Note: This entry has been restored from old archives.
Now I say this as a certified “fatso”: pedometers/wiis/foot-tapping aren’t going to make fat bastards experience “big health benefits” (my qualifications: BMI of 27.6 … still a fat bastard, but that’s down from the 37.6 I was at 3 years ago — BMI’s don’t mean a huge deal but the mirror doesn’t lie). Maybe there’s one fatso in one thousand who gets a case of OCD over their wiggle-my-stick-wii game and loses a few pounds, but seriously? “The allure of computer gaming and competition with other users encourages players to make small lifestyle changes that can add up to big health benefits.”
But these are scientists saying this is so, so who am I to pronounce judgement
or even have an opinion? It’s just rare that I see something come through ACM
TechNews that makes me think “what a load of tripe”.
AFAIC fat bastards have two things to do:
- eat less,
- lift some heavy shit (seriously, muscle burns calories).
Wiggling your PDA and other “small lifestyle changes” isn’t going to do it for
you. And for the truly obese “running” is just going to stuff your knees.
Want real incentive? Take away access to public health services of any kind,
it should be treated the same as smoking or any other personal risk-increasing
habit. You choose to increase your risk, you cover the consequences. Of
course the US is way ahead of everybody on that front, but they’re still all
fat. I guess that’s why I’m not qualified to have an opinion 🙂 d’oh!
Of course, this is actually from a press release, so isn’t worth paying attention to.
Bah, this isn’t even going in tech.
[[[Update: Fellow fatsos should read this.]]]