Forget Teens: Gamers Are 35, Overweight — And Sad, CDC says

[greenmedic88]

Even the most accurate survey ever taken is going to have more than its share of deviations that hardly invalidate the basic findings.

Many of the posts just on here alone seem to support this notion although I'm sure some of the personal claims are exaggerated at best.

As for all Gen Xers being a generation of kids who didn't go outside and opted to play video games instead, that's ridiculous. If that were the case, there would have been an entire generation of missing athletes at all levels of competition.

If anything, what you will likely find as any generation continues to age (Gen X, baby boomer, Gen Y or any other) physical abilities naturally decline without a conscientious effort to to keep conditioned with the natural peak for the average person typically being sometime in his/her 20s.

Things like heavy work, family etc. tends to lead to more sedentary lifestyles barring those who have physically demanding careers (law enforcement, fire dept, military, etc.). Maintaining the same eating habits as the metabolism slows with age results in natural weight gain without any effort to increase physical activity to counteract this.

When "dad" can't play tackle football/soccer/basketball/boxing anymore he can and typically does watch it as a spectator on TV, or even play it as a video game instead. Same goes for any other sport or physical activity that becomes harder to do as the years add up.

But watching TV or surfing the internet every evening in place of physical activity will have the same exact effect. There is no difference at all if the hours being spent per week are the same.

Either way, I don't see why anyone should feel defensive about this. We all know there are plenty of people who fit the stereotype, just as we all know others who are nothing like it at all.