Use Tech to Fend off Freshman 15

Aug. 1, 2007 — -- Freshmen gain many things in their first year of college: friends, knowledge and pizza boxes among other things. But no one said compiling an impressive pizza box collection comes without a price — one thing many students will also gain is weight.

As the back-to-school season rolls around, so too returns the threat of the infamous Freshman 15 weight gain.

Luckily, both the entertainment and fitness industries have taken advantage of new technologies like the Wii and Nike + Ipod to give college kids a fighting chance in the war against beer bellies.

Michael Kanellos, technology expert and editor at large at CNet.com, believes tech's turn toward fitness has been borne out of necessity. "People are really worried about obesity and people sitting in front of the TV playing video games. Why don't we make playing these games more fun while also getting exercise?"

Combining video games, a notoriously sedentary activity, with exercise has reached new levels with the advent of the very active Nintendo Wii console, but it is not a new concept.

Arguably the first popular video game to combine exercise and entertainment was Nintendo's "Track & Field" game released in 1985 in which players could run in place on a pad on the floor to control their virtual counterpart. The game has proved so popular that real track and field teams still encourage its use during at-home, supplemental training.

Fast-forward more than a decade when Dance Dance Revolution began making its way around the world after its 1998 release in Japan.

"DDR is awesome," Wake Forest University senior and avid dancer Andrew Wall told ABCNEWS.com, describing the game in which the player has to step on the correct colored floor panel at the right time to complete the dance, "and it's a good workout too. You have to be fast."

When players began swinging their Wii controllers in every direction while playing virtual tennis, baseball and boxing among other sports games in 2006, many got a workout without noticing it.