Calories

A half hour is all you need to maintain proper weight, get your blood flowing and improve health, according to the Society for Vascular Surgery, which forwarded us a list of calories burned by various winter sports from Livestrong.com. In one hour, a 155-160 pound person can burn: +511 calories cross country skiing +365 calories downhill skiing +563 calories playing ice hockey +511 calories ice skating +400 calories shoveling snow by hand There hasn't been any snow here so far this winter, so how about burning : +281 calories bicycling +329 calories carrying golf clubs +211 calories walking the dog “Welcome 2012 as your year to become physically fit and keep your vascular system healthy,” said Dr. Anil Hingorani, a member of the Society for Vascular Surgery.

New Year's Eve is behind us. For many, the resolution dieting has begun. But some of us aren't ready to give up on the celebrating and don't consider how many calories alcohol packs. A 1.5-ounce serving of 80-proof alcohol has 96 calories alone, no mixers. This WebMD article advises to avoid dessert drinks in disguise with lots of mixers and lots of heavy beers and drink water in between. RA Shushi in Harbor East has also come up with some cocktails that are under 200 calories each.

In an effort focused on grabbing headlines, County Executive Ken Ulman recently called for a 30-day boycott of soft drinks, completely missing an opportunity to educate and talk to the public about real solutions for addressing obesity. Now more than ever the commitment of Maryland's beverage industry to do our part is shining through. Our member companies are cutting the calories available from beverages in the marketplace. In fact, the total amount of beverage calories available in the marketplace decreased by 21 percent from 1998 to 2008.

By the time Berend Weijs was done last March with a frustrating junior season at Maryland, he knew something had to change before he took the court this season for new coach Mark Turgeon. At 6 feet 10 and 200 pounds last season, Weijs was the kind of skinny dude that gets knocked around and beat up in the Atlantic Coast Conference. He simply didn't have the girth to hang in the low post. He spent the offseason getting cozy with a few of his favorite fatty, high-calorie munchies — and still managed to put on just 10 pounds of muscle.

When New York City passed legislation requiring restaurants to post calories next to menu items, it took a step toward obesity reduction that Baltimore and the rest of the nation should follow. We have seen the obesity epidemic grow to epic proportions over the last three decades. Skinny people are becoming an increasingly slim minority; more than one-third of Baltimore adults are medically obese, and another third are overweight. We pour millions of dollars into the health care system to treat obesity-related disease, and all the advances we have made researching drugs to lower the risk of heart attacks, strokes and diabetes are counteracted by the deleterious impact of obesity.

— First Lady Michelle Obama applauded the parent company of Olive Garden and Red Lobster Thursday for pledging to cut calories and sodium at its restaurants over the next 10 years. Speaking at the Olive Garden, a restaurant known for its all-you-can eat pastas and breadsticks, Obama called the move by Darden Restaurants, the world's largest full-service restaurant company, an industry "breakthrough" and a key step in her campaign against childhood obesity. "What's good for kids and families can also be good for business," she said.

I am glad for the work of Danielle Nierenberg and Amanda Strickler and their Nourishing the Planet project ("Shortening the food chain," Aug. 23). However, there was no mention in their recent opinion piece of the fact that there is already 3,600 calories per person per day available in the U.S., twice what is needed. Good food does not satisfy, although it fills you up. I recommend two cups of water four times a day which amounts to zero calories. Then have one pound of true vegetables such as carrots, cabbage, broccoli, lettuce or celery.

Marylanders love their crabs — especially when the meat is picked and mixed with cream, cheese, mayo and Old Bay. And while crabs are generally not an unhealthy choice right out of the shell, one serving of a crab dish can pack a third or more of the total recommended daily intake of fat, sodium and calories once the meat is drowned in fatty oils and salt. Area waters in which they are harvested can also mean pollutants. As with any treat, nutritionists say, moderation is key. And when consumers do indulge, an obvious choice is the broiled crab cake that isn't doused in tartar sauce or other goopy toppings.

When Lynn Patterson resolved to lose weight early this year, she took a hormone normally associated with pregnancy, not dieting. The 53-year-old Catonsville nurse went on the hCG diet, named for human chorionic gonadotropin, a hormone that is produced naturally in pregnant women and often used in fertility treatments to trigger ovulation. Promoters of the diet say hCG suppresses the appetite, making it easy to stick to a diet of just 500 calories a day. They also say it helps the body burn fat while retaining muscle.

You shouldn't. No one should. But sometimes you just have to eat like there's no tomorrow, or no swimsuit season or no known connection between caloric intake and vascular health. For those times, there are plate-busters, otherwise known as gut-busters, last meals and "this is your future in elastic waistbands. " These are dishes of memory and the ones that become calling-cards for restaurants. The food we're talking about is intentionally loaded with calories in their most notorious forms — red meat and white flour, coated, smothered and deep fried.