How healthy are salads? can you really loose weight eating just salads? and i mean with dressing?

Answer 1

It also depends on what is in the salad...tomatoes, bell peppers and carrots have a high sugar content so you'll want to be sparing with those. Stay away from cheese, olives, nuts, fruit, meats and croutons on the salad as well as they can all be high in fat.

The lowest calorie items you can put in a salad are any kind of lettuce or other leafy vegetable like watercress, cucumbers, bean or alfalfa sprouts and broccoli and you can literally eat these in unlimited amounts.
Also take a little low calorie dressing put it in a bowl large enough to thorughly toss the salad and toss it until the dressing is evenly distributed and you'll find you won't need to use as much.

If you can't make your own dressing from scratch using canola or extra virgin olive oil, which are healthy fats, make sure the low calorie dressing you're using, if bottled, does not have hydrated oils or fats in it...these pack on the pounds that much faster and can clog arteries causing heart problems later if you use them too much.

Now, you don't have to JUST eat salad to lose weight. You can have some meat. A good guide is to eat a piece of lean meat or fish that was no larger around or thicker than the palm of your hand before cooking along with your salad. You can also have 4 ounces of a harder cheese instead. Softer cheeses have more fat, so you can shave a little parmesan onto your salad if you like.

Take your time eating. If you shovel it in quickly you tend to eat more than you need to (this can happen when you're watching TV while you're eating). Eating slower allows your body to, for lack of a better word, assess how much food it's getting and digest it properly.

And as always, you HAVE to get some exercise. Get a pedometer (they go as cheaply as 9 bucks) and walk 10,000 steps. You don't have to do this all at once. EVERY step you take during the course of the day counts...walk up the escalator instead of riding, walk around the block after dinner.

And keep a journal of what you eat and how much exercise you get each day. This really helps you meet your daily goals and you'll find yourself pushing yourself to do even better.

Just so you know, my mother lost a ton of weight by eating half a grilled chicken caesar with low fat dressing from Wendy's for lunch and the other half for dinner every other day and walking at a brisk pace for half an hour every day.

Answer 2

Here's the thing... If the only "fatty" calories you are ingesting is the regular salad dressing, your total intake of calories will decrease and you should lose weight. Is that the healthiest way to diet??? probably not, but it should work to drop some poundage.

I've been doing weight watchers for a while (great program) and when I have a salad I use regular dressing cause most of the veggies I eat in a salad don't use up my daily points (and because diet dressings taste like crap) total points for me in the salad???... just the dressing!

Yum Yum!

Answer 3

Salads are VERY healthy to the body, but do not give much calories. You can not lose weight with just eating salads and dressing. The ONLY way you can lost weight is eating salads AND EXERCISING.

Answer 4

Salads are healthy and you can loose weight just eating salads with dressing and all that but you need to eat oher things like vegetables that are good for you ando you don´t get fat eating them.

Answer 5

Never eat McDonalds salad, it sucks. But if you keep the dressing to a low fat level, then salad is good. Just don't eat only salad! Eat plenty of fruits, vegentables, and yes, even carbs.

Answer 6

You can totally loose weight. Eat salad with tons of veggies and put a vinaigrette dressing on it. Don't forget to exercise to tone up!

Answer 7

i was told that you really dont lose weight by just eating salads W/dressing becasue the dressing is fattening. i was also told that the salads at mcdonalds have just as much fat as a large fry.

Answer 8

It depends on the dressing.
If you use something ready prepared off a super-market shelf, then there is no benefit. It will contain sugar, and MSG, both of which are extremely bad for your system.
If you totally avoid any artificial flavourings and colourings, and make the dressing yourelf using say olive oil, salt, pepper vinegar, fresh seeds and herbs, then it is the healthiest food available. Just avoiding meat, especially processed meat, helps a great deal.

Answer 9

salads are not healthy they are full of salt what makes them full of salt is the salad dressing because they carry salt and are high in fat. everyone like different kids bread crumbs are fatty bacon bits are high in salt stop listening to jenny craig and the south beach diet.

Answer 10

salad with dressing