Children’s Digital Media Center

The first study demonstrating weight loss from video games that require physical activity has been published online in the journal Obesity by a Georgetown team comprising Amanda Staiano (G’09, G’10), psychology professor Sandra Calvert and Dr. Anisha Abraham. The analyses examined whether a 20-week exergame intervention could produce weight loss and improve psychosocial outcomes for 54 overweight and obese African-American adolescents ages 15 to 19.

The authors found that cooperative exergame players lost weight while the competitive and control group did not. The students playing the cooperative exergame cooperatively with their peers lost about 3.6 pounds during the 20-week period. The control group gained about 1.9 pounds, resulting in about a 5.5-pound difference between these groups.