3D workouts in a virtual world.

• Position: Weight Loss - Brief article

Participants in two weight-loss programs--one involving traditional health club sessions and the other delivered online in a 3D virtual world--lost similar amounts of weight and body fat, but the online contingent reported significantly greater gains in behaviors that could help them live healthier and leaner lives.

"Ifs counterintuitive--the idea of being more active in a virtual world--but the activities that they do in a virtual world can carry over into the real world. Through visualization and education, they can try activities that they had not attempted before," emphasizes Jeanne Johnston, assistant professor of kinesiology at Indiana University, Bloomington.

More and more people have been turning to online weight-loss programs, but Johnston points out they often lack important elements of human...