Lose Weight in the Dancing Revolution

I've had DDR Hottest Party 2 in the box since Christmas. I am a terrible dancer and have horrendous rythem. I've played some version of Dance Dance Revolution a few times before for a song or two and the results were what you would have expected: Boos from the croud. But since it was bad weather outside, and I didn't want to go to the gym and do anything too heavy because of my back, I decided it was finally time to break this out. I am as bad as I remember.

Is It Fun?
I played for over an hour and was entertained and simotaneously frustrated to the max throughout. There are 4 levels of difficulity: beginner, basic, difficult, and expert. I started on beginner and scored a few C's and D's, then switched to basic where D's were the norm but I worked to a C on most songs after a few tries. The harder the difficulity the faster and more complex the steps are. I think these types of games are much more fun when playing with others, but even though I was playing alone, I enjoyed it the entire time.

Is It Exercise?
I averaged 3.4 METs playing on the easy side of the difficulity settings. For me, that means buring 272 calories an hour versus the 80 I would burn sitting playing solitare for an hour. I haven't gone for a walk in my GoWear yet(I will update this when I do), but the ExerciseCalculator in BodyMedia's Activity Manager rates walking at 3 mph at 3.3 METs. Based on that, Playing DDR on basic difficulity is slightly better for weight loss than a 3 mph walk, and in my opinion, lots more entertaining and probably doubly so when done with a friend or your kids!

And that is just on basic difficulity. Get better and increase the difficulity and the calorie burn will go up. I accidently started one song on the expert mode, and the arrows(step indicators) were flying up the screen faster than I could reckognize them. Keep up with that and it would not surprise me if you were well over 5 METs.

Does the Research Agree?
University of Wisconsin, La Crosse, conducted a study using DDR Extreme 2 on the PS2 using participants that were proficient or at least praticed the game. For the Adults, aged 20-25, they reported the following results:

	Cals/hour		Heart Rate(bpm)		VO2(ml/kg/min)
	Mean	SD	Mean	SD	Mean	SD
Light	372	±95	117	±12	17.7	±2.68
Standard	462	±152	128	±12	21.3	±3.75
Difficult	564	±155	144	±16	26.7	±5.18

Read more about it here.

West Virginia University & West Virginia Public Employees Insurance Agency conducted a 24 week study with 50 children 7-12 years old with a BMI in the 85th percentile. Participants played DDR for at least 30 minutes, 5 times a week. Many measured health risk factors improved; and while weight loss was not demonstrated, a decrease in BMI was observed(remember these are growing 7-12 year olds).

So break out your Wii and get to dancing the weight off.

About the GoWear Fit

BodyMedia describes the GoWear fit as "a lifestyle and calorie management system that helps consumers monitor their body and improve their health." The Multi-Sensor Armband is a small wearable monitoring system(computer) that measures a variety of physical characteristics, including motion, steps, galvanic skin response, skin temperature, and heat flux. The armband is used in conjunction with the Online Activity Manager and an optional watch-like Display. Using the measurements from the armband, the system reports:

• Calorie burn
• Physical activity
• Steps taken
• Sleep duration
• Sleep efficiency

Like most fitness products the primary market leans heavily towards customers interested in weight loss, and by association health and lifestyle.

Combining the information that the armband reports to the online activity monitor with either, BodyMedia's Nutrition Assessment or the new daily food logging provides a recepie for healthy weight management. Daily stats and extended reports of calories in, calories out, activity, and sleep tell you everything you need to know about your current lifestyle that there are no more excuses. It is time for action!

I am far from BodyMedia's typical customer. I am a healthy and fit 31 year old male. I keep very active working out and playing and competing in team sports. But being a gadget geek and also very interested in the health and fitness industry, I wanted to get one of these things at least to play with. I have lost weight in the past, and don't neet to lose any right now. My objective here is to see what benefit I can get out of the GoWear fit as an athlete; not interested in weight loss, I want to improve in the gym and improve on the field.