5 Quick and healthy salad dressings for weight loss (2024)

Brenda Braslow, MS, RDN, LDN, CDCES - Registered Dietitian Nutritionist and Certified Diabetes Care and Education Specialist (CDCES)

Don’t blow your efforts toward weight loss by dousing your healthy salads with rich, calorie-bomb salad dressings. Try some of these homemade salad dressings and other light toppings to zest up your salad while keeping the calories on target.

5 Quick and healthy salad dressings for weight loss (2)

How a healthy salad can turn into weight-loss woes with the wrong dressing

Do you feel like you’re tasting more rich salad dressing than salad ingredients? It could be a clue that you are overdoing the dressing. For example, let’s say you make a nice healthy salad with 2 cups Romaine (16 cals), one cup kale (23 cals), 10 cherry tomatoes (36 cals), one medium carrot (25 cals), ½ cup jicama (25 cals), one ounce feta (101 cals), and 3 ounces grilled chicken (126 cals). This totals 352 calories. Now you add 4 tablespoons blue cheese dressing (290 calories). With the dressing added, you’ve almost doubled the calories and are up to 642 calories! Yikes!

Homemade salad dressings under 50 calories per serving

Lighten things up by trying one of these healthy salad dressings perfect for your weight-loss plan. Bonus: They are all in the MyNetDiary Premium recipe collection, already analyzed and ready to track.

Caesar Salad Dressing

This lighter version of the classic Caesar dressing is sure to please with garlic, lemon, and anchovy paste.
36 calories, 3g protein, 2g carbs, 2g fat per serving

Dijon Salad Dressing

Super-fast to fix! Just put the 7 ingredients in a covered jar and shake to mix. Simple as that to create a tasty, tangy, and healthier dressing.
37 calories, <1g protein, 1g carbs, 3g fat per serving

Merlot Salad Dressing

Fresh is best! Only 5 ingredients in this Italian-style dressing punctuated with herbs and red wine.
45 calories, <1g protein, 1g carbs, 3g fat per serving

Homemade salad dressings under 75 calories per serving

Fresh Herb Buttermilk Dressing

Use fresh or dried herbs for the same result in this creamy Ranch-style buttermilk dressing.
70 calories, 1g protein, 1g carbs, 7g fat per serving

Balsamic Vinaigrette Salad Dressing

A delicious vinaigrette dressing to top your favorite salad.
56 calories, <1g protein, 3g carbs, 5g fat per serving

Other super-light ways to season salads

Lemon juice (3 calories per tablespoon)
Lime juice (4 calories per tablespoon)
White distilled vinegar (3 calories per tablespoon)
Balsamic vinegar (14 calories per tablespoon)
Za’atar seasoning blend - a blend of sumac, sesame, herbs, and salt (17 calories per teaspoon)
Coarse black pepper (1 calorie per ¼ teaspoon)

Once you taste these healthy homemade salad dressings, whether adding them to salads for weight loss or not, you may want to stay on the homemade dressing and salad path for good!