Want To Lose Weight? Playing Games Burns More Calories Than Sex

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Let's say you're one of those men who believe they don't get enough of it (that's like, all of us, in reality), or you're on the young side and you've never had it. Well, don't despair; it sure as hell won't make you lose weight. You'd be better off playing your video games, anyway!

This absolutely must fall under our ever-growing category of "WTF stories." Ripten stumbled across something hilarious in the September issue of Oxygen, a women's fitness magazine: it says that "playing videogames burns 50% more calories in a hour than 'athletic' sex." And no, they're not talking about Dance Dance Revolution or Wii Fit; no, they're talking about regular ol', sit there and push the buttons with your fingers games. The feature is, "100 Ways to Burn 100 Calories" and it's right there at #71- "play some vids." They even add in a lovely little stereotypical jab by telling the girls to "go to their boyfriend's" to play their PS3 because, of course, no girl would ever own such a piece of equipment. But getting back to the point, the article claims the British Medical Journal says 40 minutes of game time will drain 100 calories, and Wii gamers - due to the motion sensing remote - use up 40% more calories than that. Do the math, and that comes out to around 200 calories per hour...and "get your freak on" (yeah, that'd be sex) comes in at #81 at 100 calories/hour.

Other 100-calorie-burning activities apparently include laughing like a lunatic for 20-30 minutes straight, drinking a gallon of water (we're assuming that's not in one sitting), playing frisbee for 30 minutes (actually logical), gardening for 15 minutes (yeah, we can see that), and our personal favorite, driving for 45 minutes. Oh yes, truck drivers are in phenomenal shape. But seriously...gaming burning more calories than "athletic" sex? Look, we're not going to say we're the authority on this subject, but all we gots to say is this: if that's the case, you're doing it wrong.

7/14/2008 Ben Dutka

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