What kind of exercise is DDR?

For my exercise, I play the game DDR SuperNova at least 30 minutes a day. I play on "expert" mode, usually doing 8-9 foot songs, as well as some fast 7s. There is an in-game calorie counter but from what I understand it's wildly inaccurate. How many calories would this activity burn per hour for my weight of 116 pounds? What type of exercise should I log it as? I've been saying "aerobic - general" but I don't know if that's right.

on expert mode - that's the highest right? - I would think you could call it 'aerobic - vigorous'

or high impact I mean...

:)

The problem with calling it aerobic - vigorous is that I've heard from various sources that it's not very good exercise, as well as the fact that it doesn't work the upper body at all. I don't really have anything to compare it to though because I have never done "actual" dancing nor any other form of aerobic exercise before! Can I determine the strength of the workout by the elevation of my heart rate?

yes.

And I've seen my daughter doing DDR on the highest level and I would definitely call it vigorous

And she's in excellent shape.  She chooses the fastest songs too.

:)

Thank you for the advice! :)

It works the upper body if you move your arms!  Like any workout, you get out of it what you put into it.  If you want to make it more intense, then don't just use your feet.  I usually log it as general dance, because when I do it, I'm dancing, not just stepping on the right box.

also, you can get an i-toy (i think it's called) and then you'll have hand movements too

basically you just have to raise your hand(s) fast enough to hit the "hand icon" (instead of an arrow)

the i-toy has a camera in it that can see if you raise your hands or not...

but having a game watch me.... that kinda creeps me out  ::giggle::

okay basically for those of you who know nothing about DDR please do NOT claim that it's not vigorous. I actually am/was an avid DDR player for a long time... if you play for about 20 minutes on heavy, I'd say you've burned about 600 calories. I know TONS of people who have lost 30+ pounds playing DDR in about 6 months. 

move your arms... lol you have never seen it played on expert if you plan to not fail your arms basicly become limp as you trot through it ^_^

I don't know what DDR is, but emorran asked if the amount of calories the system is saying she's burned is accurate.  In my experience, (on a treadmill) when you enter your age and weight, the system guestimates how many calories an average person with the same stats would burn.  However, without being able to get your heart rate constantly, I think the numbers are on the lower side.  I tend to burn roughly 300-400 more calories than what the treadmill says I've burned (based on my heart rate monitor).

Keep up the good work and sounds like you're having fun with your workout which really helps!

Until I blew out my knee two years ago, I was an avid DDR player as well.  On expert, I would tend to pick up a pair of 1-2 pound hand weights and 'try' to do biscep crunches when not focusing on passing the songs!! :D

I have heard numerous comparisons to the DDR calorie count.  What the ingame count is designed to do is treat your activity like you are 'walking' through it.  i.e. taking steps, which makes the calorie readout highly inaccurate once you get up to the hard or expert levels.  Who walks at 300+ steps a minute?  It does not take heart rate into account.  I'll go fish out my links for you for information sake and post this evening.

 

I would check to see if your version has a work out mode, because it gives you a aerobic workout, and counts all the calories you burn for each song and the total you burn at the end.... check into that

Let me first say that I love my DDR workouts. I have trouble motivating myself to run or bike, and it's a fun and rewarding way to workout that occasionally becomes really advantageous at parties, when you can school anything on two legs. (curse those magical, DDR-playing antelope!)

More seriously, I would also say that "expert" mode is classified as aerobic-vigorous, but only if in workout mode. The problem with free mode (and other modes) is that there is too much downtime. When I use my heart-rate monitor, those few seconds between songs seem to lower my heart rate well below my target HR, and then it takes a generous portion of the next song to get it back up again.

Samianne had a good point in that you can do some workouts in between songs, when you're waiting for it to load, etc. For example, you can do some jumping jacks, you can lift barbells (esp. to get some upper body workout in), or you can do what I do, which is free style dance to the music lol. Whatever to keep your heart rate up between songs. And during the song, though, you can "jump-start" your HR by jumping on every single arrow as if it were a double arrow or even dance a little excessively until the song starts picking up, since a lot start out pretty sparse.

The best way to know how many calories you're burning, IMO, is a heart-rate monitor. It's a great investment if you're really wanting to know how many calories you burn on a day-to-day basis, but if you can't afford one, I suggest borrowing one from a friend for a few days, (you'd be surprised how many people have these) do a few "workout mode"s, then use that to estimate how much you'd burn in general.

Holy blast from the past Batman!  September 2007   I love DDR as extra cardio, too!!  I know the calorie burn on the workout mode probably isn't the most accurate, but according to it I usually burn about 300 cal in 25 min when I'm playing on Standard/Heavy and throwing in extra steps and doubles whenever possible.  One of these days I'd like to get my hands on a heart rate monitor, but until then, I'll just give it my all and know I'm sweating off the pounds while having fun!

I think aerobics sounds like a safe bet. ;) Its a great workout. When i was losing my weight, I was playing ddr just about everyday and it really helped. I lost the last 30 pounds to my goal during my ddr phase. I wish I could still pull it out but my dorm room just doesn't have the space for any such thing.

I play DDR for about 30 minutes 4 times a week on expert like you, and roughly every time it says I burn around 550-600 calories! My heart rate gets up to 170 and I sweat tons...