Tips for a Healthy Gamer

After losing 100 pounds over the last year and a half I finally learned to get my health back in order and stay in control of what I'm eating. I was 290 pounds and the weight wasn't slowing down. It didn't help much when I consider myself a “Hardcore Gamer” and had a lot of down time in front of the TV. Now I'm not trying to tell you to get off your couch and hit the gym and go run a few miles, but like I said as gamers we do tend to have more down time then others. With that being said there are some tasty tip I’d like to pass along for some healthier and smarter gaming snack ideas.

For starters lets talk about our beverages. I’m going to go out a limb and guess a lot of soda is being consumed while we try saving the world from evil or trying to cross the finish line in first place. Myself I drink seltzer water (yes I know everyone thinks its awful), but the idea is to keep your calories down while sitting down. So why not try some diet sodas. Coke 0 and Diet Dr Pepper are great tasting sodas with no calories in them at all. With the weather starting to warm up now a nice cold glass of water is very refreshing and it also helps to keep you feeling fuller as well.

I know there's nothing better then munching away at a snack while playing your favorite game, but it doesn't have to be foods that are going to add the pounds on. Yes chips and some cookies are great and maybe even some candy, just not all the time. I still eat chips I just eat them in smaller portions. Instead of buying the giant super size bags of chips Ill buy the $.99 bags that are great for a session of gaming. If you have a bigger bag you tend to eat more. Also try some fruit, yes fruit and why not it tastes great. When is the last time you sat down with some strawberries, pineapple or even some grapes? You can a nice mix of 3 cups of fruit which is a lot of food and very filling. I think if more people were turned to eating more fruit they much just say to themselves “why haven't I been eating more of this”.

Popcorn and pretzels are smarter choices as well. Be careful how you chose you popcorn though. You don't want to sit down with a whole bag of micro waved popped popcorn that's loaded with butter. Try the air popped brands this way you can control the amount of butter or “topping” that goes into your snack. Try using some salt and butter spray to keep your calories and fat down. Doing this will allow you to eat a TON of popcorn ! Candy isn't to bad when it comes to the smaller hard candies like a Jolly Rancher. You can have like three or four of these and not take in to much. But instead of reaching for that Snickers Bar that's supposed to satisfy you try grabbing a Fiber bar load with chocolate chips instead and they taste great.

I'm not trying to preach the book of good health here or anything, but rather just I'm looking to maybe help some people that might feel they need to change some of their gaming eating habits. I still eat pizza and hamburgers I'm not a complete health fanatic or anything, but if reading this post can change just a few of the things some of you might eat while sitting in front of the tube then I’m just happy that I could share this with all of you. After all you want raise your gamer score not your waistline!

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Daniel "Eddie Bax" Wilson

April 27, 2010

As someone who has also lost a lot of weight in the past year, I'll just add my 2c. I understand this isn't supposed to be a massive guide to weight loss, but there's a few more basic things that it helps to understand to keep weight off.

Food is absolutely the key to weight loss, and although I could go on about macro nutrients, the essential formula is calories out has to be more than calories in. Exercise helps, but food is more important. If I could give one food tip above all others, it's avoid white carbs (ie. sugar, white bread, short-grain rice, cookies, cakes, all the good stuff, unfortunately). Carbs in general are not great for weight loss, but wholegrain carbs at least keep you full longer and have more nutrients.

Drinking calories is absolutely the worst way of taking them in because it's so easy to do, and in soda there is absolutely nothing of nutritional value. Juice has nutritional value but still has a lot of calories, and unlike eating fruit, has no fibre to indicate to your body that it's getting full, so you can easily drink a lot. Alcohol has a lot of calories, too, although I don't begrudge anyone a few drinks a couple times a week. Drinking a lot (3+ litres) of water a day is great - flushes your system of toxins, keeps you from getting dehydration headaches, quells hunger, and actually helps you lose weight, because your body stops retaining water when you drink a lot of it.

Lastly, exercise is definitely useful, but make sure you do resistance training (ie. weights or bodyweight exercises like push ups and chin ups) as well as cardio to maintain muscle mass, as muscle burns a lot more calories than fat, making it harder to gain weight, and easier to lose it if you do put any back on.

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Michael Rousseau

As an added bit of advice, drinking lots of caffeinated beverages and alcohol, and eating spicy foods and snacks will not only cause weight gain while playing, but can also wreck your stomach. I have acid reflux disease and a killer inflammation from eating and partying irresponsibly. Moderation is key.

Also, avoid chewing gum if you can. When you chew and generate saliva, your stomach thinks food is coming, so it churns and produces stomach acid in preparation. Since you chew but never swallow, that acid slowly eats away at your stomach. Remember kids: healthy gamers swallow.

Aaron Ferguson

I agree 100 %with all of your comments. Im glad to see there are more gamers out there who taking charge of their health. Yes exersice is very important in weight loss plus the type of foods you eat, but I didn't want to scare to many people with my post and come off as a preacher. Again thank you all for the positive feedback and congrats to all of your successes !

Patrick Bonk

May 01, 2010

Great article! I know you hate the veggies, but they too make an excellent snack, keep up with the water, and remember that the sun is your friend. Though it is no Wii Fit, I have been enjoying Lips on my Xbox 360 as it keeps me bopping around and moving along with the gesture controls. Next stop, project Natal.