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Saturday, April 30, 2011

How many calories in 16 Big Macs?

Schwalger's diet with a difference

There are some subjects that don't really belong on a blog about the written word, but hey, I read it in the Dominion Post while doing the crossword.

The crossword happens to be at the back of the paper, at the bottom of the last page in the sports section.

The rugby story, written by Mark Geenty, stemmed from an interview with a local rugby star, originally because that star is heading off to France.  It went on to talk about what foods said star would miss in the land of snails and frogs' legs.

Because, it revealed, this rugby star has been known to eat 16 Big Mac meals in one sitting, though apparently he limited himself to just two cokes.  At other times he contents himself with two buckets of KFC chicken, a total of 30 pieces, complete with skin, coating, and a layer of whatever it was fried in.  He has also won a competition eating a 1 kg steak in some incredibly short time, and even had the leisure to ask for chips.

A skim through the internet tells me that one Big Mac has 480 calories in Australia, but contains 540 in the US, which has less restrictions about fat content.  So I guess the rugby star is saved a little future grief by eating the NZ version.  But that was not counting the fries that came with each meal.  So here go my calculations:

The Big Mac is 480 calories, the fries with each is 380 calories, and each coke is 210 calories.

16 Big Mac meals (though with only two cokes) equals a stunning 15,180 calories, which would take an athlete of this weight and fitness approximately 12 hours to run off.

2 buckets of KFC chicken is a diet by contrast, being just 5,400 calories, taking 4 hours to run off.

But the salt content is something else again, being 182% of the total daily requirement.

And that steak (without fries) was a mere peccadillo, being 1,400 calories, which would take 122 minutes of running, 203 minutes of aerobics, or 240 minutes working with weights to work off.

I sure hope no teenagers follow in this fellow's footsteps ...

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