Do Gamers Care About Physical Health and Nutrition?

Hey Everybody,

I have a question for you. Do you care about being physically healthy? This includes fitness and nutrition. Is a more healthy lifestyle of any value to you or is it just not worth the effort?

I am working on a business model and just trying to gauge whether gamers actually care about this to get an idea about market interest. Are you already healthy? Is it too much work? Is it too daunting and intimidating to even attempt a positive change?

There is no wrong answer. There are things that I consider not worth my time and effort either so there is no judgement.

Thanks

Can't speak for all gamers but I certainly care about health and nutrition.

I think it's just in extreme cases where someone is badly addicted to games that they might let their health - and other important things lapse.

I care a lot more about nutrition than fitness. Lots of chicken, organic meals, fruits and vegetables -- low sugar oatmeal for breakfast with a splash of honey and raisans, organic chicken (cooked in coconut oil) with asparagus and quinoa for dinner

I stay fit although I'm not obsessive about it. Go to the gym five times a week doing mainly cardio machines, some basketball, and juggling a soccer ball. I do the calisthenics (push ups, sit ups, stretches, jumping jacks, etc) at home.

I eat a balanced diet. That's about it.

Yes. Little sugar, lots of tea instead of coffee, little red meat and more chicken and fish, lots of vegetables, little fruit. and WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEDDDDDDD

Is that what goes around as "healthy" nutrition in the US? Gotta admit, the organic industry does a fine job at peddling unscientific bullshit.

Same here, gaming is one of my hobbies, but fitness is even a bigger hobby and way of life for me.

I care quite a bit, especially since I beat cancer. I eat much better than I used to.

@N30F3N1X:

U are apparently uninformed, organic is important for items like blueberries, strawberries, tomatos, and grapes. Less important for most vegetables, but it's all about carcinogens in pesticides, Cancer will be the #1 killer in America before long.

I have eaten a much healthier diet than I have in the past. As if I don't, well my acne starts to break out.

Not too hard to choose between eating healthier and eliminating certain foods. Even seemily healthy ones like brown rice. When those foods are causing you to break out. I do care about fitness, and have been active in the gym in recent years. But I just don't have the time to go to one right now. Fortunately I do get quite a work out, helping my church set up and pack up for Sunday services.

Congratulations man, I know what you went through because I lost my mom to cancer. Chemotherapy is a real "Sh## show and for you to go through it and survive is truly incredible, you really are a real-life hero.

@N30F3N1X: mhm

I don't know when gamers are willing to fry their eyes with VR.

not as much as I should, I'm one of those freaks with a super-metabolism that burns through everything, so I can sit around all day and eat garbage and get 0 exercise and actually lose weight. the only way I gain weight is eating lots of protein and working out like a fiend (through muscle mass), but I also lose muscle mass incredibly fast once I stop going to the gym several times a week.

so, I don't eat as well as I should, or get enough regular exercise because there are few tangible consequences if I don't (apart from having a bit less energy maybe), but I'm sure its still bad for me to eat poorly and at certain times of the year get little exercise.

It's already close to number one, beaten only by heart diseases, which are the #1 killer in the US precisely because you guys have an unsurprisingly shitty culinary culture.

Also, the label "organic" does absolutely nothing but add scientifically meaningless restrictions to food production. It uses pesticides, which require heavier doses than synthetic ones and they are in general more toxic. The much-feared glyphosate is less toxic to humans than regular table vinegar.

Nope, decided long ago that I'm not going to be one of those guys that spent a lot of times watching what they eat only to get run over by a bus. Food is too good to be decided by how much it add or subtract from your overall life expectancy.

i dont obsess over it. im currently in the process of losing weight (though frickin injured for now...yay :( ). but i generally just eat as well as i can within a calorie deficit and i do light exercise (throw around a 10KG kettlebell 3 times a week and do a fair bit of walking).

i dont obsess over diet and i have no interest in getting ripped or anything like that. i do have cheat days. i still eat some junk food. if it causes me to die younger...meh. better than living to 120 on hand pressed potatoe juice.

I should and want to, but there's nothing healthy to eat in my house and my only alternative would be starving to death.

@MarcRecon: Awesome! Me too.

@AFBrat77: That's AWESOME! Congratulations!

@N30F3N1X: This isn't a debate and perhaps be a little less combative.

But for the record I agree with you that USA culture is prime for dietary and health failure. We have to fight against it here.

@MarcRecon:

Thanks, hero is a bit strong but I will say I impressed alot of people by keeping a positive attitude and continuing to go to work every week except chemo (hell) week. When I think of it it was crazy for me to be working around a lot of people in the wintertime with my immune system so compromised.

January 22nd is a personal holiday for me for the rest of my life. It was that day in 2013 where I found out cancer had been eliminated. 4 years out now, I eat so much better now, my numbers are phenomenal for my age, and no problems, NONE.

All I got to say is definitely see a doctor if you lose weight rapidly for no reason, have a lump spring up from nowhere (especially if it is NOT painfull), and/or you wake up in the night covered in sweat for no reason. These are all red flags for cancer, though they can be something lesser.

I dont necessarily associate myself as a gamer. Just someone that plays games.

Yes. I certainly do care about health and nutrition. I was always mindful of it and have always remained healthy as I have kept fairly active. I just never really committed to it until I hit my late 20s. You start to notice changes to your body and you have the maturity, discipline and life experiences to fully act on it. I also have the money to spend on it also, which I think the biggest downside of nutrition.

I dont think its too much work. It's not much more work than some videogame achievement. I have fantastic meals all the time that are relatively healthy and high in nutritional value. It just takes knowing what's in an ingredient, understanding cooking techniques and you can work with that to find food that are appropriate for a diet. I still allow myself to have 'cheat meals', the occasional desert and booze. Once you get used to it, it just becomes a habit that you live by in the same manner where you'd brush your teeth, shower or fill up gas in the car. It's still 'work', but once you get a taste of the increased benefits to happiness/mood, well-being, sexual health and confidence--It's just so rewarding.

I do think the culture around fitness and nutrition is daunting and intimidating, so much to detract people to even start. Health blogs, diet cults, contradictory science and medical info and people obsessing over min/maxing macros, micro-nutrients and calories. It's so caught up in alot of bullshit for someone to sell you their product, diet, workout plan, app, supplement and people fall for it when the answer is so simple.

@illmatic87: You're right. I have been around the industry/business of fitness and nutrition for many years and the whole thing is built on lies, misconception, misinformation, and hardcore sales. Very frustrating.

I'm on a diet and walking again, but I let myself go the last few years.

I do care as I'd like to be gaming for a long time yet. While I do try to limit my consumption of processed and fast foods I still have room for improvement.

I walk 4-5 blocks to any of the 5 taquerias near my home, order 2 quesadillas with steak and chorizo and maybe a taco, then walk back home with my dinner, walk a block to the store and purchase a Diet Coke, so .... yup, I'm healthy.

Work out 5 days a week and around summer time I'll be back around 10-12 % body fat and maybe with some luck I will be in single digits. Besides Vegetables which I could/need to eat more of, I have a pretty healthy diet.

3 Years ago I couldn't of cared any less about what I ate or what I did but nowadays giving up an hour and a half-two hours to work out and simply eating better is a no brainer to me. I just wish I did it when I was a teen and not in my mid 20's.

I still play games about 30-1hr a day on work days but I prioritize the gym before that now.

Sure.

But one mans ideal physical health may not be another's so you are right in that there is no right or wrong answer there.

All that matters is that you are happy with who you are

My cancer didn't really come with any pain until I fractured my arm, that's when they found it, wouldn't have known otherwise. If you don't mind me asking what did you have? Also did you have any major surgery? I lost quite a lot of use of my right arm, metal bar from my shoulder to my elbow now. They took my deltoid as well.

Also a question for any one here. What are some good back exercises I could do? I can't raise my right arm above my head or reach out so I'm kinda limited in what I can do. Every thing I see involves moving my arm in a way I can't even do.

My diet is really inconsistent. Too much stress with school and life.

@Randoggy:

I had Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma, a white blood cell cancer cousin to Leukemia. Fortunately, it responds very well to chemotherapy if you can tolerate the miracle (but very poisonous) chemical Rituxin. Basically, that's what chemotherapy is, it's willingly injecting non-toxic poison into your system to get rid of the deadlier disease. Ugly. But you knew that.

I didn't need surgery since it hadn't spread to the organs, but the Oncologist thought I would need Radiation for the 7cm tumor in the Lymph nodes behind the breastbone. However the chemo did the job and took out all the tumors. But again, it's poison, and the "chemobrain" thing is very real, I have never felt the same since mentally, perhaps it ages the brain.

A very rare symptom I had with Lymphoma was constant itching 24/7, 7 days a week, a nightmare. If I successfully scratched an area, it would randomly itch elsewhere, so on and so forth, Dermotologists were stumped, and they never tied it to cancer. Chemo ended that issue.

no, we rarely go outside

Ya chemo isn't fun man. I basically lived in the hospital for the better part of a year hooked up 24/7. I had osteosarcoma in my right humerous. I had to have 15cm of bone removed and my deltoid.

Luckily I was able to get pictures of my arm cut open on the operating table haha.

I just fractured my arm at work and that led to an x-ray, a phone call a week later telling me to come back, then just tests, tests, and more tests.

How old were you at the time of the diagnosis? I was 25. My cancer apparently targets young girls. I was considered an "old guy" for the type I got.

Based on the limitations you describe it sounds like you are still eligible for one of the best back exercises of all, deadlifts. If you cant reach to the floor try rack pulls which is a deadlift in the squat rack with the bar resting on the safety pins/bars. Another variation mainly only for lower back muscles and glutes is hyper extensions. It does not sound like you can do seated low cable row but I would try, maybe you can, it is a good one.

I don't know if deadlifts would be ideal for me, may literally pull my arm out of my torso haha.

I do. I love gaming but I also like sex and cooking and playing guitar. I stay away from MMOs though cuz that's when health and a life outside of gaming usually goes out the window for people. Game has to end at some point IMO.

I used to play a lot of sport until I blew my ankle to bits playing basketball, lost a lot of confidence and gaming took over. I'm the heaviest ive ever beem (not obese, just a little heavier, I've always been reasonably skinny) As a joke when my house mates and I used to play a lot of Dota2, every death we would have to do 10 push ups then next death 10 sit ups haha. I would love to get back into fitness, or even a better eating plan. Interested in what you can offer TC!

I do, gotta stay fit otherwise cannot "Henshin!" :P