Does the Wii Fit work?

Giggy

I'm planning on buying the Wii Fit and just wondering does it actually work? Obviously you have to stick at anything to get results, does that apply to the Wii Fit too or does it get very boring after a while.

I don't want to lose a lot of weight but just want to tone up and get fit. Any opinions?

Yeah the WII-FIT works as an entertainment system. No it's won't get you very fit or looking great.

who007

It does work but not as you might expect. I got one at Crimbo and was delighted! I had sustained an injury running which the physio attributed to poor posture - it mean that my back was a little out of alignment which caused problems with my sciatic nerve. Had been severe enough to prevent me attending races I had paid for and halting my run in others temporarily. Got so I couldn't run across the road!
Anyway, the Wii fit is great for me cos it measures your centre of gravity and gives fun games to help you become aware of your posture. This has really helped me. Also it tracks your BMI/weight.
No, the Aerobic section isn't gonna get you aerobically fit (except maybe if you did the boxing one non-stop but that would be boring). In fact all they are good for is the warm up. The Balance section is a fun way of maintaining/understanding good posture. The Muscle section is prob where it shines (if you are not already in great shape or if you are making a comeback).. it has single leg raises, press-ups, the plank, lunges.. similar to a kind of circuit class. Unfortunately it doesn't tailor a program for you so it's up to you to pick which areas you want to train on so you could get lazy and stick with favourtites. I am a runner so I go for all leg and abs ones with some press-ups. And then there's the Yoga section. It's good in that it will help you find where your balance should be for postures, but it is let down by - the sun salutation is not correct, but altered to suit the board, and you do one pose at a time, come back out and choose the next one. There is no vinyasa flow.
So all in all, it shines in a couple of areas and is let down in a couple of others. It's still fun though and I have found myself getting up an hour early in the morning to do it before work, which if anything is a good way to start the day

EcoBrats

We have had our Wii Fit for about 6 months now and it hasn't been touched in the last 2 or 3.

It was great to begin with. Love the yoga and muscle work outs but just haven't found time for it recently.

My highest recommendation of the Wii Fit would go to all those people that pay 10 Euro a week to get weighed-in at a weight loss club. Because the Wii Fit tracks your weight (and BMI) on a graph, it gives you a clear visual of whether you are going in the right direction or not. It also allows you to set realistic weight loss targets and can provide some motivation in its own way.

Everything else said, they are great craic for friends and family alike (get then onto Super Hula or Headers), get one and give it a go!

EileenG

I was at the BT Young Scientists exhibition last weekend. There were three different studies on the Wii fit, all found that it worked as well as conventional exercise for untrained, unfit people.

There was also a study which found that chewing a rubber band worked as well at removing plaque as special anti-plaque chewing gums.

Racing Flat

EcoBrats wrote: »

We have had our Wii Fit for about 6 months now and it hasn't been touched in the last 2 or 3.

You could replace Wii Fit in that sentence with (going down through the years) exercise bike, Jane Fonda video, rowing machine, cross trainer, all those abs type machines on the shopping channels, gym ball, kettle bells, Davina McCall DVD...IMO that's one of the problems with exercise done solely for the sake of losing weight or getting fit - it gets boring. Whereas if you join a football team or tennis club, you always have a match or competition to aim for, a reason to keep going training not to mention the social advantages over 'keep fit' done at home. Also many people who go to the gym in January, stop after a few weeks. Perhaps if they do weights they should enter a weight lifting competition, if they use cardio enter a run or triathlon dwon the line, to have something extra to motivate them. I suppose, mainly, do something you enjoy and the rest (motivation, weight loss, getting fit) will take care of its self.

NanoNano

American Council of Exercise did a study. Extract below. The Wii fit is better than doing nothing at all and you never know if people who never did anything might try something else because of it. That's worth another study in a couple of years.:)

http://www.acefitness.org/getfit/studies/WiiStudy.pdf

To compare Wii Sports to the average
calorie burn of playing the actual sports,
researchers turned to values described
in McArdle, Katch and Katch’s Exercise
Physiology, a standard text for caloric expenditure
information. Compared to golfing
at a driving range
(3.9 calories per minute),
playing Wii Golf
burned 0.8 calories less
per minute. Actual bowling
burns nearly twice
as much (7.2 calories per
minute) as Wii Bowling,
while baseball burns
7.3 calories per minute
and Wii Baseball burns
2.8 calories per minute
less. Similarly, Wii Tennis
burns 2.8 calories per
minute less than the
actual game (8.1 calories
per minute). Finally,
Wii Boxing burns about 3.0 calories per
minute less than conventional sparring at
10.2 calories per minute.
The Bottom Line

floggg

Granted I have never used it, and this is my just my own, rather unhelpful, opinion, but i just think there is something wrong with trying to get fit with a computer game! Particularly as computer games was one of the reasons i found myself so out of shape this time last year!

It's a good way to make sedentary people who do absolutely nothing feel like they are doing something but honestly, that's about as far as it goes.

who007

So you would disagree with the advantages of tracking your weight/BMI, the balance/posture exercises, the validity of the press-ups etc... ?

Khannie

I have to say; I think anything that gets you up off your arse, when you would otherwise be sitting on it, is useful. Maybe wii fit isn't as good as doing a 10k run, but it's a lot better than nowt.

KikiDee

I got the Wii Fit about a year ago. I set it up and created the little mii. Then i stood on the board to get weighed etc. So I'm slightly over weight. No big deal? But the little mii just plopped down beside the measurement and she was fat!!!!

I was horrified!!! LOL But it did inspire me to cut back on what I was eating

who007

who007 wrote: »

So you would disagree with the advantages of tracking your weight/BMI, the balance/posture exercises, the validity of the press-ups etc... ?

Yeah the WII-FIT works as an entertainment system. No it's won't get you very fit or looking great.

and

It's a good way to make sedentary people who do absolutely nothing feel like they are doing something but honestly, that's about as far as it goes.

And that's about it. BMI is great for bog standard people who do nothing but when you start building any form of basic muscle mass (which happens to sedentary people when they start working out), the mirror and how your clothes fit are more important. Nintendo did well though, great way to manipulate the public and make $$$$

who007

Deleted User wrote: »

and



And that's about it. BMI is great for bog standard people who do nothing but when you start building any form of basic muscle mass (which happens to sedentary people when they start working out), the mirror and how your clothes fit are more important.

True - and since starting using it I have gone down one belt notch.. QED as far as I am concerned

Good for you. What weight are you now?

who007

I dropped from 86kg to 84kg so far since about 4 weeks ago. But to be fair I got back into running too. I def. think the Wii Fit helped though.

Oryx

Not sure about high levels of fitness, but I did read ages ago about its use as a tool for recuperating from injuries, and for physiotherapy:

Used in UK hospital More info on its use in physical therapy

Its not ideal, I mean, we should be going out and doing 'real' exercise, but if its making otherwise inactive couch potatoes do anything at all, thats a good thing.

Rob_l

I think perhasp this is the wrong forum to ask this question to anyone serious about fitness it seems a joke but it is not really for anyone who is serious about their fitness surely.

AS a means of getting people to begin exercising then yes it has great benefits and if from that point and initial fitness drive leads to a person taking a mroe active life or even interest in their own personal health then its great but for the more serious fitness fanatic no its is nothing more than toy.

Finally it is like all those people who have signed up for new gym memberships in the january rush it can only benefit you as much as you are willing to give it time to benefit. It will not make you fitter slimmer or happier unless you want to and are willing to work to get fitter slimmer happier.

Giggy

Thanks for all the replies everyone, a big help I must say because I didn't know what to expect but I think I actually won't buy it now and get myself out walking the roads instead. I also got a fitness dvd so that'll be a cheaper way of finding out if I'll get bored getting fit in front of the telly

who007

Giggy - which dvd did you get?

Giggy

I got the Mel B Totally Fit dvd, it seems very good but I'm not a pro on fitness dvd's, this is the first one I ever bought. It has warm up and cool down section, cardio and advanced cardio, and then separate sections for bums, tums, legs, arms. It's set in a really nice sunny area and in some of them you can see the beach in the background. The only thing is I'd say after a few more goes I'll have to mute it and put on some music cos her voice would grate on your brain after a while.

who007

Yeah - her voice wouldn't help me focus on the exercise all right!
Have you tried Tae Bo? _ Fantastic fitness dvd! Reputed to burn 800 calories an hour (and I would say it does if you give it the full effort!)

Edited: Obviously not if this was your first DVD.. well, maybe you might find it worth trying. Think the basic one is pretty cheap these days..

Giggy

That tae bo one sounds good, is that just what it's called or is there different tae bo dvd's?

who007

It's what it's called but there are a number of different series of them.
No. 1 here is the first - best for beginner but if you buy the Ultimate collection you get the first four for only about a tenner + P&P

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_ss_w_h_?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=tae+bo

Giggy

I think I'll get that one, thanks Who007