You don't need a gym membership and barbells to get a good workout anymore. With today's videogame technology, it is surprisingly easy to workout, lose weight, and have fun while doing it all. Yes, the holy trinity of keeping fit can be easily accomplished by playing videogames.

The Statistics Don't Lie
The World Health Organization released some staggering statistics regarding the current state of obesity around the world, and the results are less than comforting. Based on WHO's reports, there are currently more than 1 billion adults who are overweight, and at least 300 million of those are clinically obese. Current obesity levels range from below 5% in China, Japan and certain African nations, to over 75% in urban Samoa. But even in relatively low prevalence countries like China, rates are almost 20% in some cities.

An estimated 22 million children under five are estimated to be overweight worldwide. According to the US Surgeon General, in the USA the number of overweight children has doubled and the number of overweight adolescents has trebled since 1980. The prevalence of obese children aged 6-to-11 years has more than doubled since the 1960s. Obesity prevalence in youths aged 12-17 has increased dramatically from 5% to 13% in boys and from 5% to 9% in girls between 1966-70 and 1988-91 in the USA.

What caused this change? How did this increase skyrocket so high? Is the current state of the world's health problems direct results of our fast paced world where we have even less and less time for ourselves, and so we cut corners wherever we can to speed up the process? Are the fast food restaurants to blame for giving us high fat, high cholesterol foods that we scarf down because we are too lazy or don't have the time to prepare our own food? Perhaps technology is to blame for the current state of world health. Do kids spend too much time now staying inside, watching countless hours of television and refusing to go outside unless it is to go from home to school and then back again?

Things like fat and body image wouldn't be a problem if the issue was simply an "eye of the beholder" deal where some people find skinny people more attractive or vice versa. No, the issue extends beyond mere physical appearance and hurts most at the sheer number of problems that can stem from unhealthy lifestyles. Being overweight and obesity can lead to adverse metabolic effects on blood pressure, cholesterol, triglycerides and insulin resistance. Besides those life threatening conditions, you've also got non fatal debilitating health problems such as respiratory difficulties, chronic musculoskeletal problems, skin problems and infertility.

So What Can Be Done?
The answers are obvious: 1) Watch the type of foods you eat, 2) Learn to manage and control your food portions, and 3) Exercise regularly.

The answers might seem easy