I lost 70 pounds entirely playing Dance Dance Revolution and have since gained 25 pounds of muscle and growing. AMA. (X-post from /r/Fitness)

10/10 would bang.

10/10 would dance with.

10/10 would have repressed feelings about only to have them resurface in a dream also involving my father.

10/10 would play Zelda with.

10/10 would bang while playing zelda

I'm ok with this one.

Dat last pic.

I'd play his ocarina.

I own one, actually. It's triple chambered and costs $300. Used to be obsessed.

Ok, fuck it. I'm in love.

I love you too

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errmahgerrrd

I know I'm ruining it as I'm typing this, but I love how there were no comments until now.

240 upvotes and no comments. 240 people who just nodded and said to themselves, "Yes, this man is a 10/10, I would bang him."

I bang myself all the time. In fact, I did 5 minutes ago.

The table foot, it hurts like a motherfucker. Right?

hahaahah. yes.

Ladyboner.

acknowledged. thanks? haha

Is it weird that ladybonerage did not fully occur for me until the Link costume?

natural.

please be gay

not gay, pretty metro. I dress nice and keep a clean well furnished apartment XD

Next best thing to being bisexual. The advantages of both genders but without the hassle of 'coming out' :P

this.

also, nice shoes.

How old are you?

21

How does it feel to look kind of like a buff Phil of the Future?

you are not the first person to say I look like him haha. Ricky Ulman, right?

Nice try, Ricky Ulman.

You found me out. I'll go back to Disney Channel now.

Just wanted to say that I have a very similar story, and DDR definitely is an awesome way to lose weight. I went from 165 to 125 in the span of a couple months playing DDR. Just recently started playing again to lose some extra weight I had put on from living in a second floor apartment and not being able to play... it's a very fun game, and infinitely more entertaining than jogging forever.

x1000000000000

Congratulations! You look great. How often did you use DDR?

Thank you! I played 5-6 times per week, on the highest difficulty setting for about 30 minutes to an hour without breaks.

Did it get boring after a while? I'm not familiar with DDR and don't know if you have to listen to the same music all the time.

Never boring, I played Stepmania. Its a free DDR simulator for PC, and I had every DDR and ITG game ever made running on it. Like over 1000 songs. ironically, I honestly enjoyed just playing my favorites over and over again. I have never found a more fun way to work out

How did you hook up a DDR pad to your PC to use this simulator?

Xbox 360 dance pads have USB ports ;) i currently have a metal pad with USB.

How much did the pad cost you?

$25 on craigslist!

That works out to 19.7 cents/lb.

BAHAHAHAHAHA

holy balls, aren't those several hundred new?

I got lucky I guess :P

fuck this sounds like fun, I'm not interested in fitness, but my own ddr booth in my room sounds really fun. Is it hard to set up? did you follow some kind of tutorial?

As far as setting up the game, everything can be found on the StepMania website to get you started!

✓ likes DDR

✓dresses like Link

✓ extremely cute

So... what are you up to friday night?

I'll be at Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago. Don't kill me.

You have an amazing jawline and hairline/hairdensity. You are rockin' it! :)

Thank you so much! Comments like this make me feel so good, you know? Nobody ever said nice things to me when I was bigger. It's like all the hard work is paying off.

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cravings will stop as soon as you see substantial results. then, NOTHING will get in your way.

Just for clarification, you've gained 25 pounds of MASS. Gaining 25 pounds of pure muscle is impossible even after 1 year with multiple steroid cycles.

right. Thanks for the clarification!

OH MY GOD LINK. I think I love you.

I love you too.

What are some of the biggest difference you've noticed between now and when you were overwieght?

Confidence. I have so much more respect for the human body and what it's capable of. To put things into perspective, when I started playing on Heavy difficulty, I would collapse from exhaustion halfway through playing one of my favorite songs, B4U. At the end of my little program, I shit you not I could play that song 20 times in a row before getting tired. We have an amazing capacity to change and transform, and I think the problem with most people is that they need instant gratification. If you can stick out on a program just long enough to see results, anyone whos transformed their body will tell you that you instantly become addicted to exercise the moment you see those little changes. And you don't stop until you get what you want.

Thanks. I plan on losing weight for the karma.

The key to any success is to find fuel to motivate you. A bad break up last year was the push I needed to take my body to the next level. Karma, also good ;)

B4U is my absolute favorite DDR song! It would be perfect for a workout. Reading this after having gained a lot of weight recently might just push me into buying a usb pad.

this is me acting as your pretend new personal trainer to do it. do it.

I'm 21, and I weigh 185lbs roughly, I used to weigh 130 when I was 17. Im 6ft, and skinny, but ive developed a lot of stomach fat ( fat belling) and muffin tops on my sides. You think this kind of thing will actually work for loosing weight? I already walk / bike everywhere I go which hasnt helped much. As far as Soda goes .. I spent 2 months on a low calories diet (keeping below 2000) and drinking 0 soda (except maybe once or twice a week id have a sugared drink when I stopped at a gas station) it didnt seem to help.

How often a day did you play DDR? And about how many months did it take you to lose say 20lbs?

My current weight again is 185, my goal is 140-150. I need to fit into my cloths again ... D: sad but true.

This all depends on how good of a DDR player you are. In order for it to be effective, you NEED to play on the highest difficulty, or work your way up to it. 5-6 times a week for 30 minutes to an hour. In the first month of playing and only cutting out soda and nothing else, I lost 35 pounds or so.

DDR for me has been immensely more effective than any other cardio exercise I've tried.

The sad thing is, my day job, is working at a gym / fitness center, but when Im at work ... even though i have the time to work out while at work .. I just dont like traditional gym workouts .. so i will have to give this a go. As far as Cutting out Soda's .. that part will be hard, partly because I love them, and partly because, well. Im single, living alone and its the easiest thing for me to pick up and bring home lol. I'm a complete noob with DDR, but im good with games, in general so I dont see it being an issue to move up to a higher difficulty

edit: also, what version of DDR did you have? Do you know if the ps2 DDR games will work on a ps3 (that has backwards compat)

I wish you the best of luck man, I know you will fall in love with the game. I played a free version on PC called Stepmania and hooked it to my TV. You can download every DDR ever made onto it and have hundreds of songs to choose from.

I actually lost 5 lbs a month playing DDR/ITG back in the day. My only gripe was after playing for over a year and being able to do 13s on ITG, I developed shin-splits and that took a very very long time to heal.

I forgot to address this, actually. I really messed up my shins for a while and you just reminded me. All that stomping isn't the best for chicken legs.

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You can inbox me with any questions regarding my workout :) Im not gay, but i am pretty metro I guess. Basically I like looking nice and keeping stuff clean. also shopping. lol

Giving you some karma love~ you look so great! :3

<3 lisa

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I don't have this problem. If its only a little, gaining muscle can be a great way to fill out the skin. If it really bothers you, surgery to remove the extra skin is fairly common and easy to perform I'm sure

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Raging at the gym gives me temporary angry/sexy face

cutie!! congrats on your accomplishments!

Thank you!

HERES A COPY OF MY OP, for anybody that cares. Sorry, the mods removed it and I have no idea why. Kinda pissed, this thread really inspired some people and for that I'm grateful.

Hi reddit! A friend of mine told me to share this with you, but I wasn't sure exactly which subreddit to put it in. r/fitness recommended I move it here.

When I was 17, I weighed almost 200 pounds at 5' 7". I got hooked on DDR and successfully used it as a tool to lose 70 pounds of fat with the only change in my diet being the removal of all sodas (i would drink usually 2 a day. For the past few years I'd been satisfied with my weight of 127 pounds. I'm now undergoing phase 2 of my little program and trying to gain muscle. I'm now 6 months into my own program and I now weigh 152 pounds at 5' 8".

If you're somebody struggling with weight issues or have questions about DDR and how I lost all the weight and want suggestions or just want to talk about exercise, AMA!

I don't mean to come off as arrogant or like some kind of expert with the 'AMA' or anything, but I put it there because I thought people might have questions or be curious about how I lost weight in a rather nontraditional way. At the end of the day its all about being healthy!

Here's the gallery: http://imgur.com/a/835bs

Suck it, obesity.

EDIT: The first months weight loss of almost 30 pounds was so large due to water weight. Nothing is being exaggerated, the numbers are all real. The whole weight loss process from start to finish took almost 1 year with most of my results visible in the first 6 months. I guess I'm using the term 'fat' and 'gain muscle' incorrectly as others have pointed out to me. As for how much I played, its been a long time. 30 minutes to an hour (sometimes much longer) is a general estimate and I'm sorry If it seems to superficial but I assume you the number are real, the success 100% attributed to DDR and I've never felt better :) I exhaust myself playing that game harder in 5 minutes than I do running 5 miles.

EDIT2: REGARDING BUILDING REGIMEN I'll keep this brief but I attribute my success to 4 things. 1. Motivation; something thats happened to you (maybe a breakup?) that causes you to want to grow and become a better person, 2. A trainer or friend who can properly show you how to lift weights and cycle exercises. going to the gym and doing 5 routines then leaving wont get you anywhere 3. I good preworkout for extra pump. I like N.O. Xplode. 4. Most importantly, A FILTHY SICK NASTY MEAN ASS DUBSTEP PLAYLIST. This is critical. other than that, you need to eat. I try to consume at least 3000 calories. you aren't going to get bigger from the gym If you don't give your muscles fuel. I currently go about 5 to 6 times per week for 1 hour.

Congrats dude. One question, though not exactly DDR related.

I've just started my own program to loose some weight (I weigh a little over 200lb), bought an exercise bike which I use regularly and started using a kettlebell for some muscle, did you find you had an issue/problem with excess skin? as thats something thats kinda on my mind.

cheers and bestofluck with phase 2

edit: dude, just finished going through your gallery. WOW, Well done man, well done. seeing something like that can give a dude a bit more hope.

Good luck to you as well! How tall are you? When I was bigger, all my fat was in my face and torso. My arms and legs had always been a bit on the thin side. At 200 pounds I dont think you have to worry about excess skin If you lose weight at a healthy pace. Every person's body is different though, for example, My neighbor who also lost a ton of weight doesn't have to worry about excess skin but he still has the stretch marks from when he was bigger. Personally, I didn't have this problem and I lost the weight fairly quickly too

What did you eat everyday?

I am currently running about 3-4 miles everyday on the treadmill. I have seen some results, but not as fast as I would like. I feel like its my food intake, but I never eat fast food, drink soda, or any really fatty foods.

So, besides cutting your soda intake, did you do anything else? Do you recommend that I just eat less, or maybe I should do something like drink more water or eat more of a certain food?

Thanks.

Definitely drink more water to curb your appetite when you think you are hungry. Don't starve yourself though, thats never good. At the end of the day, Your success is all about calories in vs calories out. DDR has been the highest intensity cardio I've ever done.

I own the wii version of DDR. I have tried the difficult level and failed miserably. How long did it take you to be able to play on the hardest level? It seems nearly impossible to me to complete.

From my experience most of the songs from the Wii titles are actually easier than the other games believe it or not! The learning process is different for everybody. I started playing it for fun, not to lose weight and it took me about 4 months to get good enough to understand the highest difficulty. Then even longer to condition my body to keep up!

How amazing are you at the game?

Does the practice translate into more rhythm for "real people" idk club dancing?...

Lastly, any videos of you ripping it on the mat? Thanks!

Amazing enough that If I played it in the arcade at my local movie theater people who walked by would stop and just watch in awe. I'm sure more than half of them had no idea what the hell I was doing. I honestly look really stupid when I play the hard songs because I move to fast to do anything with my hands so they just hang there. I don't know if its correlated or not, but I am told I'm a good dancer. However, I only dance to electronica and dusbtep and the style is way different than DDR. No videos online or available at the moment for me to share sorry :(