Healthy Eating in San Diego: Calories in the California Burrito, Fish Tacos and Convoy Street

What does San Diego actually eat?

San Diego eats like a border city, and the taco shop is its everyday kitchen. The story most locals know starts with Roberto Robledo, who opened a tortillería in San Diego in the early 1960s, began selling small bean burritos in the late 1960s, and had opened the first Roberto's Taco Shop by 1970. By 1999 the chain had about 60 locations, and rivals borrowed the ending: Alberto's, Filiberto's and Hilberto's. That's why a San Diegan says “a -berto's” for any late-night taco shop.

Those shops gave San Diego its two signature orders. The California burrito is carne asada, French fries and cheese, sometimes with pico de gallo, guacamole or sour cream. Food writer Gustavo Arellano traces it to an unnamed -berto's in San Diego in the 1980s; Lolita's is documented as an early maker, and Fresh MXN (formerly Santana's) also claims it. Carne asada fries are the same ingredients on a tray instead of in a tortilla. Classic San Diego burritos are leaner than the Mission-style giants of San Francisco: Wikipedia's summary describes them as an “austere meal of meat, cheese and salsa”.

The rest of San Diego's food map is just as specific. In Kearny Mesa, the Convoy Street corridor was officially designated the Convoy Pan Asian Cultural & Business Innovation District on October 20, 2020; its restaurants and markets are Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese and Thai, anchored by 99 Ranch Market, Mitsuwa and H Mart. South of downtown, National City is 19.25% Asian and 66.02% Hispanic or Latino by the 2020 census, and 19% of residents reported Filipino ancestry in 2000; its sister city is Olongapo in the Philippines. And along the coast from Ocean Beach to Pacific Beach, the fish taco and the ceviche tostada are lunch.

None of this needs to be given up to get lean or build muscle. What changes the result is knowing which San Diego orders are 400 calories and which are 1,200, and how much protein each one carries.

How many calories are in a California burrito?

A California burrito has about 1,180 calories and 43 g of protein, by our estimate from USDA FoodData Central. USDA has no entry for the California burrito itself, so we added two that it does have: a large beef-and-cheese burrito (285 g, 761 calories, 37.8 g protein) and a medium fast-food order of restaurant fries (145 g, 419 calories, 5.1 g protein). Guacamole and sour cream, which many San Diego shops add, come on top.

That's a full meal and a half for most people, and most of the extra is the fries: they add 419 calories and only 5 g of protein. If you love the California burrito, the useful move isn't banning it. It's eating it at lunch on a training day, splitting it, or keeping it to once a week. On carne asada fries, the fries alone are the same 419 calories per medium order before the steak, cheese, guacamole and sour cream go on, which is why a tray shared by two is a reasonable meal and a tray for one is two.

Calories and protein in San Diego's everyday orders

Here are the San Diego dishes that turn up most in a week, from the taco shop, the poke and ceviche counter, the Filipino turo-turo and the burrito-bowl chain. The last column is the one to watch if you're training: protein per 100 calories shows how much muscle-building food you get for the energy you eat.

Three things stand out. Ceviche and grilled fish are the leanest protein in San Diego, at more than 16 g of protein per 100 calories, nearly four times the fish taco's 4.2 g. Adobo with rice, the Filipino dish you'll find across National City, is a strong post-workout meal at 43.2 g of protein a cup. And the burrito bowl beats the burrito because it drops the flour tortilla: 418 calories for the chicken bowl against 507 for a regular beef-and-cheese burrito, with more protein.

What to order at a San Diego taco shop when you're training

A San Diego taco shop menu works for fat loss or muscle gain once you know which way each order pushes. These swaps use the USDA figures above.

• Swap the California burrito for a chicken burrito bowl. You go from about 1,180 calories to 418 and keep 33.6 g of protein. That's 762 calories saved in one order.
• Order two fish tacos, not three, and add ceviche. Two regular fish tacos (550 calories, 23.2 g protein) plus a cup of ceviche (158 calories, 26.3 g) is 708 calories and almost 50 g of protein.
• Ask for the fish grilled, not battered. Baja-style tacos are usually fried. A large grilled tilapia fillet is 192 calories with 34.4 g of protein, so a grilled-fish plate gives you about as much protein as three regular fish tacos (34.8 g) for less than a quarter of their 825 calories.
• Share the carne asada fries. The medium order of fries under the steak is 419 calories on its own. Split the tray and add a side of grilled meat if you're still hungry.
• Go regular, not large, on burritos. The large beef-and-cheese burrito is 761 calories against 507 for the regular; the extra 95 g is mostly tortilla, beef and cheese you may not need.

Eating on Convoy Street and in National City

Convoy Street's restaurants and markets are Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese and Thai, which makes it one of the easiest places in San Diego to eat high-protein. Grilled meats at a Korean barbecue table are mostly protein; the side dishes are mostly vegetables. The calories pile up in rice refills, fried appetizers, sweet sauces and sugary drinks. A practical rule for a Kearny Mesa dinner: fill half the plate with grilled meat or fish, a quarter with banchan, and keep the rice to one bowl.

In National City and the Filipino restaurants along the south bay, adobo, grilled chicken inasal and fish sinigang are the training-friendly orders, and fried lumpia and pancit with fatty pork are the treats. USDA's adobo-with-rice entry gives 442 calories and 43.2 g of protein a cup, so one cup with a vegetable side is a solid dinner after an evening session. If a turo-turo plate comes with two scoops of rice, ask for one.

A San Diego fat-loss day and a muscle-gain day

Here are two San Diego eating days built only from the USDA figures in this guide. They cover lunch, an afternoon snack and dinner; add your usual breakfast. Your own calorie target depends on your size, activity and goal, which is what your coach works out with you in the first week.

The fat-loss day keeps three meals under about 1,050 calories and still reaches more than 100 g of protein, because two of them are fish. The muscle-gain day puts the biggest meal after an evening training session, when a San Diegan who trains at 6 PM sits down to dinner at 7:30. Neither day needs meal-prep containers; both are orders you can place at places that exist on every San Diego corridor from El Cajon Boulevard to Garnet Avenue.

How do I eat healthy in San Diego without giving up Mexican food?

1. 1

   Keep one taco shop meal for the weekend

   Make the California burrito or carne asada fries a planned Saturday meal, not a Tuesday night default. At about 1,180 calories, one a week is easy to fit; four a week is a different diet.

2. 2

   Make protein the first thing you order

   Grilled fish, ceviche, chicken bowls and adobo all deliver more than 30 g of protein per portion. Start there and add tortillas, rice and chips after.

3. 3

   Watch the side, not just the main

   A medium order of fries is 419 calories with 5.1 g of protein. In San Diego, the fries are often hidden inside the burrito.

4. 4

   Eat the big meal after you train

   If your session is at 6 PM, put the larger dinner at 7:30 PM and keep lunch lighter. It's the simplest way to fit a burrito into a muscle-gain week.

5. 5

   Tell your coach what you really eat

   A plan built around chicken and broccoli fails by Thursday. A plan built around your Convoy dinner, your Friday fish tacos and the -berto's after a Padres game lasts.

Can an online coach help with food in San Diego?

Yes. MakeMyFitness coaching covers training and food together: your coach asks what you eat in a normal San Diego week, then sets targets you can hit at the places you already go. Lead coach Kumar Abhishek holds a Human Performance Nutritionist qualification from K11 School of Fitness Sciences alongside his Diploma in Personal Training. That's food coaching for training, not medical nutrition therapy: if you have diabetes, kidney disease or a history of eating disorders, see your doctor or a registered dietitian first.

Sessions are live 45-minute video calls, at home or in your gym, from $25 a session or $223 for 12 on Personal Gym Training, and $28 or $255 for 12 on Personal Home Training. Our coaches are in India, so San Diego slots run 5:30 to 10 PM and 5 to 6:30 AM Pacific time all year.

For what a coached San Diego evening looks like, see our San Diego page. To see how San Diego trainer and gym prices compare with ours, read what a personal trainer costs in San Diego, and for routes, weather and races, how to stay fit in San Diego. Somewhere else in the country? Start from our US page.