Is this salad healthy? Low cal?

[WombatChocolate]

Hi. I am eating a delicious salad made up of the following;
-leaves
-4 cherry tom
-slice of avocado
-half mackerel fillet
-small handful nuts
-3 dried apricots
-2 raw sliced mushroom
-Caesar sauce - 2 teaspoons

This fills a pasta bowl and keeps me full until dinner.

Is this healthy?
Is it low cal or can anyone estimate the cals? Have never calorie counted.

thanks.

Healthy and low cal are two different things. It's very healthy but I wouldn't know about the calories.

Healthy but could be higher in calories than you think. Mackerel, nuts, avocado and Caesar dressing will be reasonably high depending on exact weights.

I think it's quite hard to estimate calories accurately without weighing.
Like how big a slice of avocado? How big is a handful of nuts? I did enter this into my fitness pal but had to guess at weights which means it could be waaay off. Anyway I got 460 cals. But like I said, not the most accurate way of measuring.

Anything "oily" might have far more cals than you think - mackerel, nuts, avo.

Dried fruits are sugary.

But - healthy, and sounds like small quantities to me, and a nice mix of flavours, but no doubt the teeny people will be along soon to tell you anything other than leaves is equivalent to chips and ice cream...

I'd certainly have this with a bread roll for lunch!

You just need to work through the ingredients one by one and add up the calories. It is easier for you to do as you have the packaging and know the size of what you are using.

It is obviously a pretty well balanced meal and that is different to the calories in it.

Google each one to find out, I just Googled avocado and apparently half an avocado is 120 calories.

Read the back of the Caesar sauce jar it will tell you.

Are you trying to loose weight or maintain?

It sounds a well balanced, full of good fats, fibre and nutrient rich lunch.
It might be calorific but all calories aren’t equal and it’s unsurprising that it’s keeping you full.

What you describe doesn't sound like very much food at all, so potentially low calorie. But would be a perfectly healthy (in terms of nutrients) and adequate meal if it keeps you full, I guess.

Healthy yes but I don't think it's low cal. It's hard to know exactly but nuts, mackerel, avocado and caesar sauce are quite calorie heavy. It depends on what your goal is really but if you are calorie counting you really need to be accurate for it to work.

I would go for fresh fruit rather than dried as well because they have more water so they help to keep you full whilst being low cal, dried fruit is sugar dense so it doesn't work the same.

Sounds healthy, but if you want to know is it low kcal, you need to measure the ingredients and put into myfitnesspal (or similar) once, then you know next time if you need to add any less (or more) of anything.

Or if you achieve your goals , eating like this, happy days.

Caesar dressings are incredibly high in calories, way way more than you'd think. Try and swap for some sort of vinaigrette or even better, make your own. With lemon juice, honey, mustard, EVOO and s&p.

Nuts, again, very high in calories but also high in protein which is great so ok to keep those in, just be aware that they are high calorie. Dried apricots - not terrible but probably unnecessary. Very high in sugar.

It's a decent salad, better than a burger but could still avoid some of the high calorie / sugar / fat elements and substitute for other things - I like pears in salads, or figs, fresh mango etc if you like the sweet element.

As already said, use myfitnesspal to calculate calories.

Thank you everyone. I get what you’re saying about healthy and low cal not being same thing.

This kind of lunch is different for me as usually very carb heavy.

The Caesar sauce is what makes it yummy for me, but I will try a low cal version and also some of the other lower cal dressings you mention.

Not too bothered about dried apricots so can give them a miss easily.

I think it’s them a mackerel that’s keeping me full. It’s delicious and I only need half a fillet as it has such a nice strong flavour.

Im not really on a diet. I would quite like lose 4 or 5 pounds, but more interested in eating more healthily, which I hope will help me get there anyway.

Oh god don't go low calorie dressing if it's just gums and shite. Oil and vinegar with a bit of mustard or garlic, maybe honey. Tastes nice and is good for you and real. Your body will know it's eaten something.

Sainsbury’s do a gorgeous raspberry vinaigrette which isn’t too calorie-heavy.

What do you classify food as?

I think that comment was 'that's not much food', not 'doesn't sound like food'.

I'd ramp up the veg myself.

Roughly 570 cals
27g carbs
43g fat
17g protein