How to Use the Dressing and Sauce Calorie Calculator
You might think of a salad or lettuce wrap as a "healthy" choice, but the real calorie culprit is often the dressing or dipping sauce on top, not the vegetables themselves. This calculator covers seven common sauces — mayo, ketchup, ssamjang, and more — with calorie and fat data per 100g, and calculates your total from the number of tablespoons you actually ate.
We use 15g as the standard for one tablespoon. Mayonnaise, ranch, and Thousand Island, which are high in oil or dairy fat, run 60-100 kcal per tablespoon — just three or four tablespoons can add as many calories as half a bowl of rice. Ketchup and vinegared chili paste, on the other hand, run a lighter 30-40 kcal per tablespoon.
If you're eating salad as part of a diet, serving the dressing on the side for dipping instead of pouring it on, or swapping a mayo-based dressing for a lighter option like balsamic vinaigrette, can meaningfully cut your daily calorie intake. Actual values can vary by brand and recipe, so treat these figures as a general reference.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes. Mayo-based dressings run around 100 kcal per tablespoon, so just three or four tablespoons can add 200-400 kcal. The vegetables themselves are low-calorie, but the dressing amount can change the total dramatically.
Ketchup and Korean chili paste (gochujang-based sauce) run about 30-40 kcal per tablespoon, the lowest of the group. Mayo, ranch, and Thousand Island run 60-100 kcal per tablespoon because of their oil or dairy fat content.