Super Bowl food score

SUFFOLK, Va (WAVY) - There's something about the Super Bowl--the rivalry, the hype--that makes us want to tackle...a pizza.

Perhaps some macaroni and cheese, chips, or maybe some chicken wings.

We often don't think twice about loading up our plates, but if we take a time out to tally up the score here's what we'd find:

A small sub, handful of chips, three wings, a slice of meaty pizza and a couple of beers easily add up to more than 1,500 calories.

"1,500 calories could be a entire days worth for most of us," says Shannan Gormley, a dietician and fitness trainer at the YMCA in Suffolk.

She translate to football language: "They'd have to walk the length of 375 football fields for that one Super Bowl meal" -- that's more than 21 miles.

Of course, running burns calories faster.

"So if we had a person who was going to return a punt and they were going to sprint as fast as they could down the field, the good news is they'd burn more calories, probably 10 to 20 depending on their body size," says Gormley.

So, one sprint takes care of a couple chips. Add a creamy dip to a chip and she says you're adding about 45 calories.

"So 45 calories would be 15 minutes of strength training."

Gromley, however, won't tell you to skip the dip. Instead, she suggest starting your party early with a game of touch football.

"You could burn as many as 500 to 700 calories in an hour, if you stay active for the whole hour."

Afterall, even Gromley splurges for the Super Bowl. It's just one day, and she says that's OK, as long as you don't go into over time.