Is Barbacoa Healthy? (3 Tips For Weight Loss)

If you’re a fan of Barbacoa but aren’t sure if this dish is healthy and fits into your health-conscious lifestyle, this article is for you. Find out what goes into making this popular Mexican dish and see whether, or not you can lose weight and stay in shape, eating Barbacoa.

Barbacoa is a classic Mexican dish, traditionally made with lamb meat. It is slowly cooked with other spices until the meat is tender and shreddable. 

Although Barbacoa is a delicious dish, is it actually healthy? 

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

Here are three steps that explain the calorie amount in Barbacoa, as well as the ingredients that go into making Barbacoa, and how to stay fit and healthy while eating this popular Mexican dish. 

1. What Goes Into Making Barbacoa? 

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

3. How to lose weight, or maintain weight, eating Barbacoa

Let’s check out what goes into making Barbacoa, how many calories it contains, and how to lose weight eating this delicious Mexican dish. 

Tip 1. What Goes Into Making Barbacoa?

The classic way of making Barbacoa is by marinating the lamb meat in a combination of different herbs and spices, such as cumin, smoked paprika, thyme, rosemary, oregano, fresh garlic, fresh onion, white pepper, bay leaves, orange juice, and white vinegar. Let it be marinated overnight or at least for 4 hours. Then cook it - preferably - in a pressure cooker with added water, for and 1 and 1/2 hours. Once it’s ready, shred the meat and eat it with warm corn tortillas, and salsa verde. 

Barbacoa is a simple, yet flavorful and satisfying dish since you’ll get a variety of herbs, fats, proteins, and carbs. 

Since it’s a staple in Mexican cuisine, you can find it in many authentic Mexican restaurants all over Los Angeles. 

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

Tip 2. How Many Calories Are in One Serving of Barbacoa?

When living a healthy and active lifestyle, it’s important to understand how many calories you need to consume daily. 

If we take a look at the nutrition facts, you can see that one serving of Barbacoa has 450 calories with a macronutrient ratio of 7 grams of carbs, 62 grams of protein, and 16 grams of fat. 

This is not bad at all for a complete meal, as this dish is low in carbs and has a moderate amount of protein. 

The issue with this dish is the amount of fat, which is a whopping 16 grams per one serving of Barbacoa. 

However, 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. 

You just have 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. 

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

If you want to make a leaner version of Barbacoa you can use grass-fed beef instead, just keep in mind that lamb - although fattier - is a better source of omega-3 fatty acids, as well as iron, zinc, and vitamin B. 

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

Tip 3. How to Lose Weight, or Maintain Weight, Eating Barbacoa

As mentioned in section two of this article, it’s crucial to understand how many calories a day you need to eat to stay in shape. 

Overeating on unhealthy, processed foods that are high in fats and carbs can happen easily and is usually the quickest way to get out of shape. 

Eating a dish such as Barbacoa, which is filled with whole fresh ingredients, proteins, and vitamins, is a great option if you are looking to shed some fat and feel great. 

Before we get into those tips, however, let’s go over how you can figure out your daily caloric needs and see how much of each macronutrient you should be consuming. 

Your daily calorie intake depends on a few factors, such as height and gender and if you want to gain weight, lose weight, or maintain it. 

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

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. 

Be mindful that these methods will give you rather rough estimates that are not specific for your body type per se but you’ll see that they can get pretty close. 

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. 

For example, if either method tells you to consume 1600 calories a day, maintain that for a week and see what happens. 

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

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.

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

So, how do you lose weight while eating Barbacoa?

As you can see, a serving of Barbacoa has 450 calories with macros, with 7 grams of carbs, 62 grams of protein, and 16 grams of fat. You can just add this into your day and subtract this from your total daily calorie intake. 

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, which is the case with Barbacoa.

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

After you’ve figured out how many calories you need to consume daily, 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 fastest and most efficient way to build muscle is to learn how to do some resistance training.

You need to use weights and build muscle by doing a variety of workouts that isolate each muscle group specifically. 

Although it can be intimidating to get in shape, as it will be hard to learn and might be discouraging at the beginning, it’s definitely worth it in the long run for both your health and fitness. 

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

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

You can also do a combination of resistance training and LISS (Low-Intensity Steady State) cardio or HIIT (High-Intensity Interval Training) cardio, to improve your heart health and maximize fat burn. 

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 that aim to raise the heart rate quickly.

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.

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.

Just keep in mind to have a balance and to eat whole, fresh ingredients and save the bad stuff for your cheats days, or social events with friends. 

THERE IT IS! 

Our three tips will help you stay fit while eating Barbacoa. 

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