Ask The Trainer Going to a movie? The nutritional facts about concessions

When going to a movie theater, do you consider how many calories and grams of fat are in the popcorn, nachos and candy you're about to eat? The extent to which these items are bad for your health may be worse than you think.

Let's start with the delicious movie theater popcorn. It's hard to resist, but a large bucket of popcorn (around 20 cups) has approximately 1,160 calories and 77 grams of fat, 55 of them being saturated. This is enough saturated fat for more than two days!

There is one upside to eating all of this popcorn. If you were to eat all 20 cups, you would be getting 24 grams of dietary fiber. That's all the fiber you need for a day.

The reason why movie theater popcorn is nutritionally horrible is because of the oil that is used to pop it. Most movie theaters use coconut oil, which has, by far, the most saturated fat out of all the oils.

But there are alternatives to use when popping popcorn. For example, canola oil is a great source. Some movie theaters use a mixture of canola and coconut oil, causing the popcorn to have half as much saturated fat, and therefore it's better for you.

Another common movie theater treat is nachos and cheese, which includes 20 nacho chips and the normal amount of cheese given. These nachos contain 554 calories, 29.5 grams of fat, with 9.5 grams from saturated fat. If you get extra cheese, that's an additional 105 calories.

Let's not forget about the drinks. A large soda (32 ounces) contains almost 400 calories. And what if you get a refill? That's 800 calories!

So, what should you be eating when watching a movie on the big screen? That is a tricky question, and the real answer is that you should be eating none of these items.

Because the craving is not easy to overcome, a better alternative would be to eat a small popcorn with a small drink; the best alternative would be to skip the concession snacks all together.

Some lower-calorie movie-snack items include licorice and gummy bears.

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