Studies into how effective the Wii is for shedding pounds are not new. Earlier this year, one gamer committed himself to a six-week regime of playing Wii Sports for thirty minutes a day, and came out nine pounds lighter. Not only that, but you should spend a day here at the Wii Fanboy offices -- it's all well-oiled, rippling biceps, bulging pectorals, and washboard stomachs. Sort of.
Anyway, the scientific community has finally followed suit, with two UK-based researchers testing exactly how much of a workout Wii users are getting, compared to Xbox 360 gamers. Using teenagers as their subjects, the pair discovered that playing on the Wii burnt off an extra 60 calories per hour than gaming on the Xbox 360. Their conclusion? That while the Wii certainly helps with weight loss, it probably isn't an ideal substitute for regular exercise, cruelly scuppering our plans to work off post-holiday season pounds with some lengthy Wii Tennis sessions. Their findings were published in the British Medical Journal, no less.
Admittedly, these results tell us little that we didn't already know, thanks to the experiment we mentioned in the first paragraph. But now that the same process has been carried out by the white coats, rather than Some Dude on the internet, some may claim it has an extra layer of credibility.
[Via BBC]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
12-22-2007 @ 6:01PM
troy said...
All that will change when Wii Fit hits.
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12-22-2007 @ 6:18PM
Fist Drark said...
Mhmm.
12-22-2007 @ 7:35PM
d3p0 said...
BBC or not I'm calling BS. I've never seen someone covered in sweat from playing BioShock. I wonder if they bothered to note the difference between 'acting the game' and 'just playing the game'. In Wii Sports it's easy to play boxing with only your wrists but the exercise is in actually moving your body. Plus they are testing kids for an hour? Most kids can't play at a high intensity level for more than 20 minutes before their arms get sore. Lastly, what games in Wii Sports did they test with? Last time I checked, if you're looking for exercise you need to steer clear of bowling and focus on boxing.
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12-22-2007 @ 8:44PM
ChrisG said...
Bowling, Tennis and Boxing.
12-22-2007 @ 9:24PM
Cadin said...
Found this quote at Webmd.com: "That device didn't capture the teens' arm movements. That oversight might have led to underestimates of how many calories the teens burned." (http://children.webmd.com/news/20071220/wii-may-have-wee-effect-on-calories)
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12-22-2007 @ 10:14PM
ScoTT said...
It all depends on the game you're playing. I work up a sweat playing Wii Boxing. DDR Hottest Party can burn 5-10+ calories per song. Wii Fit definately will burn some calories. But, of course, you aren't going to lose tons of pounds shaking the Wiimote a little bit in Super Mario Galaxy, but the Wii still is the healthiest console.
So far, DDR would be the only major 360/PS3 game that requires much more effort than a twitch of a thumb. Calorie-burning games don't even always need to have first-party motion-sensitive controllers like the Wiimote. Wii Fit and DDR don't even require the remote/nunchuck for some of their games, they just have a special controller (kind of like GH3 does).
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12-22-2007 @ 10:47PM
Hame said...
Good, the Wii is a games console, not an exercise machine. I always cringe when the Wii is talked-up in the non-gaming media as "great exercise". As if all it is is a frigging exercise machine! I play sport to exercise, I play video games to relax thank you very much and despite what some might believe the Wii does actually have games that don't involve tiresome frantic arm-waving. Though I suppose you wouldn't know it from the marketing....
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12-22-2007 @ 11:13PM
ScoTT said...
Yes, the Wii is the most calorie-burning console but games like Super Mario Galaxy, Smash Bros., GH3, Zelda: Twilight Princess, and Metroid Prime 3 make it far, far more than just a little high-tech workout machine.
12-23-2007 @ 8:59AM
saylorsgang said...
I started a workout regiment with the Wii and Wii sports ,every morning I box 1 bout and do 1 fitness test, and I have noticed Ive lost some weight, not much,but I have built up stanima, before I bout of boxing almost killed me but now I can go almost 3 now. Does anyone know how much weight the Wii Fit thing will hold? Im pushing 280, I really dont want to break it.
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12-23-2007 @ 12:25PM
Roman said...
One pound of body fat contains about 3000 calories.
So - you would have to play Wii fit for 50 hours in order to loose one pound - provided you also aren't overeating.
So, that 30 minutes a day gamer spent a total of 21 hours playing Wii sports and burned 1260 calories - roughly half a pound of body fat.
As anyone who has lost a considerable amount of weight knows (5 years ago I lost 60 pounds), the scale can be deceptive. When you see something like 9 pounds going away that quickly, it probably means you are loosing water weight.
Said gamer didn't loose 9 pounds from Wii sports. It could have been a number of things (Like the cereal boxes say - Wii sports combined with a balanced diet).
Unless you are very fantatical about it, you won't reshape your body with Wii sports. Combined it with a lower calorie diet (and maybe some "real" exercise) and you drop the pounds.
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12-23-2007 @ 3:35PM
ScoTT said...
Well, you might not go from having a potbelly to having rock-hard abs from playing Wii Sports/Fit, but which is better: Buying a Wii and buring a little bit of extra calories, or buying a 360/PS3 instead and burning no extra calories?
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