You can’t lose weight playing a video game, right?
Wrong. But it takes no ordinary video game. Tanya Jessen lost a mind-blowing 95 pounds playing Dance Dance Revolution.
DDR, as the cool kids call it, requires you to move on a pad to play. In other words you have to dance for real!
Tanya’s Story
Tanya Jessen, of Seattle, Washington, lost the weight with nearly zero change to her diet by regularly playing DDR in the arcade and then at home.
Tanya’s website, GetUpMove.com, explains her unconventional weight-loss and how she hopes it will inspire people:
“This is Tanya Jessen’s story of how she lost 95lbs, not through conventional diet and exercise but by playing the video game, Dance Dance Revolution (DDR). Tanya started playing DDR 4 years ago when she was 17 and enjoyed it so much that it became a regular activity. Through sharing her weight loss story, Tanya hopes to tell people that losing weight can be easy and fun by choosing an activity that fits in with your lifestyle. Tanya is working with RedOctane to educate Americans about a fun new way to lose weight while using an Ignition(tm) Dance Pad.”
RedOctane is the top retailer of Dance Dance Revolution games and accessories in the United States. RedOctane’s DDR pad is compatible with PlayStation 2, Xbox, and PC.
DDR Burns Calories
And playing DDR will certainly get your heart rate pumping. DDR has a workout mode that allows players to track their calorie expenditure.
The average person burns 16 calories per song, so in one hour an average weight person can burn 640 calories.
DDR has developed a tremendous cult following, even spawning competitions with dancers coming from far and wide, like this “tournament” in California:
Geez, video games have come a long way. Not to long ago, Super Mario was the only one jumping around.
Do you play and exercise with DDR?
Can doing a dance game on the P2 or whatever help you lose weight/keep it off? Dancing is a lot of fun so if it’s true I’ll buy a dance game to see if it works!
In DDR Extreme, you can play in the free play mode and it’ll still count how many calories you’ve burned, FYI.
I dont think its accurate..i think u should just play free play mode because when u play workout mode when u reach a certain calories ur gonna stop..but on free play it doesnt show how many calories u burn..so u’ll prolly burn more calories and ull just have fun without worrying how many calories u burned ^_^
I have a question. How accurate is the workout mode calorie count??
Oh ok thanx!! Good luck ^_^
I think DDR extreme (2) are the best, because they have the most songs, but really I recommend getting a USB jack download Stepmania and get you can get every song, or even fan maded songs for free! I have 600+ songs. Including the Japanese versions. I use to play alot, but I stopped. And gained 40 lbs this year! so, I’ve started again, lucky for me I can still manage heavy. Hopefully I can get down to 110-105 by July 1st, for the summer.
Think I can do it? I only play ffor 45 minutes a day though.
the calories burned. It REALLY burns for me, 140 lbs, and a usually 8~9 steps songs, 30minutes is 200 calories. that’s taken off the workout mode calorie burnt record. So unless you are like.. playing 9steps everysong unstop it’s aint 600+ per hr.. that’s ridiculous.
Oh yeah what ddr games do u guys reccomend because i want to get another ddr game and i dont know which one to get so which games do u think are good.i have ddrextreme2