As Halloween approaches, you will begin to notice sugary treats around every corner. I am sure you have taken notice of the massive displays of candy scattered throughout the grocery store and the communal bowl of treats at your place of employment. Unfortunately for sugar and candy addicts, October can be a difficult month. It is hard to avoid temptation when it is literally, everywhere you turn!
One of the biggest culprits to tanking your diet or healthy eating plan around Halloween is the misconceptions surrounding fun-sized candy bars. Many people purchase individually wrapped fun sized candies to distribute to trick-or-treaters on Halloween while others, buy them as a means to portion out their candy. The problem is, how many people stop at just one bite-sized candy?
If you are someone that has difficulty limiting yourself to just one treat, it may help to educate yourself on the exact calorie count and type of exercise that would be required to burn off the calories from eating one, two or three candies.
Fun Size Kit Kat
If you are wondering about the nutritional information and calories in a fun-size kit kat bar, it is 70 calories, 3.6g fat, sat fat and 7g of sugar.
Exercise to Burn 70 Calories: 23 Minutes of Strength Training
Miniature Kit Kat
If you opt for the miniature sized kit kat instead of the fun sized, you will be eating 42 calories, 2.4g fat, 1.6g sat fat and 4.0g of sugar.
Exercise to Burn 40+ Calories: Walk up stairs for 5 minutes
Fun Size Snickers
The nutrition facts for a fun size snickers bar is 80 calories, 4.0g fat, 2.0g sat fat and 8g of sugar.
Exercise to Burn 80 Calories: About 26 Minutes of Walking
Miniature Snickers
These smaller, bite sized snickers have 43 calories, 1.6g fat, 0.75g sat fat and 4.5g of sugar. These candies seem pretty harmless, but the question here is, can you eat just one?
Exercise to Burn 40+ Calories: Five minutes of Jumping Rope will help you burn about 49 calories. This seems simple enough but if you eat 4 mini snickers (a full serving size), that 5 minutes will become 20!
Miniature Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup
Wondering about the number of calories in a mini reese cup? This one bite of peanut-buttery goodness will cost you 44 calories, 2.6g fat, 1g sat fat and 4.6g of sugar.
Exercise to Burn 40+ Calories: About 3 and half minutes of jogging. Eating a mini Reese’s seems like nothing but remember, that is if you stop yourself after having just one peanut butter cup. If you eat a full serving, which is 5 Reese’s cups, your 3.5 minutes will turn into 17!
Fun Size M&M’s
The number of calories in a fun size bag of M&M is much less than a regular bag. There are 73 calories, 3.3g fat, 2g sat fat and 9.3g of sugar. This is a bit higher than some of the other bite-sized candies, but you are getting more to munch on with these miniature bags.
Exercise to Burn 70+ Calories: About 12 Minutes of Cycling or Rowing
Fun Size Twix
This fun sized vanilla cookie covered in caramel and topped with milk chocolate has 80 calories, 4g fat, 2g sat fat and 8g of sugar.
Exercise to Burn 80 Calories: Not in the mood for the gym? A 12- minute impromptu dance party will do the trick so be sure to crank up those tunes and get moving!
Twizzlers
If you can limit yourself to one individually wrapped Twizzler, you are looking at consuming 40 calories, 0.125g fat, 0g sat fat and 4.75g of sugar. These stats look better than some of the other candies but will eating just one of the Twizzlers from the bag satisfy your candy craving?
Exercise to Burn 40 Calories: 5 Minutes of Cycling at 12-14 mph
As you can see, eating just one of these candies won’t tank your diet. However, if you have trouble stopping at just one, these candies can pose a threat and be counterproductive to your healthy eating plans. If this sounds like you, it may be best to try and avoid them at all costs.
If wondering about which of these are the healthiest halloween candy, the answer is that there is no such thing! Sure, some of these candies may have fewer calories or grams of fat but if you are choosing to indulge, why not just pick the candy you like most? If you are helping yourself to a treat, you might as well do just that and treat yourself to something you love!
Another thing to note here is that when you indulge, do yourself a favor and don’t agonize over your decision. Enjoy your treat and move on with your day. Just try and stick to the rule of eating just one candy. Don’t fall for the trick behind bite-sized treats and convince yourself that because it’s bite size, you can eat multiple items. If you do that, then you may run into a bit of trouble so stay disciplined and have a Happy Halloween!
If you need help staying on track with your healthy eating or exercise plans throughout the holiday season,
The Redwood Club is here to help!
We offer a variety of exciting exercise classes and our talented fitness trainers are here to help you stay focused on task.
For more information,
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