Virtual Reality, a Solution For America's Obesity Problem?

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killerclick

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How about you let fatties be fat? Sure, they cost more in healthcare but they die sooner, they create revenue for businesses that sell food and they make the rest of us look better in comparison.
 

Chairman Ray

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While I agree that a high-degree of self presence in virtual worlds may lead to motivation for weight loss, attaining this high-degree of self presence requires one to invest a significant portion of time on these online activities, which is one of the leading causes of obesity in the first place.

The most obvious discredit towards this research is that in every game, the characters you play as or design are already meant to be attractive and it has never, ever curbed obesity. These characters serve to get the player to play more, rather than less. If attractive characters encouraged people to get off the computer and go outside, developers would be making ugly characters instead.
 

killerclick

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Also, lack of activity isn't the main cause of obesity. It's overeating, it's the food. The way fatties eat, they'd have to swim 6 hours a day like Michael Phelps to create a calorie deficit. And that would just make them more hungry, so it's a vicious cycle.
 

A Bad Day

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[citation][nom]killerclick[/nom]How about you let fatties be fat? Sure, they cost more in healthcare but they die sooner, they create revenue for businesses that sell food and they make the rest of us look better in comparison.[/citation]

Because sick people makes unproductive people, and unproductive people makes an unhealthy society.

See the Roman Empire as an example.

(Hint: It had no middle class. Much of the working people weren't working because slaves had occupied most of the jobs, and had to be fed and entertained so they wouldn't riot. It wasn't a problem until there were no more places worth plundering, then you had expenses exceeding revenue.)
 

joytech22

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What they SHOULD do is create a VR headset and body suit and create a game similar to GMOD (Or use GMOD). Then through this suit the user should be able to play around with spawned objects like bouncy balls and play sports through the game.

They not only would have fun in this virtual world, but they could also do some real working out (As in, they could run around) and they'd be able to have fun while doing it.

Although.. I'm not sure how it would be more fun than doing the real thing unless they are playing over the net or something.
 

killerclick

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[citation][nom]A Bad Day[/nom]Because sick people makes unproductive people[/citation]

Fatties are not unproductive, maybe they're less productive than they would be if they were slimmer, but that's their business. People have no obligation to fulfill their potential. If you want to make fat people lose weight so they would be more productive, what would you do about lazy or unambitious people?

Besides, how productive is someone who spends 8 hours a day being miserable thinking about food they can't eat?
 

southernshark

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Taxing unproductive people might be a good idea, however since the Democrats are the ones who usually go for taxes, we may rest assured that "their people" will never go for that.
 
G

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Yes I want to look like my Dragonborn in Skyrim. Need those ripped abs and shouting at everyone :p
 

the1kingbob

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This is partly true. If people were not so fat, the nation as a whole wouldn't be spending so much money on food and health related problems to being fat. They would though, be spending money on activity based consumer products. This overlooks the drastic savings to businesses that provide healthcare coverage. We already see a shift, companies realize that it is economically beneficial to pay employees to work out to get long term savings and discounts from insurance companies.

I agree with your second comment, diet is 80% of weight control. You can run for an hour on a treadmill, but it is going to help much if you eat a few donuts for breakfast. The problem is what we eat, but more importantly how much we eat.
 

memadmax

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There is also the job aspect. Alot of american jobs are now barely active, from a physical aspect. You sit behind a desk or counter all day, hardly doing anything physical.
 

f-14

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[citation][nom]lostmyclan[/nom]Iam Fat I have a died of 1500 Kcal per day. =) Still fat 110kg. I don´t walk too much. Never run. but I play some games. 6 hours per day.And Iam still fat. How much the people can eat doesnt matters. When aim im army loose about 1kg for week. Eating like a pig more than 3000 Kcal per day.Exercise make you slim. Sitting all day make you fat. Doesnt matter if your pic is fat our slim[/citation]
+1

the only times i have lost weight are when i had the flu for a week straight i lost 10#'s or when i am not sitting on my duff and busting my arse off physically

thanks to the cloud i am going to be able to sit on my duff more and not have to get out of my chair and eat more twinkies and hoho's and drink more colas and energy drinks.!

i find it very hard to exercise with day light savings time as the only time the sun is up for 6+ months of the year is during working hours just so my employer can save some money on their electric bill and stiff us with higher electric bills as we have to get up in the dark to go to work and get home in the dark leaving no time to go on walks, mow the lawn, yard work, bicycle rides play sports rather than come home turn on the lights eat dinner and sit down in front of the boobtube.
 

f-14

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it's also no surprise the author of this study is also overweight, pretty, but fat.

Elizabeth Behm-Morawitz, assistant professor of communication in MU’s College of Arts and Science
Elizabeth Behm-Morawitz, assistant professor of communication in MU’s College of Arts and Science, studied how avatars can influence a person’s health and appearance.
 

GoldenI

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Here is a solution - cut your daily caloric intake in half, and I guarantee you that the fat will literally just melt off of you. Combine that with a brisk 15 - 35 minute walk every day, and you are golden. It is not difficult to reach this goal.
 
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Your food is basically processed crap. Eat organic, eat local, eat minimally processed. Your doctors are morons and your surgeon general is an obese buffoon.
 

Zingam_Duo

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Eating less is bad for the economy. Consume more! Buy more crispies, buy more meat, buy more alchohol, buy bigger cars, buy bigger clothes, then buy products for losing weight and pay for expensive diets and gyms. And then start over again. And there is a lot more one could add to that circle of life (like watching TV while eating... etc.). Consume, consume, consume :D Produce -> consume, Produce->consume... get rich, get fat :D Ain't that the American dream??? Ain't that what Capitalism is supposed to be??? CONSUME! Less consumption -> bad economy! It is simple as that!

None of that is what life is supposed to be ;)
 
Here in the US crap food is dirt cheap. High fructose corn syrup is pervasive, its in many things you would not expect like bread, ketchup, breakfast bars, soda, fruit juice... I mention high fructose corn syrup since chemically it causes your body to store fat regardless of caloric intake(https://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S26/91/22K07/).
Of curse these crap foods are in place a fresh foods which encourage thermogenesis and are anti angiogenic which help us loose weight even in a calorie surplus(see leptin).
 

jn77

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It is funny to blame the problem on the US. I have friends outside of the US that have weight issues also. Weight issues are tied to a few key things. I office work. We all go go college, get our college educations so we can get these cushy office jobs and then don't exerise.

It is proven in Japan and China, that all the people moving into cushy office jobs are having the same problems America is.
 
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