Indulge in Halloween candy and then burn it off

There are several stories behind the meaning of Halloween. There are excuses to dress up, throw parties and use holiday language like "trick or treat" and "smell my feet." But let's be honest about the real reason for all the Halloween hype: all the good stuff to eat.

Parents take children door to door collecting chocolate, suckers, gum and goey fruit-flavored candies. People buy bags of bite-sized Snickers and fun-sized M&M packets to hand out — or to eat themselves when, shucks, not enough trick-or-treaters show up to eat the pounds of sweets.

Over time, those favorite shrunken candy bars ?— a bite here, some fun-size there — add up.

It would take you taking junior on a mile and a half walk to burn the amount of calories in one serving of mini Twix.

And who really only eats one serving?

Health experts agree there are 3,500 calories in a pound of fat. We calculated just how much candy will fit in that pound and have provided different ways to burn it off.

Packing it on

How many pieces of candy it takes to gain a pound

• 70 Twix
• 82 Snickers
• 92 Milky Ways
• 32 Reeses Cups
• 50 Boxes of Dots
• 58 Tootsie Pops
• 144 3 Muskateers
• 70 Tootsie Rolls

Taking it off

Some ways to burn 100 calories

According to government exercise guidelines that accompany the food pyramid, the average person would burn about 100 calories walking or running a mile.

The Centers of Disease Control and Prevention say the average adult needs about two and a half hours of moderate activity a week, things like brisk walking, water aerobics or pushing a lawn mower. The amount of time is less when the activity is more intense. Only an hour and 15 minutes is needed when doing vigorous activity like running, swimming or playing basketball. The report says splitting it up is fine as long as the periods last at least 10 minutes at a time.

That two and half hours or one and a quarter of exercise time can fit into your week if you space it out, and burning off the extra pounds 100 calories at a time can be more fun than you think. Here, we've listed things you can do to burn off that Halloween candy.

• Run or walk 35 miles to burn off the 3,500 calories in the pile of candy below (OK, that one is a stretch)
• A 10-minute brisk walk, three times a day, five days a week
• Walk up and down 33 flights of stairs
• Hit the stair climber for 11 minutes
• Chop wood for five minutes straight.
• Try some yoga: alternate between cat pose, cow pose, and downward dog 13 times, holding each for 30 seconds.
• Chew calorie-free gum for 9 hours
• Go 20 mph on your bike for 6 1/2 minutes
• Jump on a trampoline for 29 minutes
• Hula-hoop for 22 minutes