Virtual Reality Headsets - worth the money? (1 Viewer)

[Jon]

Just an update on how much I used the Quest 3 during its first month. The screenshot shows daily usage. If it shows a trophy, that means I burned at least 300 calories on that day.

Goal for this year is to do 300+ calories per day 5 days per week. That is about 6500 calories per month, or nearly 2lbs in weight loss, given no increase in calories from diet.

The apps I will use will be Beat Saber, FitXR, Eleven Table Tennis and Punch Fit. Possibly throw in some Thrill of the Fight. There is a subscription based fitness app (like the FitXR one) called Supernatural. It is a bit like Beat Saber but tilted towards fitness. You still whack blocks with your sabers but it promotes more movement compared to Beat Saber. However, it is only available in the US at the moment, due to music licensing issues. Hopefully it comes to the UK because I would like to try it.

 

[CJ_London]

Just curious- when you hit your 300 cal target, how much time does it take? I do a lot of walking and burn 300 cals in about 1.7 miles which takes me about 30-40mins depending on conditions

 

[GPGeorge]

Just curious- when you hit your 300 cal target, how much time does it take? I do a lot of walking and burn 300 cals in about 1.7 miles which takes me about 30-40mins depending on conditions

I use an app called MapMyWalk on my iPhone. It's produced by UnderArmor, but there are free and paid versions. I use the free version. It is adequate for my needs. Here's a recent summary. I had a bad day that day an arrived home to a blood pressure of 98/66, which is highly correlated with slower pace.

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That said, I rely heavily on metrics to keep myself honest for both diet and exercise as well as feedback on performance.

 

[Jon]

Just curious- when you hit your 300 cal target, how much time does it take? I do a lot of walking and burn 300 cals in about 1.7 miles which takes me about 30-40mins depending on conditions

It very much depends on the app you use. You can see from the attached screenshot that I burned 348 calories in 52 move minutes. The move minutes is the number of minutes you are in the VR apps doing movement, as opposed to being stationary.

But, something like FitXR will burn at a significantly faster rate than say ping pong.

I think more relevant is:
- Regardless of weather, you can still use it
- It feels less like exercise, so more likely to do it
- Gives you more spare time, because when you go for a walk, normally you have to drive to the location

Do you drive to your walking location?

 

[Jon]

That said, I rely heavily on metrics to keep myself honest for both diet and exercise as well as feedback on performance.

I'm 100% with you on that one. What doesn't get measured doesn't get done.

OMG, you really did 27K steps?!

 

[CJ_London]

@GPGeorge long walk tho'. I typically do 13-15k steps a day during the summer and around 10k in the winter (tend to focus on steps rather than the miles) and les in winter because the evening walk gets curtailed and the weather is sh*te.

@Jon - sounds like a fairly similar burn rate.

I read somewhere that with walking, the burn rate is dependant to a certain extent on weight - around 1.5cals per lb i.e. the heavier you are, the higher the rate of burn. So exercising with a view to losing weight has a reducing benefit if you want to keep a straight line in calorie burn. - Eat less or exercise more!

 

[Jon]

@Jon - sounds like a fairly similar burn rate.

I read somewhere that with walking, the burn rate is dependant to a certain extent on weight - around 1.5cals per lb i.e. the heavier you are, the higher the rate of burn. So exercising with a view to losing weight has a reducing benefit if you want to keep a straight line in calorie burn. - Eat less or exercise more!

The burn rate on the stats I posted is the aggregate of using several different apps. You can get very high burn rates if you want to go all out on the exercise apps. I've been using, for example, FitXR with a 9 minute workout on the beginners level. But if you did a 30 minute workout on medium or hard, well, the calorie burn goes up accordingly. Also, my stats may differ because I am about 185lbs, aged 58. I am not sure of the algo used to calculate the rate of burn, but if you are heavier, you will burn more.

Eat less or play more. Forget the exercise! VR is play!

 

[Jon]

Just found a great link for you. I am not sure how accurate it is, but it gives you some great insight into calorie burn per app.

Does Playing VR Burn Calories? A Guide to Virtual Fitness

Discover how VR can revolutionize fitness, burning calories through games from light puzzles to intense boxing. Experience a new era of digital workouts.

vr.space

 

[Jon]

How many calories per hour do you think you would burn doing this. Rather I lot I believe! Full body, squats, the lot.

 

[Jon]

This lady has a great channel actually. VR Mom does some interesting videos. Here is her doing a Zombie Invasion one. The way she is doing it, its a bit of a workout. I'd want VR Mon on my team!

 

[Jon]

Ok, so I just did a FitXR HIIT 6 minute beginners routine. I burned 43 calories, or at a rate of 430 calories per hour. It involved hitting glass balls, squats, twisting and more. These exercises are all a bit different and hit different parts of the body. A real whole body workout.

 

[Jon]

Just did one which was 69 calories in 9 minutes, or 460 calories per hour. I was breathing hard.

 

[Jon]

I'm up to 330 calories for the day. Played more Beat Saber, which is definitely the one that I find easiest to play but still gives a calorie burn. I was doing the Hard level, and tried Expert. It is definitely a step up in intensity and gets you breathing harder.

 

[Jon]

Like I've started to identify as non-binary two spirit in VR? When I come out I will tell everyone.

 

[GPGeorge]

I'm 100% with you on that one. What doesn't get measured doesn't get done.

OMG, you really did 27K steps?!

I don't necessarily trust the steps counter in this app, but then, shuffling along probably involves more steps than striding briskly. On the other hand mileage in the app seems to be quite accurate when compared to driving similar routes. It relies on GPS.

 

[Gasman]

Youngsters have to be very careful it seems?

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...nvestigation-kind-virtual-ra**-metaverse.html

 

[Jon]

For me, I don't buy it. If we say that someone experiences the same psychological abuse in VR as someone in the real world, what about all the kids playing Call of Duty day in day out? Are we complaining that they are suffering from PTSD due to the war? Video games are full of people shooting others, being attacked by zombies, shot down in dogfights and innumerable other atrocities. And this includes both VR games and 2D ones.

To follow this to its logical conclusion, we should ban all video games in VR, and then perhaps ban all Xbox games that have violence in them, like nearly all of them!

Furthermore, in VR, you press a button and you instantly escape any "situation". Compare that to a real life situation.

To quote the Daily Mail article:

A senior police officer told the Mail that sexual offending in the metaverse is now 'rife'.

They should also add that murder is rife in VR (and non-VR) video games, a worse offense with higher legal penalties.

Edit: And violence is in literature, films, theatre, radio. I think that's all media? Plus, in the Metaverse, the accused do not look like real people, but like cartoonish avatars. How about tackling real crime, like knife and gun attacks, physical abuse and election interference?

 

[Jon]

I've come across a couple of new apps, both of which are free. Have yet to try them but watched a YouTube video. They are: Hot Squat and The Fastest Fist.

Edit: Just noticed The Fastest Fist is not on the Quest. So, I think you might have to use something like Steam and have that connect to your Quest. You can get VR games on Stream and an app that links the two. But then you need a PC with enough graphics power. And the same goes for Hot Squat. Shame, was looking forward to The Fastest Fist in particular.

Should we ban this VR game because of the reasons in my previous post?

 

[Jon]

For those interested in VR Fitness, there is a site dedicated to it: https://www.vrfitnessinsider.com/

They even have a filter on their site so you can find apps that target specific body parts. e.g. chest or arms.

By the way, OhShape looks quite good:

Lady who lost 74lbs using VR:

Christine Whyte Shares Her Story of Weight Loss Through FitXR | VR Fitness Insider

www.vrfitnessinsider.com

 

[Jon]

I just had another thought about the Daily Mail article. To the best of my knowledge, there is nothing that the "offenders" can ra** with, and no body parts where the "victim" can be raped. So quite how they call it gang ra** is beyond me. How about solving real life ra** cases, or concentrate on burglaries, where in London 82% of cases go unsolved?