Eat Out Eat Well

Halloween

How Far Do You Have To Walk To Burn Off Halloween Candy?

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Here’s a different perspective on Halloween candy — how much walking will it take to work off the calories in each piece?

Here are some of the calculations from walking.com:

  •          1 Fun Size candy bar (Snickers, Milky Way, Butterfingers, etc. comes to 80 calories. You will need to walk 0.8 miles, 1.29 kilometers, or 1600 steps, assuming you cover one mile in 2,000 steps.
  •          2 Hershey’s Kisses comes to 50 calories. You will need to walk 0.5 miles, 0.80 kilometers, or 1000 steps, assuming you cover one mile in 2,000 steps.
  •          2 Brachs caramels comes to 80 calories. You will need to walk 0.8 miles, 1.29 kilometers, or 1600 steps, assuming you cover one mile in 2,000 steps.
  •          1 mini bite-size candy bar (Snickers, Milky Way, Butterfingers, etc.) comes to 55 calories. You will need to walk 0.55 miles, 0.88 kilometers, or 1100 steps, assuming you cover one mile in 2,000 steps.
  •          1 Fun Size M&M packet – Plain or Peanut, comes to 90 calories. You will need to walk 0.9 miles, 1.45 kilometers, or 1800 steps, assuming you cover one mile in 2,000 steps.
  •          1 mini Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup comes to 33 calories. You will need to walk 0.33 miles, 0.53 kilometers, or 660 steps, assuming you cover one mile in 2,000 steps.
  •          1 full size chocolate candy bar (Snickers, Hershey, etc.) comes to 275 calories. You will need to walk 2.75 miles, 4.43 kilometers, or 5500 steps, assuming you cover one mile in 2,000 steps.
  •          1 King Size chocolate candy bar (Snickers, Hershey, etc.) comes to 500 calories. You will need to walk 5 miles, 8.06 kilometers, or 10000 steps, assuming you cover one mile in 2,000 steps.
  •          1 small Tootsie Roll comes to 25 calories. You will need to walk 0.25 miles, 0.40 kilometers, or 500 steps, assuming you cover one mile in 2,000 steps.

If You Eat Them All . . .

  • 2 Brachs caramels
  • 2 Hershey’s Kisses
  • 1 small Tootsie Roll
  • 1 Fun Size candy bar (Snickers, Milky Way, Butterfingers, etc.)
  • 1 mini bite-size candy bar (Snickers, Milky Way, Butterfingers, etc.)
  • 1 Fun Size M&M packet – Plain or Peanut
  • 1 mini Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup
  • 1 full size chocolate candy bar (Snickers, Hershey, etc.)
  • 1 King Size chocolate candy bar (Snickers, Hershey, etc.)

Grand Total:  1188 calories

You’ll need to walk 11.88 miles, 19.16 kilometers, or 23760 steps, assuming you cover one mile in 2,000 steps.

For more holiday eating tips, strategies, and information check out my book,  The Sensible Holiday Eating Guide:  How To Enjoy Your Favorite Foods Without Gaining Weight, available from Amazon for your kindle or kindle reader.

 

Really, How Many Calories Are In That Piece Of Candy?

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It might help a bit with Halloween candy mooching if you have some information about the calories in those seemingly innocent little mini bars of candy.  A lot of adults care — some don’t — and most kids could care less about calories.

One night of candy overload isn’t going to break the bank.  You won’t gain ten pounds and neither will your child(ren).  You and they might feel lousy after so much sugar, your concentration may not be the greatest, and you might be sluggish and irritable.  But, your pants will still fit and your sunny personality will see the light of day – if the candy indulgences don’t become a frequent occurrence.

A treat is only a treat if it happens once in a while.  If it’s a common occurrence it far too frequently becomes an expectation or a habit.

Calories in Halloween candy (Source: fitsugar)

1 treat size (fun size)

Calories

Fat (g)

Sugar (g)

Snickers

71

3.6

7.6

Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup

88

5.2

8

Reese’s Caramel Cup

100

5

11

Reese’s Nutrageous

95

5.5

7.5

Milky Way

77

2.9

10.2

Butterfinger

85

3.5

8.5

Almond Joy

91

5.1

9.2

Milk Duds

40

2

6.3

M&Ms

90

4

11.5

Peanut M&Ms

93

4.7

9.1

Nestle’s Crunch

51.3

2.7

5.6

Peppermint Pattie

47

1

8.6

Kit Kat

73

3.7

.67

Dots

70

0

11

Skittles

80

.8

15

Jelly Belly Jellybeans

35

0

7

3 Musketeers

63.3

2

10

Milky Way

75

3

10

Hershey’s Bar

66.7

4

7.7

Take 5

105

5.5

9

100 Grand

95

4

11

Nerds

50

0

12

Whoppers

100

4

13

Mike & Ike

50

0

9

SweeTarts

10

0

2.4

Guess How Many Calories Are In A Trick Or Treat Bag

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What do you think:  3500, 5000, 7500???  Keep in mind that it takes 3500 calories (above your daily caloric needs to gain a pound.

A public heath expert estimated that, on average, a child in the US collects between 3,500 and 7,000 candy calories on Halloween night.

To burn off 7000 calories, a one hundred pound child would have to walk for almost 44 hours or play full-court basketball for 14.5 hours.

What’s In The Trick or Treat Bag?

A NYC mom wrote down what was in her daughter’s trick or treat bag after she returned home on Halloween. Then the curious mom calculated the calories.

Here’s what was in her daughter’s Trick or Treat bag:

8 Hershey’s Kisses (Peanut butter, regular, almond and caramel)

3 Hershey’s Bars

1 Starburst

1 Jolly Rancher

1 Jolly Rancher Stix

12 Peanut Butter Cups

1 Reese’s Fast Break Bar

3 Fun Size Snickers

1 M & Ms

3 Caramels

6 Jawbreakers

3 Skittles

2 Baby Ruths, Fun Size

3 Butter Fingers, Fun Size

5 Kit Kat, Fun Size

2 Peppermints

2 3 Musketeers

1 Hot Tamales

8 Hard Candies

2 SweetTarts

1 Cookie

1 Mini Dove Chocolate

14 Lollipops

2 Now and Laters

2 Super Bubbles

1 Milky Way, Mini

2 Mary Janes

Total calorie count of candy In the bag:   6653

What her daughter estimated she had already eaten from the bag:

1 Nestle Crunch

4 SweetTarts

1 Peppermint

2 Hard Candies

1 Ring Pop

2 Mini Boxes of Nerds

1 Snickers, Fun Size

1 Caramel

2 Twizzlers

Total calorie count of what had already been eaten:    585

Grand Total of calories from the Halloween candy haul:   7238

 

For more holiday eating tips, strategies, and information check out my book,  The Sensible Holiday Eating Guide:  How To Enjoy Your Favorite Foods Without Gaining Weight, available from Amazon for your kindle or kindle reader.

 

3 Tips To Avoid Pre-Halloween Sugar Overload

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Halloween conjures up images of ghosts, ghouls, witches – and candy corn, tootsie rolls, snickers, and kit-kats.  The Halloween costumes vary depending on what’s trendy – and the Halloween candy varies depending on what’s on sale, what you buy, what you like or dislike, and what makes it’s way into the house in trick or treat bags.

Halloween happens.  Trick or treating happens.  Candy is around – everywhere.  You’re probably going to eat some candy.  So, make a plan for when and how much.  If it’s one day of candy it’s no big deal – but, days and weeks worth of candy can definitely be a big and weighty deal.

But – you don’t have to attack the bags full of your favorite sweet stuff in the days and weeks leading up to Halloween.  You know the scenario – you bought those big bags because they were such a good price – and then you end up having to buy more candy to give to trick or treaters because the candy you bought at such a bargain price has been devoured.

Three Tips To Avoid Eating Candy Before Halloween

  1. Don’t buy candy ahead of time.  It’s so darn easy to be swayed by the monster sized bags of midget candy bars or sweet tarts, or M&Ms, or tootsie roll pops.  The bags are priced to sell and practically jump off the shelves at you as you walk down the aisles in the grocery store or drug store.  The retailers are just itching to sell you candy nice and early so you have to come back for a repeat buying performance.
  2. When you buy candy – even if it’s the day before or the day of Halloween, buy candy you hate – or at least dislike.  Very simply – if you don’t like it, there’s less of a chance you’ll eat it.  It doesn’t mean that you won’t eat it – just that it’s less likely that you will — and if you do, maybe it won’t be the whole bag.
  3. If the candy does make its way into your house or your workplace – get it out of your sightline.  It’s very simple:  if you see it you eat it.  And, we’re lazy – so the more energy you need to use to get to the candy, the less likely you are to do it.  So, hide it in the back of the top shelf of the cabinet, or in the freezer, or in the basement, or in the garage.  Be creative – just don’t forget where you’ve hidden it so that you have to buy more and then, months later, you find old Halloween candy when you’re cleaning out some random closet.

For more tips and strategies on handling holiday eating from Halloween right through Valentine’s Day be sure to read my new book, The Sensible Holiday Eating Guide: How To Enjoy Your Favorite Foods Without Gaining Weight, coming soon to Kindle and Kindle readers.

Do You Swipe Candy From Your Kid’s Trick Or Treat Bag?

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If you do, you can start shedding your guilt because you’re certainly not alone.

Let’s put it another way:  Is it almost a foregone conclusion that there’s Halloween candy in your future?

The candy assault on your senses is pretty hard to escape.   It’s everywhere in glowing Technicolor on shelf after shelf in big box stores, supermarkets, and drug stores.  It’s on desks, in restaurants, and even on the receptionist’s desk in my veterinarian’s office in a nice purple bowl with a dog bone painted on the side.

How Much Candy?

Halloween and the week afterward accounts for about 5% of all candy consumed for the year. The most popular types, in order, are:  chocolate, chewy candies and hard candy.

What’s In Your Kid’s Trick or Treat Bag?

If you’ve ever swiped candy from your kid’s trick or treat bag, you’re certainly not alone. According to the National Confectioners Association, 90% of parents confess they occasionally dip into their kid’s stash. I know I sure did.

Parents don’t just sample; they invade their kids’ Trick or Treat bags.  Estimates are that they eat one candy bar out of every two a child brings home.  Their favorite targets are snack-sized chocolate bars (70%), candy-coated chocolate pieces (40%), caramels (37%) and gum (26%).

In Case You Want To Pick The Least Caloric Candy . . .

Here are the calories in some popular Halloween candy – just in case you might want to minimize the caloric damage (no, that’s not a joke, candy has a big calorie and fat gram range)

  • Hershey’s Milk Chocolate: snack size .49-ounce bar; 67 calories; 4g fat
  • Snickers: Fun size; 80 calories; 4g fat
  • Tootsie Rolls: 6 midgee pieces; 140 calories; 3g fat
  •  Skittles Original Bite Size Candies: Fun size bag; 60 calories; 0.7 g fat
  • M&Ms: Fun size bag; 73 calories; 3g fat
  • Butterfinger: Fun size; 85 calories; 3.5g fat
  • Tootsie Roll Pop
: 60 calories; 0g fat
  • Starburst Original Fruit Chews: 2 pieces; 40 calories: 40; 0.8g fat
  • Brach’s Candy Corn: 20 pieces; 150 calories; 0g fat
  •  Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup:  Fun size; 80 calories, 4.5g fat
  • Peppermint Pattie:  Fun size; 47 calories; 1g fat
  •  Kit Kat:  Fun size; 73 calories; 3.7g fat