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Regain Your Success
Jacob A. Krueger
SPHE461 Current Issues and Trends in Fitness and Wellness
Instructor: Leslie McManus
02 June 2023
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Regain Your Success
Transcript: Obese Children in America
Good morning class and Mrs. McManus. Today I will be discussing an increased health
condition in the United States that is becoming prevalent amongst our children. The health
condition I will be going further into detail with is obesity caused by a sedentary lifestyle
influenced by electronic devices. If we cannot force our children to play outside on a daily basis
due to a hectic work schedule, weather or lack of supervision, then we need to explore fitness
trends that will let children maintain a daily fitness goal while remaining indoors. I will also
discuss how specific virtual reality (VR) games can help combat the rise of obesity within the
population of children.
Approximately 18.5% of American children that are between the ages of 2 years old
through 19 years old are medically classified as obese. (Hales, 2020) Even though that
percentage perceives to be a small number, it still means that there are approximately 13.7
million obese children in the United States. Childhood obesity comes with an increased risk of
developing a wide range of health diseases. Cardiovascular disease, musculoskeletal problems,
and type 2 diabetes are a couple examples of chronic health conditions obese children are
exposed to developing. (Daniels, 2015) If obesity is not corrected in children who are already
exposed to it, then it will continue into their adult life while increasing the risk of obesity-related
health issues.
The rise in childhood obesity can be easily associated with a sedentary lifestyle cause by
the increased usage of electronic devices such as cell phones, tablets and video games. Unlike
10-20 years ago when the majority of children spent a large portion of their days outdoors
running around with their friends or riding bicycles from one end of the neighborhood to the
other, children in the current day are spending their days cooped up indoors engaged with some
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Regain Your Success
type of screen time. It is recommended that children who are 6 years and older to have only 1-2
hours of screen time daily. (Radesky, 2016) The reality is that American children are spending a
surplus of daily time engaged on an electronic device, instead of playing outdoors with friends or
siblings or even parents. The CDC has reported that children who are between the ages of 8-10
are averaging 6 hours of daily screen time and children who are between the ages of 11-14 are
averaging 9 hours of daily screen time. (OSF, 2020) That is an excess of 4 to 7 hours of daily
screen time, meaning that some children are spending over a third of their day engaged in screen
time.
So how do we incorporate daily exercise within the population of children and have it fun
and adapted to their lifestyles? There is a various amount of virtual reality video games that are
accessible to children to play that incorporates a workout without realizing the children are even
working out. So why is it that parents will sit their children on a tablet watching endless children
shows to satisfy the child when we can invest into their futures by doing some research into
video games that can provide fitness for them? There is a virtual reality video game headset that
is called an Oculus Quest 2 that offers many games that can burn calories as you play. The
importance of using video games as a means for fitness is that it may be the only way that we can
reach our children and have them wanting to do physical activity on a daily basis. If you ask the
average child to go out for a run, ride their bike with you, or just take a walk, majority of them
will respond with a “why” or “do I have to?”. Now go and ask that same child if they want to
play a video game with you and I bet the answer will be an excitingly “YES!”.
Through the use
of video games, you can just simply ask them if they want to play one of the games that
incorporates fitness and they wouldn’t even know that they are getting a workout while playing.
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Regain Your Success
Many adults and parents both might have doubts that a video game can really promote
fitness and burn calories while playing. One game that is great with children of all ages is a game
called Beat Saber that is on a VR headset. If you remember playing a video game called Guitar
Hero, think of this game as one of the same. Except you are now using your remotes, that are
attached to your hands, and slashing through color icons as they approach you. You also have to
dodge walls, duck down, and slash the colors in specific directions as the song plays along with
the beat. Beat Saber is a great game for children to play on a VR headset and children can burn
as many calories per minute playing Beat Saber, as they would playing tennis. For an individual
who is 175 pounds, playing Beat Saber can burn between 6.55 and 7.45 calories per minute.
There are other games that are offered on the VR headset that burns even more calories per
minute. For all of the video games listed, the calories burned per minute is equivalent to that of
an individual weighing 175 pounds. Audioshield Modded can burn between 10.66 to 11.85
calories per minute, Thrill of the Fight can burn 9.74 to 15.32 calories per minute and Knockout
League can burn 7.54 to 8.33 calories per minute. (Which, 2022) There is a list of 97 VR games
that will burn calories while playing and offer a wide variety of games that will peak each
individual child’s interest to play and want to play. All 97 games that are listed will prove to be
beneficial because each child playing them for 60 minutes per day, will end up burning anywhere
from 70 calories per hour on the low intensity games and even over 600 calories per hour on the
high intensity games.
The children in today’s America are our future and we need to do everything we can to
ensure they live a healthy lifestyle and promote wellness among themselves. The increased rate
of children who are obese in America is alarming and needs to be addressed appropriately. By
adapting to today’s technological society, parents can easily incorporate daily physical activity
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Regain Your Success
and fitness through the use of virtual reality video games. Through the implementation of virtual
reality games, we now have an opportunity to promote physical activity among children who are
obese. These games offer an alternative to help decrease a sedentary lifestyle and provide a more
enjoyable option for children to engage in physical activity. We now have the potential to use
video games as a tool for fitness and promoting a healthier future for our children.
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Regain Your Success
References
Daniels, S. R., Hassink, S. G., Abrams, S. A., Corkins, M. R., de Ferranti, S. D., Golden, N. H.,
Magge, S. N., & Schwarzenberg, S. J. (2015, July 1).
The role of the pediatrician in
primary prevention of obesity
. American Academy of Pediatrics.
https://publications.aap.org/pediatrics/article/136/1/e275/29301/The-Role-of-the-
Pediatrician-in-Primary-Prevention?autologincheck=redirected
Hales, C. M. (2020, February 27).
Products - data briefs - number 360 - February 2020
. Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention.
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db360.htm
OSF HealthCare. (2020, January 13). Screen Time for kids; how much is too much?
https://newsroom.osfhealthcare.org/screen-time-for-kids-how-much-is-too-much/
Radesky, J., & Christakis, D. (2016, November).
Media and Young Minds
. Publications.aap.org.
https://publications.aap.org/pediatrics/article/138/5/e20162591/60503/Media-and-Young-
Minds
Which virtual reality games burn the most calories per minute?
. VR.Space. (2022, June 15).
https://vr.space/which-virtual-reality-games-burn-the-most-calories-per-
minute/#:~:text=Not%20only%20is%20Beat%20Saber,who%20weighs%20around
%20175%20pounds.
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