My Fellow Gamers

I'm a hard core gamer too, and what has been helping me, is that I got a set of stationary bike pedals ($20 at walmart) and I just pedal wheile I play. I sit in a dining rom chair with the pedals right in front of me and my PS controller in my lap. I make sure I pedal the whole time (unless I'm on a boss that needs extra attention :happy: ) So that way if I play R&C for 2 hours I pedaled for 2 hours. It's nothign super strenous, just constantly keeping my legs moving.

It's totally working for me, 5lbs in 2 1/2 weeks!

Amazing thread!

I once read an article by a guy who told everyone to give up MMORPG gaming because it was ruining your life, even if you wouldn't admit it. He wrote that there were 2 kinds of people in the world: those who had overcome their gaming addictions and those who wouldn't admit gaming is an addiction.

Well, I was disgusted and outright furious with this guy. I was so enraged that I made an Excel pie chart with all of my daily activities right there. (I still have it just in case I need to prove to someone that I do NOT spend my life with a controller/keyboard in my hands.)

I've heard that WoW is all that and seventeen thousand kinds of amazing chips, BUT....hate to break it to you folks, I'm on a lifestyle-changing diet! (And I mean that both physically and financially.) DDO is the poor man's WoW but I less-than-three it, as it were. I'm very attached to my fabulous cleric and I belong to an awesome guild that supports the fact that I don't choose to be online every moment of the day.

On the other hand, when I play tabletop D&D, I now have to bring my own food to the sessions. My friends might respect my goals, but they sure don't appreciate my carbonated water in place of soda or hint-of-salt crackers substituting their Doritos.

Well, I have to pick my battles and they will have to pick theirs, I guess. (This begs for a don't split the party reference!)

All in all, I have to say that some of my choices in gaming have rather enhanced my weight-loss journey. Why? Did you know that DDR Mario Mix tracks your calories?? WIN! And I'm sure that if you do enough flailing around in Ultimate Alliance you can count it with the Wii Sports Boxing. Plus, and others have already said it, it feels so GOOD to sit down to some pure gaming time knowing that you have already accomplished your food and exercise goals. (And preferably some housework or homework goals, too.)

In the words of the Guild: Game on!

Hey guys,

my very first posting here and found this thread.
The first sentence catched my eye:
“You can’t lose weight without giving up the gaming.”

Well, I guess people here proved that statement wrong, eh?
I wasn't happy with my belly shape when I was at 89 kg but never really took enough effort to change something.
Then, around November 2010, I started sports regularly and got very motivated, often I exercised daily (about an hour, jogging + weight lifting). Around that time my girlfriend discovered myfitnesspal luckily.
Counting calories + more sports got me down to 78 kg a year later. We also ruled out some foods (junk food, processed food, hardly fries or burgers!), we're more aware of how much and what we eat. I don't have my washboard stomach yet but getting there. My girlfriend achieved maintenance mode even (and did way less sports, how the heck!).
I'm now in the "I start to like what I see in the mirror" phase and...

I never gave up gaming (nor decreased it a lot). Skyrim, L4D2, WoW, Galciv2, you name it!

It's all about changing willpower, food and sports behavior. Though I admit spending less time in MMORGPs frees up a lot of time (yet still there should be an hour free somehow for sports).

I don't play as much as I used to, but I still use it to destress at the end of some days. Borderlands II right now.

I used to play Wow--a LOT. My husband and his brothers/cousins had a guild and my husband had 2 lvl 80 shadow priests, and they needed someone to play one of them to help get through Karazan. So, I sit down, my husband tells me "hit these keys in this order when I tell you." The rest is history. I played my warlock through grad school, my most recent pregnancy, and after the baby was born (she would lay on the couch next to me while I played). We all played together up through Cataclysm, which completely ruined the raiding experience for all of us. Up until then we were able to raid with just the core group of us (pretty much all family with a few friends thrown in). Unfortunately, it became so difficult to get everyone online at the same time that we rarely had a full group and would have to pug--and we all know how that can turn out. The arguments over when to raid and how to divide loot pretty much took the fun out of it. It really began to feel like a full-time job, and I've already got one of those, thanks, not to mention three kids and household stuff. Our guild pretty much fell apart--our guildleader (my brother in law) and our main raid lead (cousin-in-law) and another cousin left server and that was pretty much the end of that. =(

We did then play Star Wars: TOR and most recently Diablo 3 (which is kinda cool) but I haven't been on for a long time.

There are times I really do miss it--we had some AWESOME times, and it was great to be able to do something with family and "meet" new people. The great thing about being a family guild was we all understood if conflicts came up (sick kids, crazy work schedules, family from out of town) and our mantra was "real life comes first." Nobody worried about being /gkicked if they didn't raid once (though a quick phone call or text was always encouraged). However, I now spend more time with my kids and I'm happy with my life. If I knew we could get back to "the way it was" back in the day, I'd probably jump back in without hesitation, so long as I wasn't expected to be online ALL. THE. TIME.

Oh, and "FOR THE HORDE!!!!"

Was reading the first page, people talking about Howling Fjord and being level 85 was wondering what was going on...then realized that this thread was from a year and a quarter ago. Holy ****ing necro man. o_O

Then again, I haven't played WoW in over a year. /shrug Guild Wars 2 and EveO have proven far more challenging and time consuming for me anyway. \o/

I've never gotten into WoW but I do play Call of Duty on PS3!! I'm Loveleeb if anyone wants to add me lol

Im on it!! MRS_NEZ_REZ invite sent

I LOVE how you can find WoW gamers anywhere, I find WoW (or any other game) a useful tool in weight loss as I get so involved that I don't feel the need to snack. And since I gave up hardcore raiding there's no need for a load of snacks by the PC as there was no time to make dinner. Anyone who says you can't lose weight without giving up gaming has obviously never been an avid gamer before. Games are amazing, I met my significant other on WoW and moved to be with him in Sweden 2 years ago, gaming owns!

Why did someone battle rez this thread? It should be dead not undead.

In conclusion, I tell you to drive Mario’s cart. Get your warrior to level 20. Go win a booster draft. If you happen to be a shooter, keep shooting, and let your opponents fear you. The zombies are not going to kill themselves and neither will the Covenant. If we don’t stand up to Sephiroth then who will? Go forth and get your 25 point hunter pounces! Charge people off of bridges! Shoot portals on to walls! Rock out with your “Rock Band” and kill Deathwing for the security of all in Azeroth!!

You forgot to FUS RO DAH!

Da da dun dun da da dun dun da da dun dun da da dunnnnn (totally in tune with the song).

I would also like to add, and this is 100% truth as crazy as it may sound: Playing games that drastically elevate your heart rate (and I don't mean DDR, but that would work too of course) can actually get you burning calories. Not much more than a casual stroll would burn, but that's pretty good if you're sitting down :P Essentially it's the same with watching horror movies as long as they get your heart pumping / body filled with adrenaline.

Don't believe me? Google it, there's a good amount of research and plenty of people who vouch for it. Here's a good one: 5 New Ways Video Games Help You Lose Weight. - Not sure if HTML works but we'll find out in a moment.

EDIT: Okay HTML doesn't work, let me try BBCode.
EDIT2: Eh, close, but it doesn't seem to render properly T_T

Poop, here is the link anyway: http://www.matchmove.com/newsarticle/games-help-you-lose-weight

Gamer checking in for duty, sir!

I love me some god of war, katamari damacy, little big planet, assassin's creed, monster hunter, Super smash bros (and brawl), Mario, Legend of Zelda (BEST SERIES EVER), and Castlevania. My ex got me into Borderlands as well ^_^

Aha right there with you. If I'm not playing Skyrim I'm killing hordes in L4D2. Are my friends over? We're Rock Band-ing. And when my hubby says something about my gaming, I spend an hour or so on the WiiFit, still gaming aha

Gamers rule.