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RedOctane Pushes DDR For Weight Loss Market
Thanks to EWorldWire for reprinting a RedOctane press release advocating rhythm-based game Dance Dance Revolution for extreme weight loss, and using the story of Tanya Jessen, "who lost 95 lbs. playing DDR." The piece also points out: "A person weighing 150 lbs burns an average of 16 calories per song playing the latest Dance Dance Revolution game. In just one hour of playing it's possible for a person to burn around 640 calories, compared to only burning 501 calories jogging." RedOctane also has an official GetUpMove site, complete with before and after pictures, noting that "...most Dance Dance Revolution games have a Workout Mode which tracks the number of calories you burn while dancing", though RedOctane's own motivation for this diet push is to sell you their high-end DDR pads.
See PyDDR. Prebuilt for most of the popular distributions, requires some work to get it working from scratch. Hook your pad (or two) to your PC with the help of a $15 adapter and you're ready to go. Song collections can be found all over the net.
Yeah, but you don't wake up one morning after a visit from the fat fairy, 250 pounds overweight. if you get to that size, it IS your fault. you can say "oh my metabolism, my glands, my genes." my ass, shut up. if you are 400 pounds you just didn't care to do anything about it while you were at 250, 300, 350 pounds.
Solution: start walking UNTIL you can walk for more than 5 minutes, then work up to 6 minutes. eventually you'll work up your way up to 10 minutes. hooray. and so on.
funny thing about exercise, the more you need it the harder it is to do it. but movement is exercise, keep moving and you'll eventually stop being fat. get the fuck off your chair, go outside and walk around on the grass, skip the after dinner twinkie, park a few spaces farther than you need to, don't take the elevator for less than 2 floors, go to your local fitness palce and aqua-size! AQUASIZE MOTHERFUCKER AQUASIZE!!
get creative.
exercising is not easy or fun, but you can trick yourself into thinking so.
i was overweight at one point, not 400 pounds or anything cuz.. goddamn 400 pounds and holding or rising is just apathy-- but yeah i was like 200 some odd pounds when i was in middle school and that's not socially fun. i was fat and tired. but i kept moving, swimming, running, whatever. i wish i had ddr and pump it up back then to get me in the shape i am now.
-=o
I'm a 43 year old lifetime (sedentary) computer geek with the body to prove it. I founded several start-ups and let them devour my 'free' time and that included any exercise time. My family (wife and two teens) followed my bad example.
Until 4 months ago, when I bought DDR/Konamix for PS1 and a cheap plastic pad. My daughter had played before and showed me how not to return my foot to center. That was all I needed. Within a month, I had a metal pad (as the soft pad would slide under my ample frame) and was dancing an hour every night. Soon my wife (who has never danced) was along side me learning how to dance. She'll be up to the three-footers in game-mode any time now.
In the last two weeks, friends of the kids have come over three times to play on our (now all metal) DDR pads w/front-projected screen. I even dance along. [I think they get a kick that an 'old guy' can out dance them! I know I do.] They've even brought over a PS2 and the latest versions.
My son, who doesn't do anything athletic, is even playing some with his friends, even though he has the least skill at this point.
My weight loss results haven't been as pronounced as anyone here, but I'm amazed how DDR has turned an entire family of internet-addicts into people actually getting a healthy dose of exercise.