Cut calories — or do the wave 3,200 times

Super Bowl Sunday is supposed to be the second-biggest day for food consumption, next to Thanksgiving.

According to statistics from Southern Living magazine, more than 30 million pounds of snacks are consumed during the Super Bowl. I'm not sure if there's any real, hard data comparing this amount of food to Thanksgiving or other eating events, but I don't doubt that TV-watchers tend to consume a lot during the Super Bowl, and probably more of it is heavy, hearty fare.

A press release from Charles Stuart Platkin, author of "The Diet Detective's Count Down" (Simon & Schuster, 2007, $13), does some depressing math on how hard it's going to be to burn off the extra calories. (Leave it to the nutrition police to take the fun out of everything!)

Granted, you're not going to actually do all these suggested activities to mitigate the damage, and you probably won't want to serve only low-fat salads at your Super Bowl party. But you could try some of the calorie-cutting tips, or mitigate the damage by getting everyone outside to throw the football before or after the game.

Here are some of Platkin's calculations:

Two pieces of fried chicken = doing "the wave" 3,200 times. (Settle for one piece of baked chicken instead.)

Two slices of stuffed pizza with the works = 197 minutes of cleaning the stadium after the game. Two slices of Pizza Hut's Large Stuffed Crust Pizza is more than 800 calories. (Go for a thin-crust veggie pizza instead.)

A handful of tortilla chips = 43 touchdown dances in the end zone. (Eat your chips one at a time instead of by the handful. Set the bowls far away from your seat, so you have to get up each time you want more.)

Five pretzels = 15 minutes looking for your car after the game. Five regular pretzels are 60 calories. There's little fat; little nutrition, too.

Four beers = 64 minutes of climbing stadium stairs. A 12-ounce beer is 150 calories. (Drink ice water or club soda.)

A 6-inch sub = 138 minutes performing in a marching band. A sandwich loaded with salami, pepperoni, ham, lettuce, tomato and mayonnaise is about 650 calories. (Go for low-fat cheese and omit the mayo.)

Five Buffalo chicken wings = 102 minutes of refereeing the game. Just five fried wings with three tablespoons of blue cheese dressing racks up 599 calories. (Bake the wings instead of frying, or forgo the dressing.)

Half-order of baby back ribs = 73 minutes of cheerleading. (Trim off the fat before cooking.)

Six "loaded" nachos = 97 minutes of being the team mascot. Topped with cheese, beans and ground beef, you're up to 569 calories. Add sour cream and guacamole for another 150 calories. (Use nutrition-rich, fat-free salsa instead.)

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