Wii Fit health benifits questioned
When my four year old goes for a run on the Wii Fit she gets a real sweat on! To our amazement, she powers through it effortlessly and scores 104% calorie burner ( i don;’t kow how you can get 104). Quite an impressive score, and i think, ‘well this is really great fitness tool. it’s so good to have the kids interested in fitness and health’. But with interruptions, stops and starts between exercises, the wii fit only offers a few occasions to raise your pulse in a cardiovascular excersise. The University of Kansan posted a study warning that the Wii Fit is not as beneficial as regular excerise:
“Electronic games like the Wii are not substitutes for regular exercise,” says Joseph Donnelly, director of the Energy Balance Laboratory at the University of Kansas. “They cannot give you the same workout as a regular workout.”
In fact, some health experts have estimated that it would take six to eight hours on Wii to expend the equivalent amount of energy of a regular 15- to 30-minute workout.
They say 6-8 hours to approximate energy expended! It is likely that this is the case, on average, and that some excersises, like the running, certainly can approximate the activity and its benefits much better, or at least my daughter can. The researchers admit that the Nintendo Wii and Wii Yoga are of benefit if not only just to have people take an interest in their health and to introduce people to yoga. it is great guidance on how to do postures with awareness to alignment and use their bodies with greater awareness, and that’s not a benefit more important than calories burned!


March 7th, 2009 at 12:36 pm
I am middle age,obese woman. A good friend gave me the Wii fit as a gift . I have started using yoga, aerobic, strength. I really enjoy it. I work 12 hour< On my day off I say I will only do yoga, and I ended doing all the exercise that the wii fit menu offer. I really enjoy it. I respect the opinion of the experts, but it is good way for a couch potatoe person to start exercising and enjoying it. Ive never play tennis and the Wii sport has awaken the interest in me to consider taking tennis lesson in the summer.
May 14th, 2009 at 2:37 pm
For aerobic excercises, real running is better the WII Fit. But I’ve been doing the Yoga routines and have seen my flexability increase quit a bit.