Reports have come out before showing that people playing Dance Dance Revolution have lost weight, as well as people who play other interactive games that forces movement from the player, and heck, just yesterday we posted an editorial called The Wii Sport Workout to see if Wii Sports would work as an exercise program. Now the Mayo clinic is coming out and simply reconfirming what we've already known for some time.

From the article:

If playing video games makes kids less active -- and contributes to obesity -- why not create more video games that require activity? That's the question prompted by a Mayo Clinic research study published in the current issue of the medical journal Pediatrics.

"We know if kids play video games that require movement, they burn more energy than they would while sitting and playing traditional screen games. That's pretty obvious even without our data," says Lorraine Lanningham-Foster, Ph.D., Mayo obesity researcher and study leader. "The point is that children -- very focused on screen games -- can be made healthier if activity is a required part of the game."

The study is the first to scientifically measure the energy spent playing video games. While the study's scope is small -- only 25 children -- it was conducted with great accuracy. Fifteen children were of normal weight for their height and frame; 10 were mildly obese. Both groups were tested while sitting and watching television, playing a traditional video game, playing two types of activity-required video games, and watching television while walking on a treadmill.

Read the full article over at mayoclinic.org