Well, I think the reason that gamers are generally thinner (an average remember, there's still plenty of fatties), is because a fair few of them exercise. If you don't exercise, you just fall into the percentage of gamers that are overweight. Personally, I have a cycling machine that I use when I'm playing my PS3 or watching TV. I probably get about 10 hours of continuous exercise a week. That said, I'm still a little overweight (I'm not skinny, rather), but I'm pretty fit and healthy. I think that playing games doesn't make you healthier than not playing games, but rather that 62 percent of Americans are retarded, lazy slobs.
Personally, when I was a heavy gamer, I was skinny because I only snacked, instead of having a few good sized meals. I didn't start exercising or lifting until I lightened up on the games and started sports, and that's where I gained weight (contrary to fat gamers losing weight when they find other activities). Relating the populations mishaps to video gaming once again fails.
doesn't really surprise me, but i was more expecting to hear about korean starcraft professionals and their daily work out, which included 2-3 hours at the gym, to keep the mind top notch. I am a competitive starcraft player, on a sponsored top tier team, and mind health is crucial in overcoming obstacles, such as the 13 hour training 7 days a week. At the World Cyber Games, regional (top 4 players on the East Coast) there were zero overweight players, myself included, and were not socially inept. The difference between your casual gamer, and competitive gamer is the healthy life style in my opinion. In games in World of Warcraft though, I can imagine many many overweight, socially inept, cheetos stained shirt wearing kids. Mostly because it is mindless clicking, where a healthy mind is not important. A year ago I was in Florida at the same time as some huge Halo tournament, and many of the competitors were infact overweight and looked like your average "nerd/geek". I was surprised at the huge difference between the competitive starcraft players and competitive Halo players. I know computer gaming has a negative connotation, and the majority of the games are true. Online poker professionals also the majority of them are lean, and healthy players as well due to the need for the healthy mind, which requires a healthy body. If you want to see socially retarded people, go to blizzcon and look at the World of Warcraft community, you'd be surprised if you found a single person among the midst of obese disgusting kids, who would be able to interest the opposite sex (yes, there are many fat ugly girls who play WoW).
Yes, it is a fact that most hardcore gamers are skinnier/leaner than the average American, and there are many health-related studies with video games overall that help prove this theory. In my own opinion, hardcore gamers are focused not on their intake of food, but rather the game(s) they are playing. As one myself, yes I love food, and I enjoy eating in excess, however I manage to stay around a weight of 110-115 pounds at the age of 16. Whether or not this has to do with metabolism, or the constant "sweat" of the mind while gaming, it seems to be true that gaming does not go under the category of something that is enforcing certain eating habits. Newer systems are coming along, like that of the Wii, which push excerise and interactive gameplay. In this way video games are catering to the hobby of excerise and staying thin, rather than catering to this idea of the American "couch potato." I would like to see some studies done on the eating habits of hardcore gamers, as well as a study of their metabolisms as a general consensus. Is there, in some way, a link between a higher metabolism and gaming? Or is it just that video games appeal to the leaner/thinner youth?
might just be that you don't see McDonald's ads while gaming... and most gamers take their gaming time from where they would have been watching TV.
