Study: Wii Fit is Not Making Your Family More Fit
The little ones will benefit the most from Wii Fit.
The Wii has gamers moving in ways that other system's just can't match – at least until Microsoft's Natal and Sony's "Gem" is out in 2010.
Nintendo, knowing that it has the attention of the mainstream consumer, created Wii Fit with its own custom Balance Board accessory. As the name of the game suggests, Wii Fit aims to promote fitness through various balance and yoga-like activities. The only question is – does it work?
While there have been gamers who stick to a thorough Wii-based regimen of sports-related waggling activities, and have lost weight because of it, a new study conducted by Scott Owens out of the University of Mississippi suggests that Wii Fit makes no significant changes to a family's fitness levels overall.
Researchers tracked the fitness levels of eight families for three months, then introduced Wii Fit into the families and tracked for another three months.
Daily tracking revealed that families appear to slowly lose interest in playing with Wii Fit. Daily Wii Fit use per household declined by 82 percent, from 22 minute per day during the first six weeks to four minutes per day during the second six weeks, according to PC World.
Owens concluded that “modest amounts of daily Wii Fit use may have provided insufficient stimulus for fitness changes."
That doesn't mean that the Wii Fit was completely ineffectual. The study found that children displayed significant increases in aerobic fitness, but that wasn't enough for researchers to categorize as "significant changes in daily physical activity, muscular fitness, flexibility, balance or body composition for families as a whole."
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Of course not, no silly game console is ever going to do that,lol. Its lifestyle, motivation, environment, diet. People dont have the attention span like they used to, everything changes so fast these days. I seem to change out my computer parts now every year instead of every 3 like I used to.
duh its a video game lulz
You told it... 4 minutes a day of training... is not going to make you thinner... especially if you eat bad stuff.
So, the Wii Fit isn't making them fit? Sure it's not their lack of motivation or attention span?
Seems like it's their lack of motivation and attention span. It's also probably a lack of knowledge regarding fitness and a proper diet.
That's not to say the Wii Fit will make you look like Matthew McConaughey, however, even with daily use.
I could have told you that the Wii Fit isn't a great fitness tool and also that people have short attention spans. It would have taken me about ten seconds. Instead this guy spent six months researching this.
Why isn't increased aerobic fitness in children significant?
Give something to someone that isn't interested in buying it themselves and expect them to be interested in it? I think the basic premise of this study is flawed.
Also, this study breaks many of the rules to scientific experiments, like having a control while you test. This study assumed the people kept the same lifestyle before and after the Wii. In an 11 month time span you change your lifestyle drastically just to accommodate weather, let alone holidays based around eating and fasting.
To be a true study of the life changes any exercise device can bring to a household, you need to find households that are incredibly similar and introduce the device to a group and leave at least 1 household without the device and under observation. You will actually have comparable results, unlike this study of assumptions.
I lost a lot of weight playing DDR. That will always be the ultimate fitness/video-game combination! And it kinda has the reverse effect too, since in the beginning you suck at it and don't move around so much, but then as you get better you reach super-fast levels where you actually run the risk of bodily injury. I've seen many friends face-plant while doing MAX unlimited on double-pad. =D
Well hello Captain Obvious! Wii games, a lot of them just take a flick of the wrist. There's no cardiovascular activity in that. Of course you won't get "Fit" playing the "Wii Fit" or other Wii games for that matter.
i don't understand, every morning i watch the wii fit routine with my coffee and box of donuts...yet i have not lost a single pound...i will sue!
...in other news, the sky is blue.
Did the study include better posture? A lot of the games tests your balance and posture affinity. These aspects are vital pillars to good health. If we have less people lounging forward with a weak left leg we'd have a lot less people slipping on ice.
8 families is a really small sample size. You need at least 30 to make it statistically valid, plus an equivalent control group.
Wii Fit is not the same as body fitness. It only makes you game fit. :}
It depends on how you define "fit". Does yoga make you more fit or does lifting weights make you more fit?
Wii unFit
how much money was wasted with this study?
Well hello Captain Obvious! Wii games, a lot of them just take a flick of the wrist. There's no cardiovascular activity in that. Of course you won't get "Fit" playing the "Wii Fit" or other Wii games for that matter.
I'd like to see you do well in Wii Fit by just flicking your wrist.
Sounds like people are using Wii Fit to warm up for a real game. Like the boxing ones. Dont want to pull a muscle playing those...
This study says nothing at all about Wii Fit.
The only possible conclusion is that people tend to use Wii Fit less over time, if allowed. If you don't mandate the use of the object being studied, then the study says nothing about the object.
Well hello Captain Obvious! Wii games, a lot of them just take a flick of the wrist. There's no cardiovascular activity in that. Of course you won't get "Fit" playing the "Wii Fit" or other Wii games for that matter.
If all it took to get fit was just a flick of the wrist then 95% of the internet could be classified under "health and fitness".
I guess the only way to get couch-potato adults to exercise is to rig the couch to zap them every so often.
Funny...I'm 31 and I've lost 3 stone playing Wii fit, and continuing to do so. My posture is better (although apparently it was very good to begin with) and my centre of balance is greatly improved (left foot doesn't ache as much after walking for 30 minutes or more).
Cardio improvements? Of course not because the cardio games don't last long enough and when things start becoming actual work people will switch off. That being said, a lot of my friends (as it the trend it seems) work up more of a sweat playing boxing than Wii Fit.
Wii Fit Plus intrigues me - it's a lot more structured and geared up towards actual exercise than the gimmick "game health" the original was built on.
The point being (premature posting) is that everybody is different and the key to exercise ALWAYS is motivation - I was motivated to lose weight, Wii Fit was a good enough idea to get me started (I'm doing more traditional exercise now I've shifted sufficient weight to move properly) and I'm addicted to exposing the timing flaws in the Ski Jumping game.
The study as a whole, as many others have said, is just flawed and doesn't mean shit - my results alone disprove the data collected.
8 families is a really small sample size. You need at least 30 to make it statistically valid, plus an equivalent control group.
Agreed.
I don't even know why they are even being taken seriously with such poor rigor. It sounds like they were just trying to get attention by pointing fingers to the fad of the month.
Doing the same study with a gym threadmill would probably also show the same lack of interest after the novelty of the new toy fades off of the subjects.
My mother (In her 60's now) dropped 3 sizes by religiously working out on the fit balance board. She didn't loose weight, but she looks a hell of a lot better than she did with much more muscle tone.
Does the fit make a family more fit? It depends on the family.
Tell that to my mother who lost 3 dress sizes doing the fit balance board daily.
Well, my girlfriend lost over 4 kilo's over about 2 months time. It's not huge but...
It all depends on what u eat and how serious u take the exercise. My girlfriend trains at least 5 times per week, but mostly 7. Also, every time she does it for at least an hour and mostly 1,5. Other than that, ofcourse if u keep eating fatty foods and stuff, this is not going to help u.
It's not a miracle fat burner, but it stimulates people to exercise longer and more frequently. It works, but it's not a miracle product...
Ummmm... Worhtless Study... Of course if you only exercise 4 minutes a day you won't get any more fit... Don't matter if you were doing Wii Fit or running... This study just showed that the Wii Fit might not be interesting to those who want to work out.
So because they got bored its considered not effective at reducing weight? I guess the guy that was running a strict regimen on free weights, treadmill, rowing, and other exercises is doing nothing because he decided he didn't feel like it. No exercise is effective at 4 minutes per day. Useless study.
Pretty flawed study. There's a big difference between a family that chooses to buy a Wii Fit vs. a study group in which a Wii Fit was "introduced." I'm guessing the family that bought it because they want it uses it more often.
"Hey m'ma, look at me! I can stand on one leg on the Wii thingie while holding a bucket of KFC!"