Want your child to lose weight? Let them play a video game-assuming it’s the right video game. That’s the sort-of advice from a new study presented in the medical journal Pediatrics by the Mayo Clinic. The actual study gets ever so slightly more complicated. That’s science for you.

The new study measured 25 children, including 15 of normal weight and ten obese, while playing video games. Researchers found that sitting still watching TV or playing with a traditional controller caused kids to expand the exact same amount of energy. However, playing a title using a video camera interface, such as the Sony EyeToy, expanded three times as much energy. Obese children burned the most calories while playing the dance games at just over six times as many as sitting still.

So, should every parent rush out to buy their child Dance Dance Revolution? Obviously there are better athletic activities than even fake dancing to techno tracks. Still, if a kid is diehard into video games it certainly couldn’t hurt to have them play something healthy for a change. While it may not actually make them slim down; in dieting every little bit helps.

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