Gaming and gaining.... weight

Teenage boys eat 163 more calories a day on those days when they play video games. A new study suggests that gaming may lead to a desire to eat more throughout the day.

The study, from the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, found that boys ate a bigger lunch when allowed to game prior to lunch than they did if they just relaxed without games before eating. Naturally, they didn’t burn off the extra calories later in the day or consume fewer calories to make up for the afternoon gain.

They don’t know exactly what that means, but they can make a pretty good guess that after a few months of repeating this pattern, the boys are going to gain weight. This, at least, is a definitive link to what many parents feel is a de facto weight gain once gaming takes hold in the house.

This is one of the first tests to try and show a connection, if not cause and effect, between screen game time and caloric consumption. It’s not clear why the boys ate more, but they did. “We didn’t see an increase in hunger,” said Jean-Philippe Chaput, lead researcher, that was true in the surveys of the boys telling about their hunger level and also true when hunger hormones were tested. There was no increase either way. But they still ate.

It may be related to a desire for reward, or something about stress relief. And the foods we reach for in those circumstances are fatty or sugary.

The good news is that boys expend more energy playing video games then when they sit and relax watching tv.

While 163 extra calories sounds like nothing, after two weeks of that, they gain a pound. Over a year, it’s 24 pounds.

Source: AJCN, Reuters