Playing With Pokemans

[StevetheClub]

1 hour ago, Logan007 said:

Playing games with your kids is fine.  But no one is losing weight on this unless they are playing it ridiculously long.  Sorry.  There's more then just walking around a bit to help you lose weight.  You have to eat properly as well.  Also, the benefits of walking only work if you're are walking continuously, not stopping every 5 minutes to catch a Pokemon.

I'm not saying playing this game is all bad, I'm just saying that there isn't enough evidence to support everything people are touting.  I'm guessing most of the posts are BS of the health benefits.  I was a kid once too that use to play games, and I used to tell my mom BS answers too as to why I was playing for so long "oh it's so good for hand eye coordination" and all that.  But don't try telling me that after one week of playing you've gotten these miraculous healing benefits.  I get mental benefits from playing games too...until it gets boring and I drop it and I go right back to where I was before.  As someone who deals with depression myself, I know that, yes, getting out is a good thing, but once this games gets boring, they'll bounce right back to where they were before.  To truly help your depression you need to get to the root of why you're depressed, and work through it, not play a game that makes you forget your depressed for a while.  And just wait till they stop playing the game...unfortunately some will drop deeper then they were before.  It's the same with losing weight.  Unless you keep up with the walking and exercise once you're done with the game, you'll need to keep up with it or you'll just go right back to gaining weight again.

Until something has been proven to last a long time and you've done long term studies on it, don't give me these "health benefits".  If you want to play a game, then man up and say it..."I'm addicted to this ******* thing and I don't care what you think".  Don't walk around saying "Ooooh I play it because of Health benefits" (which was my original argument).  Come on...pull my other leg.

I think being critical is great, and I also don't see a point in people denying the main reason they play, which is because it's fun (I assume). I mean, you're right, if weight loss was their primary goal then this is a pretty poor way of going about it. At the same time, any expert will tell you that walking is better than not walking regardless of how much, how long, and at what pace. I'm just saying it does have benefits and I don't see why people would be negative about it.

As for the mental health piece, in no way am I going to speak to your experience, because I definitely think you know yourself best and I applaud whatever you do on your path to better mental health. I will say that for some people insight is healing and for some behavioural approaches are, and most people will be most helped by a combination of the two. While playing this game isn't guaranteed to improve everyone's mood or experience of anxiety, it certainly can, and there's solid research to back that up. But again, I fully support people doing what they know to be best for themselves, I just don't see why other people (and maybe I'm misunderstanding you and you are not one  of these people) have to be so negative about it.

[Logan007]

2 hours ago, StevetheClub said:

I think being critical is great, and I also don't see a point in people denying the main reason they play, which is because it's fun (I assume). I mean, you're right, if weight loss was their primary goal then this is a pretty poor way of going about it. At the same time, any expert will tell you that walking is better than not walking regardless of how much, how long, and at what pace. I'm just saying it does have benefits and I don't see why people would be negative about it.

As for the mental health piece, in no way am I going to speak to your experience, because I definitely think you know yourself best and I applaud whatever you do on your path to better mental health. I will say that for some people insight is healing and for some behavioural approaches are, and most people will be most helped by a combination of the two. While playing this game isn't guaranteed to improve everyone's mood or experience of anxiety, it certainly can, and there's solid research to back that up. But again, I fully support people doing what they know to be best for themselves, I just don't see why other people (and maybe I'm misunderstanding you and you are not one  of these people) have to be so negative about it.

As long as they're doing a combination of both, and not going overboard on the gaming, then I agree that it would be beneficial.

[IC Khari]