I think most people underestimate the caloric values of "good" foods because they do not thing of all the things they add to them or cook them with.  Vegetables with sauces, salads with all the trimmings and heavy salad dressings.  Even good stuff like sunflower seeds adds an amazing amount of calories to a "good" salad.

I've trained myself to eating salads without dressings, such as mayo. They have so many calories and only make you want to eat more of the salad. So, I try to avoid them.

I've been wary of restaurant and salad bar salads every since joining CC and having the horrifying experience of logging everything I chose from the salad bar. I'd jotted it all down right there at the restaurant and entered it when I got home.  I remember it was something close to 1000 calories.  That was a nasty surprise, a real eye opener, and I never forgot it!

I've stuck with the little trick of having the dressing on the side and just dipping the tines of the fork into it with each bite.  Very little dressing is used that way.  I don't like diet dressings, so it's important to control it.

I think my brick wall is that the only dressings I can stand are Thousand Island and some varient of Italian...and these are the ones with the most calories and SODIUM!

It's interesting to me that some of the lower calorie salads come from fast food places. I used to love the Applebees salads, but I always knew they had little redeeming virtue.

And get this - in addition to salads, be wary of "wraps." They sound healthy, right? I'm sure there are good ones out there, but my hubby made a huge calorie booboo at Einstein Brother's Bagels... he ordered a chipotle turkey wrap, thinking it would be under 500 calories, and it ended up at 750 when he checked their site. We don't budget that much for a meal!

A friend once told me to put aside half my meal when eating out, and then you'll have fewer calories, and leftovers to boot. I think that is very wise advice when you aren't sure how the nutritional values shake out.

The only 2 dressing I like are the fat free 1,000 island and FF italian w/ sun dried tomato. Both of which are under 15 cal for 2 Tbsp. I don't pour it on, I measure out 2 Tbsp & dip. most of the time, I don't use the whole thing.

I make my own dressing now....there is little to no calories in it.  When I go out I always ask for my dressing on the side.  I then dip my lettuce instead of pouring it on; makes a huge difference and you will be amazed at how much dressing you have left!

Try making your own without oil; it tastes just as good...trust me!

I am suprised that any salad could have 1500 cals, or even 1000. What do people put in these salads! I make my own salads, and use tesco's light ceasar dressing. you really don't need much and it is very low in cals. However, I do like avacado...which is very high in calories. Although, it is very good for you so i let myself have that!

With restaurant Caesar salads, the problem is not just the dressing,but the Parmesan cheese and anchovies, which are both high fat, and the portion, which could feed a family of four.  

I heard about the no fat sour cream and salsa recipe for salad dressing - anyone have any other home made ideas for salad dressings?  I love blue cheese, but I have to limit it now because of high cholesterol and of course it is the highest in fat and calories dressing.

thanks...

When I first saw that a salad at Friday's had about 1000 calories I was shocked. I had always considered salads as the "unlimited food", the ones that you can eat as much as you want without even counting the calories. Realizing that a salad could go up to 1000 calories was very very dissapointing.

I just started trying the WISHBONE salad Spritzers...they have 1 calorie per SPRITZ and are actually pretty good.. I have tried 2 of them and actually like them mixed together with a couple of spritzes

of each on the same salad for a different taste...hope this helps..

I was unaware of the amount of calories my favorite ranch dressing contained until I started CC.  I'm sure most people I know would assume a salad from a restaurant would be less than 500 calories.  Now that I know the truth about the ranch dressing, I only use two tablespoons of Italian dressing which is 15 calories.  I make sure to measure it because I'm horrible at judging amounts...I usually end up doubling it.  I don't go near the bacon bits or seeds.  I top the lettuce with mushrooms, cucumbers and tomatoes.  If I want to add a bit of protein, I toss in a 1/4 cup of light tuna.  Once in a great while, I'll treat myself to a 1/4 of an avocado mixed in.  So...I've learned to live without my ranch dressing...but what about butter for my baked potato?

Personally, I find most "Light" or diet Caesar dressings to be pretty repulsive, so when I make Caesar salads at home I do a few things to water down the calories. First I make sure that all of the lettuce is washed and still moist when I throw it into the bowl... I find that most creamy dressings are extremely thick and hard to mix around, so if I want dressing on every leaf of lettuce I would normally have to dump on an entire bottle. By leaving the lettuce slightly moist it dilutes the dressing very slightly (hardly noticeable) but lets you mix it in more easily. Another trick I use is diluting my dressing with white wine vinegar. I pour roughly 1/3 of a bottle of dressing into a separate container and replace it with white wine vinegar... it makes the dressing more tart but effectively cuts 1/3 of the calories! And it thins out the dressing too!

Homemade salad dressing is so quick and easy to make and it just cuts all of the crap out!  If you ask me, noting beats a bit of balsamic vinegar and a drop of olive oil.  Why not make a batch up and keep it in the fridge and you can add coarse grain mustard to it, garlic, onions, basil, lemon, pepper, cumin, chili - literally anything you want!  There is no need for there to be any sugar or salt in them, which is what always baffles me when I look at their contents in the supermarket.  You buy a plain old vinegrette and it has so many additives and little extra bits, you get it home and it tastes sweet and sickly and horrible.

I'm waving the homemade dressing flag all the way!!  ;-)

One trick I use at home, when i don't have time to make my own dressing,  is to "thin down" a bottled dressing.  For example I make a low cal/fat buffalo chicken salad as a meal.  For the dressing, I use a high-quality bottled bleu cheese dressing, then mix it together with equal parts of skim milk and Franks's hot sauce. The result is a thinner dressing which spreads better and has 1/3 the calories and fat.  It's pretty spicy however, so beware!

I use Kraft fat free Zesty Italian dressing in place of Mayo now - I am really picky about taste and it is delicious and only 15 cal per 2 tablespoons and less sugar than most bottled dressings.

I am all for homemade! And when I really want a special treat and have the calories to spare (like when salad is my major meal), I make my grandma's homemade blue cheese (although her's isn't made w /the lowfat versions) :  Fat Free Sour Cream, Fat Free Buttermilk, Blue Cheese Crumbles, a dash of vinegar, salt, pepper, onion powder, and a dash of red pepper sauce.  Try it is is soooo fresh.  And even though the blue cheese has a lot of calories, it is nothing compared to the junk in the bottle!

When I don't have the calories to spare I stick to balsamic vinegar, seasonings and a tiny drizzle of oil.  For easy bottled I stick to Newmans' Own Light Ceasar (all natural) and great!

I got used to eating my salad without dressing and without seasoning.I just add one third serving of 2%  shredded cheese and nothing else!

Does anyone have a recipe for homemade Ranch Dressing? Thanks

JUST USE MUSTARD IT HAS ZERO CALORIES

In your question about calories in the salad, one group estimated "in the 250-400" calories. The other group estimated "in the 800-1000 calories range."

Maybe some thought the salad was a side salad, and the other group estimated based on a dinner salad.

In any case, the dressing used would of course have been the main thing. I've seen instances where the dressing had four times as many calories as the rest of the salad itself.

Try dipping your fork instead of your lettuce in the dressing. You will be amazed at how much is left in the little cup when you're done. less dressing... same taste!

Continued success to you.

i agree with the thousand island and italian dressing situation. i have tried the spritzers with some success. and even used pico de gallo instead of dressing. i have been using thousand island dressing once in a great while. like when i have been really dilegent about my carbs and can stand the splurge this one time.  and then i do what i can to really enjoy the smaller than before serving.

I don't know about you but since I've been using this caloriecount.about.com site, I am eating WAY less food and am very conscious about what I put in my mouth. I almost have trouble squeezing in 1600 calories a day. I've lost 7 pounds in 3 weeks (believe me, a drop in the bucket) and I feel great. Have you heard of Zumba? If you can find it in your area, try a class. It's extremely fun and burns about 700 calories an hour! I try to take 2 classes a week. All ages, all sizes, dance dance dance!

It's interesting how your surroundings shape the ideas you have about food.

I'm from Peru and the first time I read about salad dressings was in a magazine (Cosmopolitan, I think) when I was 12 years old. The emphasis was the same: be careful with the dressings. Since we didn't use elaborated dressings in our salads here I couldn't relate to what they were talking about. For me, a salad was a vegetable you chop and then you dress in salt and lots and lots of lemon juice, sometimes a bit of olive oil and pepper, but that's it. 

Fast food chains that arrive to Peru in the late nineties introduced the concept of salad dressing. The generations that came after that have now a different panorama of what is a salad. So interesting.

Now I live in Austria and here they use lots of greens vegetables (and rucola which I love), vinegar and add all kinds of seeds. They are really good, but I still treat myself to the old fashioned ways I know. In fact I'll have a radish salad right now!

Salad dressings and restaurant add on's are horrible for you! I’ve found a clever way to beat this.  I bring my own bottle of 1 calorie per spray dressings in my purse. Of course my boyfriend finds this most humorous but what else can you do?!  Sometimes I fill my bottle with homemade dressings and I've noticed they taste MUCH better than the restaurant’s dressings. If we have a pushy waiter I merely tell them I have severe food allergies and they leave me alone.

This article makes salad sound bad, like you shouldn't eat it.  what I think it should say is salad is really good for you but adding bacon, crutons,  and other greasy foods doesnt make it good for you.  Try baby spinach leafs with strawberrys, sliced almonds, fetta cheese and balsmic vinaget. Great salad! and really good for you.

I always order one or two side salads when I go to McDonald's, only 80 calories and costs 1.00$ 

I love salads.. and I always use Walden Farms zero calorie dressings.. the sun dried Italian is wonderful.  If you have not added Walden Farm dressings to your grocery list.. you should.  My salads are under 50 cal for a generous serving.