The findings of a new study published on Monday in the Archives of Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine suggests that video games might actually be helpful in burning more calories than some other exercises.

A study where 18 children between the age group of 11 and 15 tried their hand on dancing and boxing for Microsoft Xbox 360's Kinect. Through the study it was established that when the kids played the game their were burning calories more than 150 percent in the dancing game, while in the boxing game the calorie burned was more than 263 percent.

These stats are higher than when kids play the normal video games.

Dance Central moved up the children's heart rate to 118 beats on an average per minute and Kinect Sports Boxing increased it to 131 beats per minutes, which is higher than 50 percent than their inactive heart rate. The previous research conducted measured calorie burning on the Wii gaming console when the same games were played, dancing and boxing.

It was found that in comparison with the Kinect system, Wii burned lesser calories. This can be due to the fact that Kinect system involves motion sensors rather than in Wii were hand held controllers are used to play games, which limit body movement.

The University of Chester, where the research was carried out, funded the study.