The Big, Fat Question Comments by Rob Fahey

I'm 17 and have been out of school for months now. All I do is get up, play video games, watch tv, eat and sleep. My BMI is bang in the middle.

I doubt most fat kids are fat for sitting around but rather for what they eat. (Of course a balance of everything is still most important though).

I work in a primary school. Based on casual observation of children's eating habits and amount of excercise, I have no clue why children are the weight they are. Some are very active, eat well and fat, while other eat loads of crap, sit around all break time and are as thin as rakes.

*shrug*

I didnt read it all, the first half was enough, very pretentious beginning there, so his arguement is the campaign was delivered fairly and doesnt risk giving the wrong message, simply because its the most popular activity among young people? Sorry but thats a little short sighted so you fail!

The problem is some do good parents are just lazy, all they'll take from it is "cut out video games all together and problem's solved", which is completely wrong as we all know.... the problem is a whole lifestyle one, eat right and make some time for exercise is the message they are giving but they've just done it in the wrong way.

Why not find out why these kids are so lethargic and eating themselves into an early grave, isnt that often linked with depression? Video games dont make you depressed or lethargic, whos to say that rather than making them fat in the first place it just happens to be popular among this group of young people for obvious reasons? So in that case you cant argue that they arent helping them but they are far from the cause perhaps?

I dont beleive it needed a knee jerk reaction though I agree on that, but its not "totally correct and 100% valid" as you tried to dictate(theres is plenty to pick at about how the campaign is being delivered but the core message is correct), I dont mind these peices but try and sound less pretentious or mr know it all and maybe people wont have to keep pointing out these belong on a blog.

Tell it like it is! Most gamers are fat nerds!

Well, I'd like to think so.. to be honest I dont know many fat gamers.. but that's just because I hate fat people hahaha:P

@ ProfessorLesser

Sorry, but I disagree. I don't think videogames make anybody fat. I suppose it's easy to have something to blame, but I think it's simple. People who are fat eat too much and don't exercise enough. It's the people themselves. Scapegoats aren't gong to decrease obesity, but further educating the public as to the the benefits of burning off excess calories and eating the right foods in the first place will. I lost a stone and a half last year - I was a bit overweight. Once I recognised this I cut down on food and exercised a bit more - hey presto I lost weight.

I think a lack of personal responsibility is to blame. As for fat kids - I think it's their parents.

@ distantholler eh all zoo animals are under controlled diets though, I think you've skimmed over some Arthur De Vany and missed a bit, yes ancient man didnt have access to carbs, but we never lived soley on meat... infact I forget the figure but it was something like 30 percent meat. The rest of the intake was fruits, nuts and greens, I think baboons are one of the closest living primates that you can relate to how ancient man lived. They've moved out of the forrest on to planes can work in packs to hunt for meat and the rest(largest part) of the nutrition comes from elsewhere.

Its not videogames thats made me slightly rotund, its the fact that i went from a retail shop job to an office job sat on my ass all day drinking around 20 mugs of coffee.....OFFICES!!!!! BAN THIS SICK FILTH!!!

(1) People who play games are more likely to be fat, therefore games causes fatness
(2) People who are fat get bullied by their peers, so do not engage in outdoor activities therefore play more games

Me I go for option 2

And you can substitute play games with watch tv, and before that listening to jazz music and reading novels (if you go back far enough)

The risotto I lovingly crafted for my tea is going to do far more harm to my wasteline than the next three hours of Empire: Total War.

balanced article alright. but i still fail to see how the campaign clearly addresses the message to parents, regarding video games.
i got my gameboy when i was 7 and im 23 now, having own at least 1 console from each generation. why is it then that i am perfectly healthy and fit even though i admit i have spent unhealthy amounts of time paying consoles ???

Simple... because I don't stuff myself up with junk food and neither my parents did. Moreover, I am a competent martial artist, having practiced for 8 years, I am a dancer and a chess player.

Its a combination of many factors(sometimes genetic) that lead to obesity, and not playing video games alone.

I vote for more research into real holodecks ala Star Trek! No more fatness!

Easy solution. Make all games adult rated and don't sell to kids :P

I think MattDamon hit it on the head though. I spend 8-9h a day working at a computer and for entertainment I watch movies and play games. And I'm not overweight.

This thread just imploded under the weight of it's own irony.

Yeah.. im a FIRM believer that kids shouldnt be indoors being entertained.. They should be out "playing" and taking drugs on street corners, mugging old grannies and putting graffiti everywhere because they're "bored and have nothing better to do"

Thanks Napalm.

I'm not overweight either despite those necessary 40-45 hours of sedateness before I even get to video games. I haven't seen this campaign directly, but it sounds very misguided to me.

I'm surprised GameBiz is giving it credibility, because I hold GameBiz in very high regard.

@MattDamon - you can be unhealthy without being overweight you know...

OK, I've read the first third and the last paragraph of this article. It's a nonsense that the campaign isn't targeting overeating or eating the wrong foods.

It isn't targeting the poor parents who stock their fridge with chocolate and fatty junk, and their cupboards with sweets, cakes and crisps.

OK, it's just the games that need to be banned. NONSENSE.

At the same time, ban indoor toys, board games, TV, BOOKS, MAGAZINES, INTERNET, AND HOMEWORK.

We also need to BAN ALL DESK JOBS - too much inactivity - DESK JOBS ARE KILLING US ALL.

I've had to sit at my desk this past week carrying out a load of fucking annoying admin work. Normally I'm out and about. Do my employee's rights allow me to protest this inactivity? It WILL make me fatter in the long term (if I don't compensate by eating less / exercising more).

What a fucking nonsense.

smelly is right. Also eating nothing all day is not good for your health, and also lowers your metabolism which makes it harder for you to lose fat.

Come on, poeple KNOW that they'll get fat if they eat too much and do nothing all day. What's the purpose of such ads, they already know it but do it nonetheless. let's face it, confronting people with their own death doesn't work, or else we would already be non smokers/drinkers, out driving safely, eating well and doing some exercise. Those ads do not work, they just raise heated debates, but do not get people to take responsabilities for what they do (because the core of the whole problem is this: take repsonsabilities for what you do, and stop blaming whatever you're blaming saying it's not my fault)

"Because crap is cheaper than healthy."

Good point. What use are these ads if you can't afford vegetables?

What about Japan? They game like crazy over there and I have yet to see a fat person about. You are what you eat and we all know that English food is vomit inducing, to say the least.

Err, Japan has the same problem as everyone else. But fat people there can find a reason to be fat. Sumo wrestling!
I'm pretty sure they have invented some kind of seafood McDonalds-type of food that's unhealthy.

@ ProfessorLesser

Sorry, but I disagree. I don't think videogames make anybody fat. I suppose it's easy to have something to blame, but I think it's simple. People who are fat eat too much and don't exercise enough. It's the people themselves. Scapegoats aren't gong to decrease obesity, but further educating the public as to the the benefits of burning off excess calories and eating the right foods in the first place will. I lost a stone and a half last year - I was a bit overweight. Once I recognised this I cut down on food and exercised a bit more - hey presto I lost weight.

I think a lack of personal responsibility is to blame. As for fat kids - I think it's their parents.

I'm not saying we should blame videogames, and scapegoats are not the answer. But it's pretty undeniable that, on average, across the population, computer games are a contributing factor to obesity, as is absolutely anything that promotes prolonged periods of inactivity. This is pretty common sense. I'm not saying computer games 'make' you fat, I'm saying they contribute, and they do. When targeting an epidemic, you can't put everything down to personal responsibility and expect people to get on with it. Precisely what do you think articles like this are if they're not "educating the public", anyway?

Personal responsibility is almost always a factor as well, but the extent to which free will and choice can play a role in weight balance varies from person to person. Some people just get fat easily, others do not so readily lay down fat. Some people will get fat no matter what. In the end, it's the environment that makes us fat - nobody can get fat without consuming more calories than they burn - but the extent to which this happens depends upon our genes, and varies between individuals.

Strange article, it starts out be trying to say that videogames are to blame (almost flame baiting) and then moves on to being more reasonble and calling for personal responsability, good parenting and then goes back to flame baiting.

Why?

The reality of the situation is that videogames are the most popular form of entertainment out there but they don't make you fat. That's solely your own fault. Games don't make you do anything, you choose the food you eat and whether or not to exercise. You can't blame it on other things. Not movies, not TV, not music, not games. A person is responisble for thier own actions and lifestyle.

Reasons for fat children:

PARENTS
DIET
LIFESTYLE
INACTIVITY

So - the top 2 aren't worth putting most effort into tackling? Such nonsense.

Eating shit food in large volumes would seem to be the problem eh?

@smelly

Yes, fully aware of that. What's your point? That the campaign is right?

Point I'm making is that some of us are made to be sedate for a living and the government do nothing about that.

Much fatter than your average, Lamb don't eat cabbage.

If you are comfortable with what you are hauling you are not fat.

If you want to be chomping down like that guy from the Life of Brian, then good for you.

This article is bullshit.

Know why? It's not because I'm a hard headed gamer. It's because people are responsible for their own bloody actions, and if someone chooses to sit and play games all day, and becomes fat - thats THEIR CHOICE, and by extension THEIR fault.

Games, movies, books, TV, don't make people do anything.

It doesn't surprise me that we have nonsense articles like this though, since it's just an extension of the total lack of any sense of personal responsibility that this generation has.

Basically, the government knows it's gone too far. We have yesterdays bad children who are now todays bad parents, and it's only going to get worse. No one takes responsibility for anything now, not even a lot of parents. So instead of actually starting on the hard task of sorting out what this countries real problem is, that's bad parenting, btw, they attack something much easier - and which they know people will jump on.

I've been playing games for at least 13 years and people are complaining how slim i am and they don't know how i do it..

I don't know and don't care, all I know is that "playing games will make you fat" is a load of old trollop.

How it works with me is that i play a game on-line...play..play...play until i desperately need food... then I'll make sommit really quick so I can play some more..

Beats the Atkins diet any day.

@ ProfessorLesser

Videogames are indeed a contributary factor I'm not denying that, but they are a very small piece of the overall puzzle here imo. So small in fact, that I don't think it's worth mentioning. Getting fat has much more to do with eating the wrong types and amounts of food than leading a sedantary lifestyle. Being inactive on it's own cannot cause obesity, but taken on it's own, excessive eating will. I refuse to believe than a significant amount of the population are so addicted to games that they can't pull themselves away from playing every now and then. I'm far more inclined to believe that fat kids consume too many take aways, sweets and soft drinks (an often overlooked source of calories).

Of course it's a combinationn of factors, all I'm saying is that it's worth keeping an eye on the root cause of obesity - over eating - and not getting sidetracked by silly arguments like this one.

some good points have been raised in these comments.

The article has a point but unfortunately the government loses all credibility on this issue.

it is responsible for selling school playing fields
school meals are provided by private contracters who put profit before quality healthy food
vending machines in schools
promoting a national diet which is as much based on commercial interests as it is on health. (pyramid model, high carbs, all fats are bad etc)....
children leaving school now have spent the whole education under a labour government, why do they not know how to feed themselves?

Also, the whole culture surrounding children has changed in recent years. You cant let them play outside anymore because paedophiles are lurking around every corner, and they cant possibley walk to school because they will definately be run over by a car. If they do actually manage to get out and play, then they will probably just take drugs and binge drink any way. what else are kids supposed to do?

of course, in my day we played outside every day all day, read Dickens in the evening and it was alway sunny

/has to stop reading the daily mail

i used to be a sporty kid, played cricket (slow bowler) and baseball loads during the summer, i could hit for miles and basketball in the winter. it wasnt games that got me off sport but music. we had a family amiga 500+ and got maybe an hour here or there on sensi. started playing drums on my 13th birthday and didnt look back. 5 or 6 years ago the band i was in played a gig for the singers birthday, we went to town on the setup. 5k backline/vocal and 5k bass and kit rigs, 8 par56cans and 8 assorted lights plus some other shit all set up by the band so i was drained before i played anyway then a 1h45 gig in 40c temperatures. i was drenched head to foot after 15 minutes, and i class it as the hardest thing ive ever done. im now 30, 15 stone and a slob because i'd rather spend my money on games, pizzas and parmo's than go out on teh lash. but its not entirely the games fault. so, to potentially upset anyone i'd say that its the ease of interacting with your friends over a network via consoles that makes kids fat because theres no need to go to their houses or meet in the park for a game of footy. but it should also be said that keeping these knife wielding little twats in front of a game screen will make the streets safer. whats it to be government? fat kids or criminals?

Article really only needed this line in it:

"That videogames are now in the firing line (in fact, I'd argue that parents' irresponsible treatment of videogames as a surrogate babysitter is what's in the firing line)"

As does the government's campaign. I'll not stick up for Videogames wholly but it's not the only cause of childhood obesity. A couple of generations of parents who basically don't interact with or "parent" their kids is more to blame. If parents got off their own lardy arses a bit more and did more interesting things with their kids than sitting down, joypad in hand, to engage in a bit of co-op then there would probably be a lot less fat kids around.

Afterthought. Mainstream gaming has been around in one form or another since the early 70s. Yet it's really only in the last 10 years or so that it's become a scapegoat for all of society's ills. Odd that.

Also odd that in the 70s being brought up on a diet largely consisting of interestingly coloured E numbers, kids seemed to be a lot skinnier than they are today too.

The point seems so obvious that I can scarcely believe such an article needs to be written but here we are.

Hopefull some idiots will sit up and take note of their idiocy.

"I agree with BlackKraken, if anything gaming kept me skinny when I was young becuase I was skipping meals to keep playing."

Some people trot this line out like it's a good thing. It is incredibly unhealthy.

"No campaign has claimed that videogames are inherently unhealthy or bad, but equally, it takes remarkable ignorance to deny that many children play too many games and don't get enough exercise."

Children don't get fat because they play games, they get fat because we (in the West at least) live in an age of abundance while our bodies have evolved for life with a scarcity of nutrients. Hence we're inclined to be lazy (don't burn calories when there's no need for it) and we're efficient in storing calories as fat (for the times when there's not much to eat).

Of course it is a problem, a very big one. But it should be tackled at the root instead of targeting, like we always seem to do, however futile, the symptom.

"Know why? It's not because I'm a hard headed gamer. It's because people are responsible for their own bloody actions, and if someone chooses to sit and play games all day, and becomes fat - thats THEIR CHOICE, and by extension THEIR fault."

This argument is fatuous because the campaign targets childhood obesity and as well all know children are not trusted with autonomy typically until they reach the age of majority. They don't make sensible decisions and that's why their parents are there to help them. Fahey made this observation when he claimed that the campaign (which I have not seen, living in Australia) targets irresponsible parenting rather than the pasttime. Parents are, to a large degree, responsible for their children's actions rather than the children themselves. This strikes me as obvious, and as a normal, positive thing. This issue is nothing to do with grown fat men and women willingly being fat.

I took Phys Ed until the end of high school. I am the least sporting person ever and sucked at everything but it beat sitting in class. In university I cycled everywhere. Now I still go everywhere on two wheels... but propelled by a motor. And my job is just sitting at a desk for 7 hours a day (and I can't really leave the desk either, nature of the job). So, gained a few pounds. None of this is gaming's fault, it's lack of activity. I still eat almost as much shit as I ever did. But with an illegal immigrant terrorist pedophile in every bush, you can't let you kids go out for a kickabout. (and yet you can let them go sit in a bus shelter waiting to start on passersby). Er. I have no point. Sorry.

Less research is done on, and less money is spent on fixing lung cancer, because lung cancer is seen as something which people do to themselves.
Why not apply that logic to obesity (and alcohol) induced disease? Let a couple drunks and fatties die as a result of their self induced destruction, make sure it gets a load of media coverage and....wel, to be honest, the problem will still probably still exist.

But at least the NHS would stop whinging about having to spend all their money on helping these people.

Couple of things, in response to points raised in this thread.

Firstly, "videogames don't make you fat, sitting around doing nothing makes you fat!" - I'm paraphrasing, obviously. Yes, perfectly true, but the reason videogames are being used in this campaign is that they're now the most popular thing to do while sitting around doing nothing. Peej mentioned that this kind of targeting of videogames didn't happen in the 70s - that's because hardly anyone played videogames in the 70s! Now, almost all children play games for fairly lengthy periods of time, a fact which the games industry is pretty proud of (and rightfully so).

Secondly, "you don't see people saying this stuff about books!". Well, yeah - because hardly any children read books. I've been involved in a couple of campaigns to get kids reading, and if you could see the uphill struggle those campaigns face (especially in the deprived areas where childhood obesity is at its highest), you'd understand why the image of a child getting fat isn't of a child sitting in his room reading a book. Yes, it's sedentary, but it's so uncommon that you might as well show an image of a kid hanging upside down from the ceiling from his feet all day. Kids play games; but for the most part, they don't read books.

Finally, as for the whole "personal responsibility" argument that's come through so strongly... You guys DO realise that this ad isn't targeted at you, right? It's about children, and it's aimed at their parents. Children don't HAVE a sense of personal responsibility - it's up to their parents to look after their health, and at the moment, far too many of those parents let them sit in front of videogames all day because that's a hell of a lot easier than bringing them to the park and letting them run around, or getting them to sign up for sports clubs, or whatever.

As a result, I don't entirely understand why people are so incredibly vehement on the whole "ffs it's my responsibility!" thing - unless you're a ten year old child, then that's an extremely odd thing to post here. Honestly, you'd think some of you were carrying around a pile of guilt about being lazy, chubby adult gamers or something... ;) But in that instance, you're right - it IS your personal responsibility to look after your health. Which is why this ad isn't about you, it's about children.

I've been playing since I was 6. I'm skinny though, kids don't need to stop playing videogames, just stop chowing down pizza's at the same time.

Struth.

Im actually amazed there is some relitively mature debate going on here instead of fanboys stomping on each other. Makes all the comments actually worth reading for once!!! :-)

There, just ate two Big Macs. Take THAT, nanny st... Oog... (dies.)

@Shinji
I stcik to my point: people (parents then) know why they get fat (their children then). IMO, reminding them with ads is of no use beucause they know already but do nothing however.
Honestly I think that most people will only and blindly see: sendentary activities (games being one of the most popular among kids these days, ok) make kids fat, but won't feel any responsible for it...

"prevent the rise of illiteracy"

Are you serious?

I think the criticism is probably fair. Sitting on your arse playing games probably will make you fat, unless you spend some time doing something else as well. I read a different opinion recently that made me chuckle.

The article stated that the focus on cutting school bullying was responsible for the number of fat kids now seen.

I remember from my school days that fat kids got picked on. And ginger kids were goalkeepers! It's not right or fair, but that's how it was. Several fat kids found this so unacceptable they slimmed down. There was one poor fat kid who used to get chased for miles by a bully who used to arm himself with dog-poo on a stick. He must've been pretty healthy despite being quite portly.

Life is about balance, I play a lot of video games and if I stop going to the gym I get fat. So I go to the gym. It amazes me that the goverment thinks that people are stupid enough that they need to be told "If you let your kids play video games and eat fatty shit all day they will get fat and eventually die!"

Well sitting on your arse doing nothing, WILL NOT GET YOU FAT I guarantee it. You sit down and do nothing ?which includes eating? and see how fat you get. lol

I read that the junk food companies where financially involved with the Change4life campaign.\/

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/33517/Is-this-...