Do salads honestly make you lose weight?

The Hard Truth: Do salads honestly make you lose weight?

MF editorial team

27 Apr 2017

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Do salads really make you lose weight?
Flick through the gallery to find out - and you’d better follow our advice!
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Yes and no, depending on your ingredients
Low calorie salads will help you lose weight, but do you even know which dressing is best for you? Caesar salads are notorious for being slathered in mayonnaise-based dressings that could add hundreds of calories to your diet each week. Make sure your salads are mainly composed of actual vegetables and not just bacon, croutons, cheeses, and smoked meats. Otherwise it might turn out to be just as bad as a plateful of fries - zero nutritious benefits and plenty of grease. Oh, and go easy on the avocado - as delicious as it is, this fruit is rich in fatty acids and can bump up your salad by 180 kcal!
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No, if your salad is full of seasoning and dressing
Even more treacherous than the ingredients, the seasonings you use can affect your caloric intake. Dressings can be rich in fats and sodium and sugar, especially the commercialised squeezy bottle stuff you get in supermarkets. Make your own dressing with simple ingredients like lemon juice and extra virgin olive oil and vinegar. And season with fresh herbs! Stuck in a restaurant? Ask for your dressing to be brought to your table separately in a little bowl so you can control the amount you pour over your salad.
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Yes, if your salad is actually has a salad base
Pasta salads? Potato salads? Using these starchy bases can ruin your diet completely. You may as well be eating something tastier if you’re going to settle for such calorie-laden meals. To make sure you’re giving your body the health benefits of salads, your plate must be composed mainly of greens (rocket, lettuce, watercress, cabbage) and some seeds and legumes (lentils, quinoa, chia seeds). Pasta, rice and potatoes aren’t nearly as nutritious.
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Yes, if they contain lean proteins
High protein foods are often recommended when dieting. Why? Because they are known to keep you feeling full and satisfied for a longer period of time. Also, they cause the body to burn more calories when the proteins are being digested. Lean options like chicken breast and turkey will make your job much easier.
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No, if they are not homemade
Sauces, fats, random ingredients you aren’t even sure are fresh… ready-made salads bought at supermarkets or at your nearest convenience store might have been sitting there for hours… and you don’t actually know exactly what goes into these salads in the first place…
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No, if that’s all you are consuming day in and day out
If you think stuffing yourself each day with a bunch of salad leaves alone will help you lose weight, think again. Because they are so low in calories (10 to 20 kcal for a bag of 100g), it’s a safe bet that you will still be hungry when you leave the table, meaning you are 99% likely to binge on something later. It is better to have more calories at lunchtime instead of a light salad followed by 2 bags of potato chips 25 minutes later when you’re feeling like you need energy ASAP.

We dish out some cold, hard truths about salads and how they can and can’t be your miracle weight loss solution.

Replacing your usual carb-heavy meals with salads each day will totally shave some centimetres off your waist in no time, right? Probably, but that all depends on what you actually put in your salads. Everything from your dressings to the types of proteins you add to your salad masterpiece will affect the speed in which you drop the kilos (or put them on).

Head up to the gallery to check out 6 ways salads can (and can’t) help your weight loss goals.

Laura Gabrieli & Angela Goh

Photos: Getty Images

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