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How Long It Takes to Burn Off the Calories in Your Favorite Junk Food

This article is written by a student writer from the Spoon University at JWU Providence chapter.

I’m definitely not trying to be dramatic or scare anybody out of eating their favorite snacks, but I want to paint a picture in your brain of how much energy it actually takes to burn off all the calories from your favorite indulgences.

Oreos

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Photo by Kelly Logan

Oh dear sweet Oreos, how we love you so. But why must a mere 4 of you give me 213 calories? The love is clearly not mutual. Who even eats just 4 Oreos? ANTS? I am not an ant. I usually find myself two rows in before I decide I need to stop.

To burn off the 213 calories from four Oreos, you can go jogging on a treadmill for 23 minutes. And we all know treadmill minutes are the longest minutes.

Nacho Cheese Doritos

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Gif courtesy of giphy.com

Cheesy, spicy, crunchy, and crispy – you couldn’t ask for more wonderful-ness packed into one little orange triangle chip. This is another snack that is impossible to eat just one of. That’s why they blessed us with personal sized bags or what I like to call “portion control.”

However these personal sized bags contain 262 calories. To get rid of this 262 calories you can spend 1 hour and 13 minutes walking through your neighborhood – hey maybe you’ll get to pet some neighborhood dogs! I don’t know about you but these are nach-o for me.

Ben & Jerry’s Half Baked Ice Cream

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Photo by Mairin Daubert

Ben & Jerry’s Half Baked ice cream is a personal fave. Filled with chocolate and vanilla ice cream, brownies, and cookie dough, it is absolutely to die for (even more so if you add some microwaved peanut butter)! It is even ranked #4 of their most popular flavors. It does not disappoint.

Just one cup of this ice cream is 540 calories, and that will have you on the cycling machine for 1 hour and 22 minutes. Go ahead. Try it. Your legs won’t hurt, I promise … not.

Kraft Easy Mac and Cheese

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Photo courtesy of amazon.com

We’ve all seen it. We’ve all found ourselves accidentally drooling over it. Delicious and convenient. But the 3.5 minutes it takes to microwave can’t go by fast enough. Some good old cheesy, warm comfort food. Dare I say microwavable Mac and Cheese may even be better than sliced bread.

One of these little bowls contains 220 calories. To burn this, you can do 18 minutes of swimming laps in a pool. Not just hanging out or fooling around in a pool though. Hard, fast swimming!

Pepsi

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Photo courtesy of productsketching.com

For all those addicted to Pepsi’s fizzy bubbly goodness… just ONE bottle of this soda is  250 calories. Wanna burn that off? Go do 400 sit-ups. Yes, that’s right I said it, FOUR HUNDRED sit-ups.

Chicken Ramen Noodles

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Photo courtesy of seriouseats.com

Ramen is famous for being the perfect dinner for a college kid on a budget. Fills your belly up, tastes good, and CHEAP. We really can’t expect much more then that. So for that, thank you Ramen!

-Sincerely, Broke college kid NOT going hungry

These bags of Ramen are 376 calories. That can have you hopping back on that dreaded treadmill for 43 minutes. Fun! And let’s not even talk about the entire day’s worth of sodium that comes in that little seasoning packet.

Snickers

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Photo courtesy of sqspcdn.com

You’re not you when you’re hungry. Feeling crabby? Eat a Snickers; it really does help. Pretty sure that means these candy bars kind of have medicinal qualities, but don’t tell your doctor I said that.

These chocolate bars are 250 calories. You burn about 1 calorie per push-up, so that’s an easy 250 push-ups to burn up all those calories.

Popcorn

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Photo by Meredith Marcus

Fun, light, airy, buttery and salty snack that is beloved popcorn. You’ve got to eat the whole bag. Sorry, while you are busy watching a lame movie, I will be shoveling popcorn by the handfuls into my mouth. But do not limit popcorn to just movie time, it can be eaten at all hours of the day, while doing any activity.

Unfortunately popcorn is 425 calories per bag. To shed this popcorn indulgence, you can do 45 minutes of burpees. I don’t think any human could stand 45 minutes of that brutal torture though.

McDonald’s French Fries

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Gif courtesy of whicdn.com

There is a distinct smell in the air when you get close enough to the golden arches, this is a deliciously fried scent that fills the air and makes your taste buds tingle. You know how bad these fries are for you, but that does not stop you (and you’re not alone). It is kind of gross they didn’t even rot when sitting out for two years.

On top of that, a medium fry can contain 340 calories. Want to ditch those calories?Then you’ll find yourself on a cycling machine for 52 minutes. Warning: Your legs may fall off.

Totino’s Pizza Rolls

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Photo courtesy of gianteagle.com

Where is the heart-eyed emoji? Because these are so freaking good! Hot, crispy, cheesy, saucy, and another personal fav (pizza rolls have my heart). Watch out before they steal yours, too. Plus they are perfect for sharing (I’m just saying that to be nice, you will never actually want to share them).

But just 8 pizza rolls is 267 calories. To get rid of that, you can do 20 minutes of straight squats. That will for sure lead to sore glutes the following day. Enjoy.

Charli Spiegel

JWU Providence '19