Dan's Papers - March 7, 2008 - The Y-Factor with Christian McLean

When someone told me that Kirstie Alley consumed over 8,000 calories a day, I decided to analyze exactly how someone could achieve that level of caloric consumption. This is not a "how to" for becoming overweight, but a way to find out what can put you far over your daily calorie intake.

The first thing I did was to open my freezer. Sitting on the bottom shelf was a pint of Ben & Jerry's Peanut Butter Cup ice cream. Ignoring the 24 grams of fat, I went directly to the calories per serving - 340, not bad. But a pint contains four servings. That's 1,360 calories in the pint. We can top that. Last Friday I went to the movies and had a large tub of popcorn with extra butter. God knows what the butter consists of, but on average a tub of popcorn with butter will run about 1,500 calories. Now add extra butter and I was edging toward 2,000 calories. Sadly, I finished the tub before the movie started, got a second helping, and ate 3/4 of the second tub. If I would have to guess, I'd say I consumed almost 3,200 calories in less than two hours.

Ever have one too many drinks and then down an entire Dominos pizza? Sure you have, it's called college. Well, a 12-inch pie will register about 1,800 calories. Now add that to the drinks you had beforehand and you're looking at a 2,500 calorie night on the town. Pizza doesn't sound as good as it once did? How about wings? Ruby Tuesday's frozen wings add up to 109 calories per wing. For a box of ten, that's 1,090 calories. Oh, I forgot, the blue cheese is 126 calories per ounce.

Okay, so I've just outlined some of the unhealthiest foods we consume on a regular basis. Let's add it up. If I sat down and ate a pint of ice cream, 1 3/4 buckets of popcorn with extra butter, an entire Dominos pizza with a few beers, 10 Buffalo wings and an ounce. of blue cheese, I would have consumed 8,276 calories - par for Alley's alleged daily consumption.

I can eat. I can eat more than almost anyone I know, and still, I couldn't consume that much food. Not even on my best day. In addition to sheer calories, these foods are loaded with fat, cholesterol and carbohydrates. And aside from a little vitamin C in the tomato sauce on the pizza and some calcium from the cheese, there's not much in the way of anything beneficial.

To consume this many calories while eating health foods, you would have to eat 12 pounds of salmon in one day, or 320 cups of raw broccoli, or 96 cups of blueberries. Now, I'm not telling you to do any of those things, I just wanted to illustrate the sheer amount of calories in those unhealthy items compared to those in the healthy list.

The important thing is to eat properly and in proportion. Learning your daily calorie intake is fairly simple. It is a simple formula which takes into account your gender, age, weight, height and physical activity. Visit any number of websites online to get a rough estimate of how many calories you need to maintain your weight. For a more exact number, visit an actual nutritionist. He or she can also help advise on the best way for you to lose weight, if necessary. Just be ready, because I'm pretty sure they will tell you to stay away from Buffalo wings and extra butter.

Next time you hover over a pint of ice cream, think about Kirstie Alley. Sure, she's slimmed down and scored a TV show and a Jenny Craig spokesperson deal, but do you really think that eating Ben & Jerry's is going to get you a sitcom?