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Video Game Playing Increases Food Intake In Teens
An anonymous reader writes "There have been plenty of anecdotal associations between gaming and obesity. Now Canadian and Danish researchers have tested the hypothesis that video game playing leads to increased spontaneous food intake; a true test of causation vs. correlation. Their conclusion? 'A single session of video game play in healthy male adolescents is associated with an increased food intake, regardless of appetite sensations (abstract).'"
is that when I was young I didn't eat anything and had my parents yelling at me to eat something while playing.
Homer entering "The Vast Waistband", a clothing store.
Homer: I'm looking for something loose and billowy, something
comfortable for my first day of work.
Salesman: Work, huh? Let me guess. Computer programmer, computer
magazine columnist, something with computers?
Homer: Well, I use a computer.
Salesman: [quietly, to self] Yeah, what's the connection? Must be the
non-stop sitting and snacking.
[more audibly] Well, sir, many of our clients find pants
confining, so we offer a range of alternatives for the ample
gentleman: ponchos, muumuus, capes, jumpsuits, unisheets,
muslim body rolls, academic and judicial robes --
Homer: I don't want to look like a weirdo. I'll just go with a
muumuu.
We've been conditioned by video games to run around avoiding ghosts, listening to techno, eating large quantities of fruit. :V
If they need some comfort food -- aka, they just got dominated by me in the game -- they should be taking something healthy. My semen, for example.
I'm not sure how exactly this experiment was set up, but I'm sure they've mistaken "video gaming" for video gaming. In the latter case, people starve (the handful of obsessive Asian MMORPG player deaths, anyone?)
Welp, that proves it! They may have carefully collated data taken under controlled conditions with statistically significant results, but here we have the testimony of an anonymous coward on an internet forum. Please, AC, leave your address below so they can mail you the Nobel.
It happens at amusement parks, during sporting events, etc. It may not be universal across all forms of entertainment, but it is across many. Sports bars are a more egregious contributor to obesity than computer gaming is ever likely to be.
Oh, was that my outside voice?
Play Civ 4 or 5, and you'll FUCKING FORGET TO EAT!
This just in, people without hobbies (as I write this on slashdot at 3am...) consume food in their idle time, particularly while on the couch. DNRTFA but I'm going to take a stab at this and say the study was conducted using console games.
I'll close this with the fact that most dining tables these days are better known as "coffee tables".
moox. for a new generation.
Burger Time or Food Fight? Might explain why they were always hungry!
Visit the Arcade Restoration Workshop @ http://www.arcaderestoration.com
As a gamer for many years I can amount it to that. People eat when they're stressed out and video games that you get frustrated with or are very competitive cause stress. They make you want to eat... a lot.
That's not a scientific study. It's an excuse for one. WHY the fuck are you defending it? Most doctors won't even bother looking further than that before telling you it can't be related to the general population.
I too have anecdotal evidence. Mine suggests that your intake can increase or decrease and because you are distracted and aren't paying as much attention you're not going to make the best choices. I've over-eaten while gaming when I was a teenager. I've also forgotten to eat all day until dinner time. One infamous session of Bard's Tale back in the early 90s lasted over 20 hours as my friend and I pushed on to finish the game. At dinner time we realised we hadn't eaten and made a pizza (which almost burnt because we were distracted). But on the whole more often than not I've overeaten sitting at a computer.
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
If I was forced to play FIFA 09 I would be so bored I would eat just to relieve my sense of boredom.
It's like saying there is a higher consumption rate of Doritos and Mountain Dew amongst D&D players.
Headshot.
1.
Energy expenditure was 21 kcal/h higher during video game play than during the resting condition.
The fact that there's an increase was expected, in the real world though, kids are rarely "resting". The comparison should be between playing video games and playing basketball, or any other activity young adults may be doing while the stereotypical obese video game player would be playing a video game.
However, subjects ate 80 more kilocalories after playing the video games than they did after the control period.
So 59 over what they needed, but would a subject playing basketball eat 60 over what they needed?
2. Another problem I have with this is that this study would only support that, under these specific habits, subjects will get fat. Are these habits natural though? Since they were imposed by the experiment, they may not be representative. The most addicting games I played made me eat less during the day than in days where I haven't played since the reward of playing overwhelmed the potential reward of satisfying my need for food. The hunger can come and go as the body enters in a catabolic state to get the resources it needs to keep going and this resulted in many chunks of 6 hours without eating, only to eat something fast to get back into playing.
This is anecdotal evidence but I believe this is the norm when talking about highly addictive games if conditions aren't imposed artificially by the experiment (or the parents). I don't think the study supports that choice with hard data.
It's still an important piece of data though.
It must truly depend on the game. In FIFA 09 you can surely go for a sandwich before issuing that free-kick? Or get some chips in half-time? In other games this often isn't the case. After playing some World of Warcraft one could be starving, yet go on for another hour easily.
What do you think the brain runs on while you've ramped it up for gaming? Blood sugar will drop and you will get hungry.
"If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
Ikari Warriors for eight hours straight? Did I read that right?
I had that game as rental when I first got Nintendo, I'm talking the first day I got my Nintendo (I got it long after - in kid time measurement - other kids). I probably played it for MAYBE 45 mins for giving up - I'm a person that never could overcome "Nintendo Hard". But, even then I was more of an RPG (e.g. Ultima III, Dragon Warrior, arguably Simon's Quest) or a strategy (The Ancient Art of War, Populous) game.
Atlas Shrugged : Thematic Story
And now do the same study but have them watch a movie and you'll probably get similar results. Munching while doing a sedentary activity is pretty common.
~Syberz
Maybe there is a mental link from what your mind is experiencing to the energy it supposes you are consuming. If you are playing FPS games and performing high-energy maneuvers, perhaps your mind gives you the urge to feed to replenish the supposed loss of calories. Action gaming does increase your adrenaline, perhaps it does the same to your metabolism and "need to feed".