Summer is here and you know what that means - great movies! The summer is always known for its great new flicks, but with new movies comes added temptations for dieters. I mean, what's a movie without that delicious movie theater popcorn and soda pop?!

As a big fan of popcorn, smelling the buttery aroma of freshly popped movie theater popcorn without partaking in the salty treat is simply torture for me. Even as much as I love the fluffy stuff, I have to wonder if it is worth all the extra calories.

Although popcorn can be healthy when cooked at home, the healthy snack can get really unhealthy in a movie theater minute - adding up to 1,500 calories and 76 grams of fat for a large buttered popcorn. To help put things in perspective, 1500 calories is what most dieters allot for an entire day's worth of food. To take things a step further, this high-calorie snack could take approximately 10 miles to walk off, the equivalent of three hours of aerobics classes.

One cup of air-popped popcorn is only 31 calories per cup according to Calorie-Count.com so where do the extra calories come from? It would seem like all you would have to do to cut calories is leave off the butter but, surprisingly enough, a large popcorn without butter would still be around 1,100 calories because of all the oil that's used to pop it. Since a large popcorn averages 20 cups of popcorn, the other issue is simply the portion size. So what's a girl to do?

Here are a few tips to making a trip to the movies a little healthier.

1. Eat a small meal or snack before you head to the theater so you're not tempted to overindulge.
2. Drink diet soda or bottled water instead of coke, saving you over 350 calories.
3. Order a small popcorn with no butter (500 calories instead of 1,500 calories).
4. Lower your calories throughout the day to balance out the extra calories from the snacks.
5. Watch a matinee and go for a brisk walk after the movie.
6. Do your homework. Look up your favorite movie foods online for nutritional information.
7. Just say no. If you have really been working hard to lose weight you might just want to say no to the added calories and just enjoy the show.