Video games can help get kids exercise
11:33 a.m. Thursday, March 8, 2007
They're blamed for helping make children fat, but researchers have found that a new breed of video games helps kids get more exercise.
Some of the physical education classes in West Virginia are adopting video games as part of the physical education curriculum.
Now research shows that this fast foot action of games like Dance Dance Revolution may fight obesity.
Writing in the journal Pediatrics, obesity researcher Lorraine Lanningham-Foster found that some video games help burn calories.
"You actually move your legs to, to use the controller, which is a dance pad, instead of having a handheld controller," said Lanningham-Foster.
The screen tells students at a West Virginia school go move their feet.
She had volunteers strap on a face mask to record their oxygen and carbon dioxide levels, which indirectly measure how many calories they're burning.
She found that children burned three times the amount of calories playing this dancing game compared to games with handheld controllers.
They burned even more calories at harder levels of the game.
"It feels like I just ran 10 miles," said Chase Kiefer, a study volunteer.
Lanningham-Foster compares it to biking outside, and thinks it's necessary to find new exercises for this hi-tech generation.
"Video games aren't gonna go away. I think children really enjoy playing video games," she said. "So why take away an activity that they enjoy?"
So whether a child wants to play outside or stay inside playing an active video game, at least they're off the couch.
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