Being a busy college student makes it difficult to make time to exercise regularly and make healthier choices when it comes to food.

Luckily, on-the-go food options in convenient locations are plentiful and usually provide healthier options for those who are concerned with their waistlines. Salads are always everyone’s go-to thought when it comes to a healthier option; however, are salads actually making you fat?

OK, salads are obviously a much healthier choice over burgers, chips, fried food, and even sandwiches. Mistakes are made with the scarce amount of actual lettuce and vegetables paired with an overloaded amount of cheese, croutons, bacon, overly seasoned or fried/breaded meat. To top it off, salads are then drenched in fattening dressings such as Thousand Island, Italian, honey mustard, bleu cheese and the ever-popular creamy ranch.

The amounts of calories in overloaded salads add up to just as much, if not more, calories than a cheeseburger, which almost totally eliminates the point of a salad. Although still healthier nutritionally, if you continue these bad habits you’re never going to see the results you want.

Avoid eating out at all costs. Unfortunately, though, eating out is sometimes inevitable. When looking over the salads on a menu, the calorie count should be listed but the calorie count usually doesn’t include the salad with dressing. Always ask for the dressing on the side and use it sparingly. Balsamic vinaigrette or oil and vinegar are healthier options, but the best way to go is no dressing at all.

Portion size should always be taken into consideration. Restaurants in particular create very large portions so that customers leave their establishment feeling full and satisfied. Americans are prone to large portion sizes and are addicted to feeling full. So many people think that eating a salad permits eating a large quantity of it.

That being said, if a half-size portion is available always get that instead. If not, ask for a to-go container upon ordering, so that when your salad arrives you can immediately distribute half off the salad in the box and save it for the next day. You should never feel overly full from eating a salad. If you do, then you’re clearly doing something wrong.

Going to the grocery store and picking up your own ingredients for a salad is not only self gratifying, but you also have the control of knowing exactly what is going into your salad. It’s not that difficult to take five minutes out of your nightly routine to prepare your salad for the next day, so all you have to do is grab it out of your refrigerator on your way out the door to school.