighted Sit-Ups: 4 sets 25 reps

• Jumping Squats With Resistance Bands: 5 sets 20 reps

• Glute Bridges With Weight: 4 sets 20 reps

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

• Weighted Walking Lunges: 2 sets 20 steps

• Goblet Squats: 4 sets 20 reps

Day Three: Back & Biceps (Pull Day):

• Hammer Curls: 3 sets 10 reps

• Bicep Curls: 3 sets 10 reps

• Seated Cable Rows: 4 sets 15 reps

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

• Lat Pulldowns: 4 sets 12 reps

• Assisted Pull-Ups: 3 sets 10 reps

We recommend working out at least three times per week in the beginning, since the rest days in between are important to build muscle. 

What you want to aim for is to burning around 1,000 kcals of cardio every week through means of either LISS or HIIT.

LISS is cardio that comes from walking or a brisk walk, you should be able to have a conversation while still building up a sweat.

HIIT cardio is intervals of a very high-intensity movement, such as sprints, battle ropes, or kickboxing movements aiming to quickly raise the heart rate.

The benefit of HIIT is allowing yourself to burn calories in a shorter amount of time. 

We recommend having 80% of cardio coming from LISS while 20% comes from HIIT for optimal fat loss throughout the week. 

The reason for this is because HIIT is very hard to consistently track, as many of the calorie tracking devices are inaccurate.

LISS is a much more reliable source of consistent movement and does not require rest as it does not shock the Central Nervous System the way HIIT can.

However, a good way to increase your activity level is to start with resistance training. This combination of resistance training and LISS/HIIT is a good way to improve your heart health and maximize fat burn. 

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 Al Pastor. 

If you are new to working out, building muscle will happen relatively fast, so this is great news for anyone looking to get in shape.

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. 

Depending on how much you weigh and how much fat you currently carry, results can come as fast as 3 months. However, keep in mind that consistency is key. 

With that said, it’s important to have some patience to see some substantial results.

So, next time you’re wondering how you can lose some weight, remember that you need to build some muscle and track your calories to your specified amount. 

Make sure to stick with it for a long time and understand that fitness is a lifelong journey that takes time to cultivate.

Calories are direct sources of energy that fuel your everyday life, so you need to make sure that you utilize them efficiently throughout your days. 

The best way to do this is to build muscle and to also move more throughout your day. 

The more movement the better and, to utilize and burn those calories, you should be moving whenever you can. 

THERE IT IS!

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