Burn It Off: How Much Cycling to Undo a Soft Pretzel?
By: Nicole Nichols,
SparkPeople Blogger
8/28/2009 6:30 AM
: 75 comments
: 15,611 Views
I'm happy to announce that the Burn It Off series is back by popular demand!
Have you been to your county or state fair this summer? How about a baseball game or even the movie theater? These spots are notorious for their oversized (and overpriced) food, and when you're trying to eat healthy or watch your calories, it's hard to know what to pick without totally blowing your diet. After all, there are no nutrition labels—let alone healthy food choices—in sight! Your willpower is strong and you bypass the sweet smelling cotton candy, deep-fried Twinkies, hot dogs and nachos and decide on a soft pretzel to hold you over until you can get home. It has to be one of the better choices, right?
How much damage could one soft pretzel really do? Find out how many minutes of biking it takes to undo that oversized pretzel.
According to SparkPeople's Nutrition Tracker one large soft pretzel, like you'd get at the fair or the movies, contains 483 calories (who knew?) and 4.4 grams of fat (not bad compared to a lot of the fried fair foods). And that's the plain one without any toppings, dipping sauces or cheese! It also boasts nearly a day's worth of sodium at 2,008 grams of sodium. Surprisingly, a soft pretzel is not among the lowest-calorie options at the fair (click here to see a calorie breakdown of common fair foods, courtesy of FitSugar.com.), ballpark or theater.
According to SparkPeople.com's Fitness Tracker, a 150-pound woman bikes at a 10 mph pace will burn 6 calories per minute. To burn off the pretzel, you'd have to bike at this moderate pace for 81 minutes, which is just over 13 miles!
When you think of food "extras" in this light, it can make it easier to stick with your healthy eating plan. Maybe next time, you'll pack your own healthy snack or eat before your event of choice so that these foods won't tempt you.
Personally, I have to admit that when I'm in these sorts of places, I usually choose a soft pretzel, thinking it's a lesser evil compared to the other options, but now I'll think twice!
How about you?
Are there any ballpark, theater or carnival treats that are worth the calories to you?
Have you been to your county or state fair this summer? How about a baseball game or even the movie theater? These spots are notorious for their oversized (and overpriced) food, and when you're trying to eat healthy or watch your calories, it's hard to know what to pick without totally blowing your diet. After all, there are no nutrition labels—let alone healthy food choices—in sight! Your willpower is strong and you bypass the sweet smelling cotton candy, deep-fried Twinkies, hot dogs and nachos and decide on a soft pretzel to hold you over until you can get home. It has to be one of the better choices, right?
How much damage could one soft pretzel really do? Find out how many minutes of biking it takes to undo that oversized pretzel.
According to SparkPeople's Nutrition Tracker one large soft pretzel, like you'd get at the fair or the movies, contains 483 calories (who knew?) and 4.4 grams of fat (not bad compared to a lot of the fried fair foods). And that's the plain one without any toppings, dipping sauces or cheese! It also boasts nearly a day's worth of sodium at 2,008 grams of sodium. Surprisingly, a soft pretzel is not among the lowest-calorie options at the fair (click here to see a calorie breakdown of common fair foods, courtesy of FitSugar.com.), ballpark or theater.
According to SparkPeople.com's Fitness Tracker, a 150-pound woman bikes at a 10 mph pace will burn 6 calories per minute. To burn off the pretzel, you'd have to bike at this moderate pace for 81 minutes, which is just over 13 miles!
When you think of food "extras" in this light, it can make it easier to stick with your healthy eating plan. Maybe next time, you'll pack your own healthy snack or eat before your event of choice so that these foods won't tempt you.
Personally, I have to admit that when I'm in these sorts of places, I usually choose a soft pretzel, thinking it's a lesser evil compared to the other options, but now I'll think twice!
How about you?
Are there any ballpark, theater or carnival treats that are worth the calories to you?
 You will earn 3 SparkPoints |
Comments
I love them and I'll gladly substitute that for a slice of bread with a meal. :) They are great with Peanut Butter for a sandwich substitute,too. Just dip the pretzel for a different sort of meal. :) - 6/5/2010 11:29:38 PM
they are so good! good thing i rarely eat them - 6/1/2010 9:54:17 PM
Mmm. Pretzel. - 11/30/2009 11:03:38 PM
SUZYQS1 - I believe I read something about mercury and HFCS at naturalnews.com.
I saw Andrew Zimern's (Bizarre Foods) MN show at the State Fair, and I know he shows only the bizarre, but it was gross! EVERYTHING was fried and/or on a stick?! lol
link> http://bizarre-blog.t
ravelchannel.com/read/bizarre-foods
-in-minnesota /link > - 9/2/2009 1:26:01 AM
I don't like most sweets, or most fried foods. (Yeah...go figure. I should be skinny.)
Someone brought up movie food. I always pack my own snack for a movie. I'm a real sneak. I'll pack a whole meal if I think I can get away with it. I'll take a 1/2 of a veggie sub from Subway, some nuts, and a Metromint water. I have a handy-dandy freezer bag that looks like a purse.
*sneaky sneaky* Movie theaters need to wise-up and start offering healthy options. - 8/31/2009 9:40:46 PM
And every time I come home to plug it in to my nutrition tracker and all the websites out there have such a wide range of "calories" and nutrition values on the large pretzels. I keep checking the Wetzels pretzels website but they still haven't added it (says "coming soon" - but its been a few months now) - 8/31/2009 12:41:54 PM
This way it 1) saves on money (as a homeschooling mother of 4, we have limited income) and 2) saves on calories 3) gives everyone that taste but they know we'll be home soon to eat a healthy lunch.
I also always pack healthy snacks to eat half way through the playtime - so when we do go get the pretzels, they aren't all starving and they are satisfied with only getting a half of one.
BTW, my children are 1, 4, 11 and my oldest will be 14 in 2 weeks. - 8/31/2009 12:36:12 PM
I'm going to my first ball game next week, and from reading the FitSugar article it looks like I'd better pack my own munchies. Yikes! - 8/30/2009 10:03:59 PM
Oh- and if you do't bike often, 13 miles is a hefty workout!
Although I have to agree with the poster who mentioned that FitSugar's calorie counts seem way off- I'm not sure where they get their info, but I don't think I'd rely on it.
FitSugar re: cheese pizza= 192 cals; SparkPeople re: same= 380 cals
FitSugar re: corn dog= 210 cals
SparkPeople re: same= 720 cals!
(the pretzel is the same on both) - 8/29/2009 10:10:17 PM
I hate exercise so I try to stick to cals instead of eating treats and try to burn them. It's a copout anyway to exercise to burn. We exercise to get fit.
Claudia - 8/29/2009 5:15:16 AM
But those candy apple statisitics are better than I would have guessed. I'll do them next time. - 8/28/2009 8:05:48 PM
But I wanted to comment because I had a friend last semester who was trying to lose weight too. We ate lunch together and our eating habits were so different! She would eat the soft pretzels from the cafeteria and would claim they were not so bad because they were low in fat and were mostly carbs.
I on the other hand ate nuts often with my lunch and didn't mind as long as I counted them in my calories for the day because I knew my nuts had lots of fat, but the healthy kind.
I always wondered how many calories her soft pretzels had and always wanted to argue the low fat is not low calories...but never did. Wish I could give this article to her but I never see her anymore.... - 8/28/2009 2:46:38 PM
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