Proof that Wii Sports can help you lose weight via Wiinintendo
Six weeks ago, I began what has become a huge obsession of mine. It is called the “Wii Sports Experiment” (Read my original announcement of this from Early December ‘06). I outlined a 6 week game plan for myself, the idea being that I would continue ALL normal activity and eating habits, and simply add 30 minutes of Wii Sports to my day. For the past month and a half, I’ve stuck to these guidelines very strictly.
I’ve been meticulously keeping track of the following for the past 6 weeks:
- Weight
- BMI
- Calories burned per session/per game (via BioTrainer, thanks Nancy!)
- Body fat % (via a Digital Body Fat Caliper and a body fat scale)
- Heart Rate (at rest)
- Wii Fitness Age
- Additional Notes/Soreness
BMI (Body Mass Index):
- Before: 25.2
- After: 24.0
According to the Heart Lung and Blood Institute, my BMI indicated I was overweight before I started and now I’m at a normal BMI. There is one catch though, your BMI is meant to broadly categorize populations for purely statistical purposes. So, its accuracy in relation to actual levels of body fat is easily distorted by such factors as fitness level, muscle mass, bone structure, gender, and ethnicity. So, take these readings with a grain of salt…
On a more obvious note, my waist (around the belly button/gut) went from 34.5″ to 31″.
Calories:
For my experiment I stuck to four main games and my fitness test (which will randomly choose a game). I did calorie experiments for the following, here is what I found after averaging 15 minutes of “aggressive” play during 3 different days.
- Tennis: Coming in a close second, Wii Tennis was the runner up in calorie burning activities for Wii Sports. I burned an average of 92 calories during a 15 minute period. Like most of my game playing during the experiment I played each game fairly aggressively and would perform full swings, move left and right, and not take any breaks.
- Bowling: One of my favorite Wii Sports games also clocked in at the lowest of the three games I tested for calorie burn. I burned an average of 77 calories during a 15 minute period. Again, I played aggressively, taken steps toward the lane and bowling with a full swing of the arm. No breaks were taken and I played the game fairly quickly.
- Boxing: The clear winner here. I burned and average of 125 calories during a 15 minute period. I would like to point out that I would punch with full power, move as if I were really dodging, and hoped/bounced around like a real boxer would.
Body Fat %:
For most fitness guru’s and I guess the real question here, was “How much body fat did I lose?” The answer, a fairly significant amount. I took my body fat once a week (sometimes twice) using two methods, one was a Digital Body Fat Caliper and the other a body fat scale. I averaged the readings of the two and here are the results:
- Before: 19%
- After: 17.2%
According to The American Council on Exercise, I went from being in the “acceptable” category to being in the “fitness” category. This data really shows a lot of what I accomplished. I lost almost 2% of my body fat by doing nothing more than playing video games for an extra 30 minutes everyday.
My goal now (after the experiment has ended) is to get to 14% body fat, and I’ll be doing that by continuing my experiment even after it’s over. It’s funny how once you start something that you HAVE to do everyday, you begin to miss it if you don’t do it, even if you find it tiring or unpleasant. (Reminds of the kid in the book “How to eat fried worms” and how he continued to eat worms even after his bet was over.)
Heart Rate:
To be honest with you I only checked this when I started and when I stopped, so I don’t think the results are as rock solid as some of the others, non-the-less I saw a slight decrease in my resting heart rate.
- Before: 82
- After: 68
Wii Fitness Age:
This really has nothing to with actual fitness, considering a lot of the games score your Wii Fitness Age based on skill more than your fitness or endurance levels, even so I started at a fitness age of 46 and then after that I never went below 30 for the entire six weeks. I hit the lowest Wii Fitness Age on January 4th, with an age of 20.
Some other quick Wii stats: I’m Pro in Tennis with a 1876 score, pro in Bowling with a score of 1345 (high score 257, should be 300, but my dogs got in my way!), pro in boxing with a score of 1120.
