Is dried fruit healthy like regular fruit?

Dried fruit is fruit with all the water removed, but all the sugar retained. Compared to fresh fruit, it is very high in calories and - although healthy - is not helpful to weight loss.

A handful of raisins is the calorie equivalent of a pound of grapes.
1 cup grapes has 60 calories while 1 cup raisins has 495 calories.

So if you are on a weight loss diet dried fruit should only be eaten in small quantities.

In addition, the fiber in dried fruit is less effective in satisfying your appetite.

Good luck and best wishes. 

Most weight loss diet plans only include a few servings of fruit to begin with, because of the high sugar levels in fruits, so you should be careful anyway. Possibly you find the dietary fibers difficult to digest, so you might want to sample different fruits and veggies to see what agrees with you more (try in small quantities, and see which has what affect). This could also be a matter of getting used to a higher fiber content diet.

I think TipTop gave you a great answer (all his answers are great :-)), and in addition, most regular dried fruits today are dried chemically and not sun dried, which means there are high levels of chemicals and preservatives in them as well, and that can't be good for you.

yes

It pretty much all boils down to your intake of calories. If you are consuming more calories by eating the dried fruits than on a regular basis then you will gain weight. But if you count your calories and eat the dried fruit in moderation your weight will stay the same.