Ever since playing video games became an integral part of every child and adult’s life, professionals have been debating and exploring how it affects overall health. And the conclusion was always the same. That it is extremely unhealthy both for the body and mind.
When people talk about gamers, they often think they have to be too fat with an extremely high level of cholesterol. It is because playing video games involves sitting at a computer or console, so it is generally not considered excessive physical activity. Spending calories is something most think have to include moving. So, the question arises – Does playing video games really burn calories?
For many, sitting and playing video games is solely connected to weight gain. You would be surprised that this may not be the case, as some of the studies done on this matter have proved. Of course, one thing has to be controlled, and that is the food consumption- no junk food allowed. The company that did research is involved in the gaming market and wanted to explore what kind of activity happens inside a gamer’s body when they are playing. So, they assembled a group of their clients, connected them to devices that would follow the physical activity in terms of heartbeat and sweating while playing games.
Everyone was amazed to find out that there is some serious burning of calories while playing. To be precise, the average their clients managed to burn was between 210 and 236 kcal in one hour of play. Another interesting conclusion that came out was that women burn more calories than men. So, if you are a woman who likes to spend time playing video games, but at the same time feeling guilty about not spending it doing physical exercise, this finding will surely comfort you. Ultimately, the data showed that in two hours of playing dynamic games like CS:GO, men, burn an average of 420 and women 472 kilocalories, which is roughly equivalent to the physical effort of performing about a thousand abs. So, if you like doing csgo skin gambling (tournaments are always packed with excitement which increases calorie burning), you are doing one serious workout. In fact, you can probably consider yourself as someone who has a healthy habit of going to the gym a couple of times a week.
The reason for this high-calorie burning is that playing video games affects energy production, and sometimes (real players will know) there is sweating caused by sharp concentration and excitement due to playing. This brings us to the next important point.
Which games are most likely to contribute to calorie burning?
It was mentioned earlier how dynamic games like CSGO, are the ones that contribute to the most calories burning. This means that playing games that do not involve a lot of competition and excitement do not really make you burn calories.
So, here’s a piece of useful advice to all gamers out there struggling with weight – stop playing life simulation games, or at least combine them with something more exciting. Join a team, and enter a shooting tournament, it will be like a group workout routine.
The more stress, anxiety, and sweating the game involves, the more calories you’ll burn.
To go back to the research we’ve mentioned earlier, people who conducted it said they were not surprised that calories were burned during these games, but were surprised by the amount of energy produced by the players. Just to remind you the survey was conducted on 50 players who played continuously for two hours.
For comparison, we can take walking, during which people on average also burn 210 to 360 kcal per hour. If we are going to compare with calorie intake, then we should point out that in order to burn one eaten Big Mac (257 kcal) one needs to actively play video games for a little over an hour.
But for those who would like to lose weight this way, we have to issue a warning. Excessively obsessive-compulsive gaming, weaker self-control, and prioritization of gaming over other activities can also be characterized as addictive. This form of addiction (gaming disorder) in 2019 was officially classified by the World Health Organization.
Another interesting finding…
So, no wonder gaming involves so much energy and calorie consumption. We already knew how existing it can be when you want to progress to higher levels in a certain game, but knowing it can be counted as some kind of exercise is great.
But another interesting finding came out of the research conducted in Japan, and it will come good for those who are used to playing games on their computer, using a computer mouse. Japanese wanted to know is there a calorie consumption behind clicking, and if so, how many calories can one burn with clicking. So, this scientific company from Japan managed to calculate that with one click you are spending 1,4 calories.
How did they manage to do this? The calculation came out from taking a couple of parameters, like the volume of the finger (10,8 cm3), and weight (11,7 gr). The mentioned parameters can produce 195 micromoles of ATP when the index finger muscles are being moved in order to click. How awesome and existing this sounds… If such a finding makes you laugh, here’s another fact – the average adult manages to spend between 1700 and 2000 calories daily…Maybe investing time on clicking is not such a good idea, if you need to burn some more.
To conclude…
Although highly addictive video games can have positive effects on both mental and emotional health because they can present interesting puzzles that animate the brain and stimulate its functions.
They are also great as a source of entertainment, sometimes for the whole family, and multiplayer games have proven to be a good way to maintain contact and make new friendships. Sometimes even more than friendships. However, one should be very careful when choosing the right game and should avoid excessive gaming.