Diet busting movie theater food

Like to snack at the movies? That tub of popcorn and large soda can amount to almost a full day's calories, two days' worth of fat and a cup of sugars.

We tested the largest sizes available of popcorn (with and without butter-flavored sauce), cheese nachos, pretzel pieces with cheese, and Coke or Pepsi at three of the nation's biggest movie-theater chains: AMC, National Amusements, and Regal.

Here are some of our findings, including some nutrition nightmares for the largest possible sizes of some classic movie theater snacks.

Now compare those scary nutrition facts to the recommended daily amounts for the following:

• Calories: 2,000
  
• Fat: 65 grams
  
• Sodium: Less than 2,300 milligrams
  
• Sugars: There's no recommended amount, but the American Hearth Association suggests a limit of about 6 teaspoons daily for women and 9 for men.

So it turns out that a large tub of buttered popcorn and a large Coke can supply all the calories you need to eat in a day.

For our snack-by-snack summary and other helpful tips for how best to resist a snack attack at the movies see our full report Movie-theater food: A scary story, as well as our video below.

—Maggie Shader