Is Ranch Dressing Bad For You? (5 Tips For Weight Loss)

Many people love to dip their food in some sort of sauce or dressing, such as Ranch Dressing. If you’re one of these people who loves to have a side of Ranch Dressing with their foods, this article is for you. Find out what Ranch Dressing is, if this type of food is healthy and if you can stay in shape eating this classic American dressing.

Although Ranch Dressing is delicious, is this dish actually healthy?

Eating Ranch Dressing in moderation is not too bad for your overall health and waistline. It isn’t the best choice to eat when you are eating a healthy diet, as it is high in calories, fats, and sodium. However, if you stick to one serving of Ranch Dressing, you won’t get off track. 

Here are five steps that explain what Ranch Dressing is the calorie amount in one serving, as well as how to stay fit and healthy while eating this delicious American dressing.

1. Find out What Ingredients Are in Your Typical Ranch Dressing

2. Find out How Many Calories Are in One Serving of Ranch Dressing

3. Understand How Many Calories You Need to Consume in a Day 

4. How to Make a Healthier Version of Ranch Dressing at Home

5. Make Sure To Consistently Workout, Build Muscle & Increase Your Activity Level

Now that we know our five steps, let’s get into the details that will help you stay in shape while enjoying some Ranch Dressing.  

Tip 1: Find out What Ingredients Are in Your Typical Ranch Dressing

There are many different brands that produce Ranch Dressing, such as Kraft, Hidden Valley, Wishbone, Newman’s Own, and Ken’s Steak House.

Ranch Dressing doesn’t just look good and tastes great over salad, but it quickly became a popular dressing to use as a dip with chicken wings, fries, or other snacks.

Let’s find out what ingredients go into your typical Ranch Dressing.

The ingredients in Ken’s Steak House dressing, for example, are the following: Soybean Oil, Water, Cultured Buttermilk, Egg Yolk, Distilled Vinegar, Contains Less Than 2% Of Salt, Monosodium Glutamate, Modified Corn Starch, Buttermilk Solids, Sugar, Garlic,* Xanthan Gum, Spice, Citric Acid, Onion,* Sorbic Acid (Preservative), Calcium Disodium Edta (To Protect Flavor), Milk, Natural Flavor, Egg Whites.

Other brands have similar ingredients, which are not the greatest. The fewer ingredients, the better the product. The store-bought Ranch Dressings are full of additives, bad oils - such as soybean or canola, and flavor enhancers - such as Monosodium Glutamate.

Now that we know what ingredients go into Ranch Dressing, let’s take a look at the nutrition facts and see how many calories are in one serving of Ranch Dressing.

Tip 2: Find out How Many Calories Are in One Serving of Ranch Dressing

Weight loss is really the concept of calories in vs. calories out. So whether you live a sedentary lifestyle or an active lifestyle, it’s important to understand how many calories you need to consume daily.

Let’s take a look at the nutrition facts. As you can see, one serving (2 Tbsp) of Newman’s Own Ranch Dressing has 130 calories with a macronutrient ratio of 2 grams of carbs, 0 grams of protein, and 14 grams of fat. 

Although one serving of Newman’s Own Ranch Dressing is relatively high in calories and fat, it can still be easily incorporated into your daily caloric intake, if you stick to one serving and also work out. Make sure to eat protein-rich foods with this ranch dressing, such as chicken. 

A good rule of thumb for dieting is a nice balance of macronutrients. A great ratio is sticking to 30% carbs, 40% protein, and 30% fats. 

Regardless of the fact that one serving of Newman’s Own Ranch can be incorporated into your daily caloric intake, we recommend eating this type of food in moderation or making a healthier version of Ranch Dressing at home.

Now that we know a little bit more about the nutrition facts of one serving of Ranch Dressing let’s take a look at how many calories you need to consume daily to stay in shape.

Tip 3: Understand How Many Calories You Need to Consume in a Day 

The key aspect is to understand how many calories you need to eat in a day and to make sure not to overeat on your total accounted calories for the day. 

You can easily overeat on unhealthy, processed foods that are high in fats and carbs, especially when something is as delicious as Ranch Dressing. Overeating is usually the quickest way to get out of shape. 

If you burn more calories than you consume, then you will find yourself in a “caloric deficit” which is the only way fat loss can occur. 

To stay healthy and in shape, we need to first go over your daily caloric needs and figure out how many calories you need in a day, as well as figure out how much of each macronutrient you should be consuming.

There are a few factors that determine your daily calorie intake. Such as weight management, weight loss, or weight gain. Other factors that play a major role are your gender and your height. 

So, how do you know how many calories you should be eating in a day?

The answer is through trial and error and finding a calorie range that allows you to lose 1-2 pounds of fat per week. 

However, a good place to start is to multiply your body weight by 12 or to use an online TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure) calculator.

Your TDEE relies heavily on how active you are and how much movement you see in your day.

Within your TDEE lies a subsection, which is called TEPA (Thermic Effect of Physical Activity) which accounts for 15-30% of your entire day’s worth of calories.

This means, you are in control of 15-30% of how much you can eat, which is a huge portion of calories.

The key here is to find foods that keep you full longer and still deliver a balanced amount of macronutrients. 

If you’re someone who loves to eat a lot while staying fit, then being active is the key to a balanced lifestyle that allows you to eat whatever you like, such as Ranch Dressing, and stay in shape. 

Once you know your calorie intake based on your weight and height, you can then decide how much you want to decrease it. If you want to lose 1 to 2 pounds per week, we suggest you start with 100 calories less than what you are currently consuming and see if you notice a difference within a week.

If you don’t see any changes in your weight, decrease your calorie intake by another 100 calories and see how that works. 

However, it is suggested, to not decrease the calorie intake below 1,200 per day for women, or below 1,500 calories per day for men.

So, just calculate whatever calorie range you find, and split up your calories by following those macro guidelines. 

Now that we know how many calories to consume daily, let’s take a look at how you can make a healthier version of Ranch dressing at home.

Tip 4: How to Make a Healthier Version of Ranch Dressing at Home

Most Ranch Dressings you’ll find in the supermarket are high in calories, fats, and sodium. They also don’t have the best ingredients, as you can see in Step#1 of this article. 

We, therefore, recommend making a healthier version of Ranch Dressing, using yogurt and sour cream, at home. Which is easy, and budget-friendly. 

This version only has 30 calories for one serving (2 Tbsp) with a macronutrient ratio of 2 grams of carbs, 1 gram of protein, and 2 grams of fat. 

Now that we know how to make a healthier version of Ranch Dressing at home, let’s take a look at how to increase your activity, lose weight, and stay in shape.

Tip 5: Make Sure To Consistently Workout, Build Muscle & Increase Your Activity Level

After you’ve figured out how many calories you need to consume daily, you need to make sure that you exercise regularly and increase your activity level.

Therefore it is important you utilize your calories efficiently throughout your day. 

The best way to do this is to build muscle and to also move more throughout your day. 

The more movement the better and, to utilize and burn those calories, you should be moving all you can.

It’s crucial to understand the importance of diet and workout, to enjoy foods like Ranch Dressing.

I’m sure that you’ve heard that carbs are the enemy and they’re the main driving factor at keeping us from getting a flat stomach or abs.

Carbs are your direct source of energy and they allow you to function properly and fuel your workouts and movements.

The same goes for fats. However, the body needs healthy fats to function properly and to absorb nutrients. As well as to produce hormones. 

The real enemy is inactivity and staying sedentary while eating more carbs than you need to. 

As stated in Step #3, you need to be able to burn enough calories throughout your day, to put yourself at a caloric deficit. 

Building muscle allows you to burn calories at rest, which means you can eat more and still lose fat.

This is really the goal of working out and is what keeps you healthy as your metabolism increases.

Although working out and building muscle takes priority, having a consistent cardio schedule can help with expediting the fat loss process as it raises the energy expended throughout your week.

The fastest and most efficient way to build muscle is learning how to do some resistance training.

You can also do a combination of resistance training and LISS (Low-Intensity Steady State) cardio or HIIT (High-Intensity Interval Training) cardio, to improve your heart health and maximize fat burn. 

LISS is cardio that comes from walking or a brisk walk, you should be able to have a conversation while still building up a sweat.

HIIT cardio is intervals of a very high-intensity movement, such as sprints, battle ropes, or kickboxing movements aiming to quickly raise the heart rate.

The benefit of HIIT is allowing yourself to burn calories in a shorter amount of time. 

We recommend having 80% of cardio coming from LISS while 20% comes from HIIT for optimal fat loss throughout the week. 

LISS is a much more reliable source of consistent movement and does not require rest as it does not shock the Central Nervous System the way HIIT can.

You need to use weights and build muscle by doing a variety of workouts that target each muscle group specifically. 

Although it can be intimidating to get in shape, as it will be hard to learn and might be discouraging at the beginning, it’s definitely worth it in the long run for both your health and fitness. 

All you need are a set of dumbbells, such as these adjustable dumbbells, and a reliable treadmill such as the Bluefin Fitness Treadmill that tracks your calories and you’re on your way to controlling the number of calories you burn. 

Regarding working out with dumbbells, it’s important not to add too much weight too soon because that could result in injury if you are unfamiliar with the correct body positions. It is better to start small and then increase the weight level. 

Here is a workout plan we’ve created for women and men, where you can get started if you are someone who is new to a resistance training regimen.

WOMEN

Day One (Full Upper):

• Weighted Crunches: 3x35 

• Lateral Raises: 4x15

• Lat Pulldowns: 4x12

• Knee Push-Ups: 4x20

• Seated Shoulder Press: 4x20 

• Dumbbell Row: 3x10

• Dumbbell Fly: 3x10

Day Two (Back/Hamstrings/Biceps):

• Hammer Curls: 3x10

• Bicep Curls: 3x10

• Hamstring Curl: 4x15

• Stiff Leg Deadlift: 4x15

• Cable Row: 4x15

• Lat Pulldowns: 4x12

• Assisted Pull-Ups: 3x10

Day Three (Legs/Butt/Abs): 

• Leg Lifts: 3x35

• Weighted Crunches: 3x35 

• Jump Squats: 4x20

• Glute Kickbacks: 4x20 each leg

• Glute Bridge: 4x20

• Goblet Squats: 4x20

• Squats: 5x5

MEN:

Day One: Chest, Shoulders, Triceps, Abs (Push Day) : 

• Cable Crunches: 4 sets 15 reps 

• Triceps Rope Push Down: 3 sets 15 reps

• Lateral Raises: 3 sets 15 reps

• Shoulder Press: 3 sets 10 reps

• Dumbbell Press: 4 sets 12 reps

• Bench Press: 3 sets 10 reps

Day Two (Legs & Abs):

• Weighted Toe Touches: 4 sets 25 reps

• Weighted Sit-Ups: 4 sets 25 reps

• Jumping Squats With Resistance Bands: 5 sets 20 reps

• Glute Bridges With Weight: 4 sets 20 reps

• Stiff Leg Deadlift (Romanian Deadlift): 4 sets 15 reps

• Weighted Walking Lunges: 2 sets 20 steps

• Goblet Squats: 4 sets 20 reps

Day Three: Back & Biceps (Pull Day):

• Hammer Curls: 3 sets 10 reps

• Bicep Curls: 3 sets 10 reps

• Seated Cable Rows: 4 sets 15 reps

• Dumbbell Rows: 4 sets 10 reps (Each Side)

• Lat Pulldowns: 4 sets 12 reps

• Assisted Pull-Ups: 3 sets 10 reps

We recommend working out at least three times per week in the beginning, since the resting days in between are important to build muscle. 

Building muscle will happen relatively fast if you are new to working out, so this is great news for anyone looking to get in shape.

That’s why it’s important to increase your activity level at least 3 - 4 times a week if your goal is to get lean. 

So if you love eating more than one serving of Ranch Dressing, you have to make sure your activity level is higher than usual, especially if you want to lose weight. 

Fats and carbs are the two macronutrients that will be more likely to be stored as energy. 

Therefore, you don’t want all of your calories simply coming from carbs or fats, you want there to be a balance coming from carbs, protein, and fats.

If you put calorie tracking, muscle building, and actively moving more altogether, dips such as Ranch Dressing won’t get you off track because the formula provides so much leniency for you to shed some fat.

Working out allows you to be more flexible in your diet and lifestyle, which is so important if you want to sustain a lean body and stay healthy. 

This is why we need to control the number of calories we get from carbs and fats in order to utilize the energy we gained through movement and workouts.

The tip here is to live active and go out and seek a workout regimen. 

So, next time you’re wondering how you can lose some weight, remember that you need to build some muscle and track your calories to your specified amount. 

THERE IT IS!

In this article, we discussed what the ingredients are in your typical store-bought Ranch Dressing, if it’s healthy, how many calories it contains, how to make a healthier version, and how to lose weight indulging in some delicious Ranch Dressing.

The key to healthy eating is balance and moderation. Our five tips will help you stay fit while eating Ranch Dressing. 

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