Best and Worst Food at Chili’s

You can enjoy delicious food at Chili’s that won’t be an entire week’s worth of calories! You can also order a meal that is your entire day’s worth of calories – and then some! You just need to know what to order and what not to order.

Chili’s has a “Guiltless” line of food that may not be completely healthy (hey, it’s not your delicious homemade food, ok?!), but it is still a much better choice when you compare it to the other meals on the menu. I guess you can consider this a little splurge, but not completely over doing it?

What does “Guiltless” Mean?

If you check out the Chili’s menu, this is what they have to say about their Guiltless line of food:

“Guiltless Grill choices for your healthy lifestyle are featured on HealthyDiningFinder.com and meet HEALTHY DINING’S nutrition criteria: not more than 750 calories, 25 grams fat, and 8 grams saturated fat.”

If you know you are going out to eat at Chili’s, just plan on a single meal being 750 calories (or less!), and plan your other meals accordingly.

Best Food at Chili’s

Here’s a list of delicious food that is “Guiltess” and Chili’s. As you can see, a lot of them are less than 750 calories!

Note: Many of these meals you will need to ask for the “Guiltless” version, since the original is loaded with additional ingredients that make it have much more calories and fat.

Chicken & Green Chili Soup

Made with rice, green chiles and tomatoes. Topped with cilantro, avocado, and a lime wedge.

The information below is for the cup, not the bowl. If you want the bowl, it’s just double the amount as the cup. My only concern with the bowl is the amount of sodium.

Calories: 100

Total Fat: 4 g

Protein: 8 g

Sodium: 620 mg

Carbohydrates: 11 g

Fiber: 1 g

Santa Fe Chicken Wrap

With steamed broccoli. Served with low-fat ranch.

Calories: 680

Total Fat: 25 g

Protein: 37 g

Sodium: 2110 mg

Carbohydrates: 80 g

Fiber: 8 g

Grilled Salmon with Garlic and Herbs

Served with steamed broccoli and rice.

Calories: 480

Total Fat: 17 g

Protein: 49 g

Sodium: 1590 mg

Carbohydrates: 37 g

Fiber: 5 g

Grilled Chicken Sandwich

With steamed broccoli and Guiltless Grill honey-mustard dressing, wheat bun. No bacon or cheese is included on the “Guiltless” version.

Calories: 610

Total Fat: 13 g

Protein: 43 g

Sodium: 1320 mg

Carbohydrates: 78 g

Fiber: 8 g

Classic Sirloin

Served with carne asada rub,  pico de gallo, and steamed veggies on the side. My main concern with this meal is the amount of sodium in it (see below). I am still including this on the list since I think it can be a simple fix. Simply ask for the restaurant to use less of the carne asada rub, which is where most of the sodium comes from.

Calories: 370

Total Fat: 9 g

Protein: 53 g

Sodium: 3680 mg

Carbohydrates: 20 g

Fiber: 6 g

Worst Food at Chili’s

Now that I have listed some of the better options, here are a couple of foods I would absolutely avoid. I decided to have a little fun with this, and list the “winner” for the meals  with most calories, fat, sodium, and “most deceptive”!

Most Calories: Southern Smokehouse Burger w/ Ancho Chile BBQ

If I want to maintain my weight, I need to eat about 1,500 – 1,700 calories a day (with exercise!). This one meal exceeds the amount of calories I am supposed to eat in an entire day! No wonder people are gaining weight. Imagine eating this type of a meal every day. The calories add up, and so the pounds (of fat).

This meal comes with not only a ton of calories, but a ton of fat and sodium too.

Calories: 2290

Total Fat: 139 g

Protein: 93 g

Sodium: 6500 mg

Carbohydrates: 163 g

Fiber: 11 g

Most Fat AND Most Sodium: Jalapeño Smokehouse Burger w/ Ranch

That’s right, you read it right. This meal won two awards; most fat and most sodium! It almost won “most calories” too! Can one meal really be that unhealthy for you? Yes.

Fat can be healthy for you, if you get it from the right sources. Most -if not all- of the fat listed here is not from healthy sources. This is when fat is bad!

Oh yeah, I even found that this meal has more fat (remember, the bad kind!) than every single one of the desserts on the menu.

Calories: 2210

Total Fat: 144 g

Protein: 92 g

Sodium: 6600 mg

Carbohydrates: 136 g

Fiber: 11 g

Most Deceptive: Bottomless Tostada Chips w/ Salsa

The reason this appetizer won “Most Deceptive” is because  of a couple of reasons. First of all, it’s “bottomless”, which means you can keep refilling your chips and salsa again and again without paying anything extra. This is when the calories really add up. In addition to all of those calories, fat, carbs, and sodium you are consuming, we haven’t even counted your meal’s calories, fat, carbs, and sodium!

Calories: 1020

Total Fat: 51 g

Protein: 12 g

Sodium: 1210 mg

Carbohydrates: 125 g

Fiber: 11 g

You can see why one little meal can completely ruin your entire week’s efforts of trying to lose weight. It’s that easy.

Now that you have this information, both the healthy and not-so-healthy choices, I hope that you feel more confident that you can go out to eat without ruining your health goals completely.

Image Credits: Chilis.com

For More Nutrition Information: Chili’s Nutrition

Feel free to follow us, however you like: Google+, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest