How many calories are in a garden salad?
A restaurant-size garden salad with chicken, tomato and cheese, served with no dressing, weighs 286 g and carries 180 calories. Per 100 g that is 63 calories. One cup from the same bowl is 57. Nothing here is fried and nothing is dressed, so the ladle is what changes the math.
You'd need to walk about 36 minutes to burn the 180 calories in one salad (286 g).
How long does it take to burn off Garden salad?
One salad (286 g) is 180 kcal. Enter your weight and the amount you ate to see how long it takes you to burn that off:
lb
| Activity | Time to burn 180 kcal |
|---|---|
| Walking, brisk | 36 min |
| Cycling, moderate | 22 min |
| Swimming, moderate | 26 min |
| Jogging | 21 min |
| Weight training, moderate | 40 min |
Times are for a 155 lb adult at a steady pace; change the weight to see yours. The amount is set to the portion in the text (286 g); change it to what you actually ate. BodyPal works this out from your steps automatically.
On this page
- Garden salad quick facts
- US servings, from one cup to the whole bowl
- Chicken, bacon and breading move the number
- Bagged garden salad is a different food
- Sodium is the row to watch, not calories
- How does a garden salad compare?
- Most popular garden salad brands
- FAQ
Garden salad quick facts
This page is built on FNDDS 2706818, "Chicken or turkey caesar garden salad, chicken and/or turkey, lettuce, tomato, cheese, no dressing". Worth knowing before you read the table: USDA's survey database has no entry for a plain, vegetable-only garden salad served as a meal. Every "garden salad" record in there is built around chicken or turkey. This one is the leanest of them, it is the only one with both a cup and a whole-salad household measure, and its lettuce-tomato-cheese build is what most diner and deli garden salads actually look like.
Read it as the undressed baseline. It is the plate before anybody pours anything on it.
| Nutrient | Per 100 g | Per 1 salad (286 g) | % Daily Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Calories | 63 | 180 | — |
| Total fat | 1.94 g | 5.5 g | 7% |
| Saturated fat | 0.75 g | 2.1 g | 11% |
| Carbohydrate | 2.99 g | 8.6 g | 3% |
| Dietary fiber | 1 g | 2.9 g | 10% |
| Total sugars | 0.99 g | 2.8 g | — |
| Protein | 8.52 g | 24.4 g | 49% |
| Sodium | 265 mg | 758 mg | 33% |
% Daily Value is based on a 2,000-calorie diet.
Verified nutrition data
Numbers on this page come from USDA FoodData Central, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s food composition database, and from manufacturer labels where a branded product is named. Last verified September 2026. How we verify our data →
Two label rows are missing on purpose. USDA does not publish added sugars or trans fat for survey records like this one, so there is nothing honest to put in those cells. Cholesterol comes to 66 mg in the full salad, 22% of the Daily Value, and potassium to 829 mg, or 18%.
US servings, from one cup to the whole bowl
| Serving | Weight | Calories |
|---|---|---|
| 1 oz | 28 g | 18 kcal |
| 1 cup | 90 g | 57 kcal |
| 2 cups | 180 g | 113 kcal |
| Half a salad | 143 g | 90 kcal |
| One salad, entree size | 286 g | 180 kcal |
| Per 100 g | 100 g | 63 kcal |
Only two of those are USDA household measures: the 1 cup at 90 g and the whole salad at 286 g. The ounce, the two-cup scoop and the half salad are our own arithmetic from the USDA 100 g figure, not USDA servings.
The gap between the cup line and the whole-salad line is the whole story of logging salad. A cup is 57 calories. The bowl it came out of is 180, which is 3.2 times as much of the same food, with no dressing involved. People who log "a salad" and picture a side plate are usually eating three of them. Weigh the bowl once, or at least count the cups, and the entry stops drifting.
Chicken, bacon and breading move the number
USDA keeps a separate record for each way the kitchen builds it. All of these are still undressed, and all are priced here at the same 1 cup (90 g) so they can be read against each other.
| Version | Per 100 g | Typical serving | Calories |
|---|---|---|---|
| Caesar-style, chicken, tomato and cheese (this page) | 63 kcal | 1 cup, 90 g | 57 kcal |
| Garden salad with chicken and cheese | 93 kcal | 1 cup, 90 g | 84 kcal |
| Garden salad with bacon and cheese | 106 kcal | 1 cup, 90 g | 95 kcal |
| Asian garden salad, crispy noodles, fruit and nuts | 116 kcal | 1 cup, 90 g | 104 kcal |
| Breaded chicken garden salad with bacon and cheese | 122 kcal | 1 cup, 90 g | 110 kcal |
| Breaded chicken garden salad with cheese | 123 kcal | 1 cup, 90 g | 111 kcal |
Across those six rows the spread runs 63 to 123 calories per 100 g, so the heaviest build is just under double the lightest before a drop of dressing lands. Breading the chicken costs more than the bacon does: the bacon-and-cheese row sits at 106 per 100 g, while swapping grilled chicken for breaded and fried pushes it to 122.
The Asian style is the one that surprises people. Crispy noodles, dried fruit and nuts put it at 116 calories per 100 g, ahead of the bacon version, and its carbohydrate is 8.11 g per 100 g against 3 g for the plain build. It reads like a lighter order and logs like a heavier one.
Bagged garden salad is a different food
The bag from the produce aisle is not the same item as the salad above, and the numbers are not close. Dole Fresh Garden Salad is 18 calories per 100 g, or 15 calories for the 85 g bag serving. Fresh Express Iceberg Garden Salad and Taylor Farms Garden Salad land on exactly the same 18 per 100 g. That is greens, a little carrot and cabbage, and nothing else, which puts it 3.5 times below the 63 per 100 g of a chicken-and-cheese salad.
One quirk worth catching: those three bags all print an 85 g serving, but Dole and Fresh Express call it about 1.5 cups while Taylor Farms calls it 2 cups. The grams are the reliable half of that sentence.
What is in the bag with the greens changes everything. Premo Garden Salad with Ranch Dressing is 126 calories per 100 g, or 249 for the 198 g tub, which is seven times the plain greens. Taylor Farms Garden Salad with Chicken and Bacon runs 196 per 100 g, about eleven times, and 319 calories for the 163 g package. A shelf label that says garden salad tells you almost nothing until you turn the pack over.
Sodium is the row to watch, not calories
Undressed, this salad is a 180-calorie meal that delivers 758 mg of sodium, 33% of the FDA Daily Value. That is roughly a third of a teaspoon of table salt, in a plate nobody thinks of as salty.
It is traceable. The USDA row for the same salad without cheese holds 136 mg per 100 g, against 265 mg here. The cheese and the seasoned chicken are carrying nearly double the sodium of the version that skips them. If you are watching sodium, the no-cheese build is the better pick, and it costs almost nothing in calories at 64 per 100 g.
The protein line runs the other way, in your favor. A full salad brings 24.4 g, 49% of the Daily Value, from a plate with 8.6 g of carbohydrate in it, or 3% DV. Fiber is 2.9 g, 10% DV, which is a real contribution but not a big one: MyPlate counts vegetables by cups, and even the whole 286 g salad covers only a tenth of a day's fiber.
How does a garden salad compare?
| Salad, all undressed | Per 100 g | US serving | Calories |
|---|---|---|---|
| Caesar-style garden salad, chicken and cheese (this page) | 63 kcal | 1 cup, 90 g | 57 kcal |
| Garden salad with chicken and cheese | 93 kcal | 1 cup, 90 g | 84 kcal |
| Garden salad with bacon and cheese | 106 kcal | 1 cup, 90 g | 95 kcal |
| Breaded fried chicken garden salad with bacon and cheese | 122 kcal | 1 cup, 90 g | 110 kcal |
Our take: for weight loss, order the build on this page and keep the dressing on the side, because 180 calories for a whole 286 g plate with 24.4 g of protein is hard to beat at lunch. For staying full through the afternoon, the extra cheese row at 93 per 100 g earns its keep, since the fat holds the meal together and a cup of it is still only 84 calories. The one to think twice about is the breaded chicken, at 110 per cup and just 6.78 g of protein per 100 g, which is less protein than the grilled versions for nearly double the calories. Salad is not the variable here. The kitchen's choices are.
Most popular garden salad brands in the United States
Ranked by how widely each product appears among foods sold in the United States, from the BodyPal food database of over 3.3 million products. Calories are the figures printed on each Nutrition Facts label, checked against USDA FoodData Central.
| Product | Calories (per 100 g) |
|---|---|
| Dole Fresh Garden Salad | 18 cal |
| 18th Street Select Garden Salad | 79 cal |
| Premo Garden Salad with Ranch Dressing | 126 cal |
| Taylor Farms Garden Salad with Chicken and Bacon | 196 cal |
| Fresh Express Iceberg Garden Salad | 18 cal |
| Taylor Farms Garden Salad | 18 cal |
Brand popularity: BodyPal food database. Nutrition: manufacturer labels / USDA FoodData Central.
Garden salad FAQs
How many calories are in a garden salad?
180 calories for a full 286 g restaurant-size garden salad with chicken, tomato and cheese and no dressing, at 63 calories per 100 g. A smaller side portion of one cup (90 g) is 57. The bowl size, not the greens, decides which number you log.
How many calories in 1 cup of garden salad?
57 calories in one cup (90 g) of undressed garden salad with chicken and cheese, the USDA household measure for this record. Two cups come to 113 calories by our own arithmetic from the 100 g figure. Bagged greens with no meat or cheese are far lower, near 15 per bag serving.
How many calories in a garden salad with chicken?
180 calories for the full 286 g salad on this page, which already includes chicken, tomato and cheese with no dressing. A cup of the USDA row that adds more cheese is 84 calories, and a cup of the breaded, fried chicken version with bacon reaches 110.
How many calories in a bagged garden salad?
About 15 calories per bag serving of 85 g, since plain bagged greens run 18 calories per 100 g. Dole, Fresh Express and Taylor Farms all land on the same figure for their vegetable-only mixes. Add the packet of ranch and the number climbs well past that.
How much protein is in a garden salad?
24.4 g in the full 286 g salad, which is 49% of the Daily Value, close to half a day on the FDA label. That comes from 8.52 g per 100 g, almost all of it the chicken and the cheese. A greens-only bagged salad carries almost none.
How much sodium is in a garden salad?
758 mg in the full 286 g salad with no dressing at all, or 33% of the Daily Value, about a third of a teaspoon of table salt. The cheese and the seasoned chicken carry it: the USDA row without cheese holds 136 mg per 100 g against 265 mg here.
Does dressing double the calories of a garden salad?
Seven times, not double: a store garden salad sold with ranch already mixed in runs 126 calories per 100 g against 18 for the same greens undressed. That is 249 calories for a 198 g tub. Ordering the dressing on the side is the simplest way to control it.
Is a garden salad good for weight loss?
63 calories per 100 g, with 24.4 g of protein and 2.9 g of fiber in a full salad, makes it an easy fit inside a 350 to 450-calorie lunch. Undressed, the whole 286 g bowl is 180 calories. What sinks it is the ladle, not the lettuce.
Similar foods
- Carrot — 53 cal per cup chopped
- Papaya salad — 190 cal per plate
- Onion — 46 cal per cup sliced
- Sweet Potato — 103 cal per medium, baked
- Broccoli — 55 cal per cup chopped
- Ear of Corn — 99 cal per medium ear
Count it without the math
Point the camera at the plate and BodyPal counts the salad for you, chicken, cheese and all.
