An ISU professor recently published a study showing that kids playing activity-promoting games such as Wii Fit or Dance Dance Revolution burn three times as many calories as their stationary zombie-blasting peers.

In fact, study participants burned as many as 1,990 calories per week — just by playing video games.

The study focused on children ages 10 to 14, but big kids can probably benefit, too. Thus, we’d like to propose an additional renovation to the work currently underway at Iowa State’s recreation facilities: Wii stations.

Imagine entering the Lied Rec facility and hopping on a Wii Fit for a brutal training regimen of virtual ski jumps and e-hula-hooping. (Just make sure you wipe down the plastic balance board when you’re done.)

Or maybe scrap the $52.8 million dollar rec renovation all together. At about $350 for both a Wii console and a Wii Fit board, Iowa State could buy a home-based personalized fitness system for each of its 25,000 students, allowing all of us to reach our peak physical fitness without even putting pants on.

Or not.

Kids (of all ages) should recognize the benefits to exercise that Nintendo can’t replace.

Take the beauty of nature that can be experienced on a great bike ride, or the feeling of coming together as a team, and sinking the last goal to win the league championship. You can’t get that in your basement in front of a TV.

The answer to America’s obesity epidemic doesn’t come with controllers. It comes from getting out of the house and playing like we used to.

Parents and children shoudn’t measure success by electronic “fit credits,” but by the old fashioned method: number of trees climbed, frogs caught and watergun fights initiated. It’s about more than just fitness. It’s about being a kid.