DEL.ICIO.USHEALTH / WORKOUT
Can Wii Fit deliver both fun, weight loss? Depends
For the Journal-Constitution
Sunday, December 28, 2008
Thin by Christmas. That was the goal.
I bought a Wii and Wii Fit in October, figuring that by the time everyone else was unwrapping the Wii Fits Santa left under their trees and resolving to lose weight in the new year, I’d already be back in my skinny skirts.
Nintendo
Original size 24p/ Screengrab of Wii Fit’s different exercise positions you can buy this season to help loose weight.
Nintendo
Original size 24p/ Screengrab of Wii Fit’s different exercise positions you can buy this season to help loose weight
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Nintendo released the Fit — a pressure-sensitive balance board that comes with 40 exercise-oriented games — in May and couldn’t keep them in stock. Resellers snapped them up and sold them for well over their $89 retail price. By the end of November, Nintendo had sold 3.5 million in the United States alone.
What’s made it so sought-after? Well, the Wii itself became incredibly popular because it’s a video game system for people who don’t like video games. It’s simple and intuitive. Likewise, the Wii Fit is supposed to be an exercise system for people who don’t like exercise.
That’s me.
I walk to work nearly every day — about 15 minutes round-trip — and a few times a week I go for a walk or work out in my apartment complex’s sorry excuse for a fitness center.
But I don’t like it. And I don’t do enough of it.
With the Wii Fit, I figured I could exercise at home any time of day. And maybe it really would feel like playing a game. Maybe I’d get sucked into trying to beat my high score and play again and again until one day I realized my body was as toned as a Desperate Housewife.
Then again, I thought, maybe I’d hate it. Maybe I’d be out $350 I could have put into my liposuction fund.
I decided to go for it and to keep a journal of my experiences: 50 days on the Wii Fit. What follows on are the high (and low) lights.
Day 1: Tonight a young, tech-savvy friend came over and helped set up my new toy. It seemed pretty simple — pop in a few batteries and plug in a few cords behind the TV.
She hopped on the board, which looks sort of like an extra-wide bathroom scale, and entered her age and height. “Measuring, measuring,” the Fit announced in its high-pitched computer voice. Then up came my friend’s weight and Body Mass Index (BMI) score.
“Overweight,” the Fit declared. In an instant, her “Mii” avatar got a little pudgier around the middle. Ouch.
I decided to wait until tomorrow to step on for the first time. It was late, and I prefer to suffer humiliation in private.
Day 2: Good news! The Fit has declared my BMI normal. Now, I know that my friend is actually thinner than me — the BMI scale can be cruel to people as short as she is — but I was still pleased. No pudgy middle for me (onscreen anyway).
That didn’t mean mortification wasn’t in store.
Next came a balance test. I spent 30 seconds shifting my weight from leg to leg to keep lines on the screen within a little window. When it was over, I got this message: “Looks like balance isn’t your forte. Do you trip a lot when you walk?”
Well … yes, actually.
I entered an initial goal of losing 8 pounds in two months, which seems unlikely but didn’t bother the Fit. Then it was on to the actual workout.
The Fit offers four categories of games: yoga, strength, aerobics and balance. Most games last one to three minutes. At the end of each game you get a score and a category level. A four-star score in aerobics makes you a “Calorie Incinerator.”
Two stars in yoga means you’re a “Yoga Apprentice.”
I worked my way through the available games. (You have to complete a certain number and earn a minimum score before you unlock some of the more difficult ones.) I wobbled through a tree pose and managed some shaky squats. I fell hopelessly out of rhythm on step aerobics and couldn’t quite figure out how to catch the hoops in the hula-hoop game.
Then came soccer. To play, you shift your weight to help your Mii head soccer balls and dodge flying cleats and panda heads. I scored a 15. Sad music began to play, and my Mii dropped to her knees and pounded her fists on the ground. My category? “Unbalanced.”
Day 3: I’ve gained a pound. I managed 19 minutes of yoga and strength exercises, and have to say I don’t like them any more in front of the TV than I do in the gym.
I unlocked a new game that requires you to “walk” across a tightrope without getting caught by what I think is a bear trap. Not surprisingly, I was “unbalanced” at that, too.
The backs of my thighs are somewhat sore, and I’m a little stiff through the shoulders and neck. That may have more to do with playing the regular Wii sports games with a friend last night.
Day 4: OK, I hate the strength exercises. And there are a lot more strength and yoga exercises than there are aerobics and balance games.
I’m already sick of the slightly creepy “personal trainers” who constantly tell me: “Don’t give up.” “Don’t forget to breathe.” “You’re a little shaky.” “Tighten your abdomen muscles.” “Great job.” “Count with me.”
I’m pretty sure my form is incorrect on a number of exercises. Although the Fit shows you where your center of gravity is and should be, it can’t register everything you’re doing.
Day 6: Managed 35 minutes of aerobics and balance games before heading out to a party last night. Did only 25 minutes today. But I conquered the Table Tilt balance game!
This is my favorite of all the games by far. My movements send balls rolling around tables of various shapes and inclines. The object is to drop the balls into the holes in the tables before time runs out. Tonight I cleared all eight levels.
Day 11: Didn’t exercise for five days because I was out of town at a class reunion. (Yes, I wish I’d lost weight before the reunion.) So tonight I did 75 minutes. I made myself do some yoga and strength exercises, which I still find boring and difficult.
One thing I’ve noticed: It takes longer than 75 minutes to do 75 minutes’ worth of Fit exercises, thanks to the annoying tips from the personal trainer and the time it takes to reveal scores and rankings.
Day 12: Down 2 pounds. My back is starting to hurt, but I got through 32 minutes of exercise.
Day 15: The left side of my lower back has been in agony for three days. Was it the hula hooping? Rhythm boxing? Regular Wii tennis? I can’t believe I have a Wii Fit injury. I can hear real athletes everywhere laughing.
Day 16: My back is nearly better. I went for a 55-minute walk outdoors and spent 37 minutes on the Fit. When I signed on, the Fit reminded me that it hadn’t seen me for four days.
Day 18: Another Wii Fit injury, this one indirect. I whacked my ankle — hard — against my coffee table, which I have to keep moving to accommodate the balance board. Walked 50 minutes outside and did 35 minutes of “Fitting” yesterday, and 64 minutes today.
Day 20: Skipped yesterday because of a cold. When I signed in, the Fit nagged, “Too busy to work out yesterday, eh, Soyia?” Weight is down half a pound.
Day 24: I’ve spent 134 minutes on the Wii Fit in the past three days and taken two 45-minute walks. Best of all, I achieved “perfect rhythm” on the aerobics Basic Step game. Yep, I didn’t mess up once.
Day 26: On Minute 12 of my workout, just as I’d finished pretending to be a penguin shifting back and forth to catch fish, my little Fit Credit piggy bank lit up as triumphant music played. I’d hit the 10-hour mark. My piggy is now shiny gold.
Day 29: Running in place sucks. Nintendo has designed beautiful animated jogging paths to “run” through, but it’s still just running in place. It’s the most strenuous of the aerobics games, which means it’s probably the one I need to be doing most. But I’m frustrated by the scoring system. My score seems to drop each time, even though I’d swear I’m running faster.
Day 31: I’m halfway through my allotted days and still 6.8 pounds from my goal. That’s with 15 hours and 41 minutes of total Wii Fit exercise. Depressing.
Day 38: I’ve all but abandoned the yoga and strength exercises. They just aren’t fun. I’m thinking the aerobics will do more of what I need anyway.
Day 42: Tonight I earned 357 points in soccer. How far I’ve come from that first day and 15-point score! It’s a good feeling. This is sort of what I was imagining before I got the game and was dreaming of a workout that didn’t feel like work.
Day 49: The Fit Credit piggy bank lit up again tonight. I’ve hit the 20-hour mark. Tomorrow’s the next big weigh-in.
Day 50: I weigh the same as I did 50 days ago. Well, a tiny bit more. My BMI is up .07 percent. After 20 hours and 50 minutes of exercise — not counting outdoor walks — I’m exactly where I was at the beginning. Barring a miracle (or food poisoning), I will not be wearing my skinny skirt on New Year’s Eve.
I’m bummed but not surprised.
It was always a long shot. I think the Wii Fit might be a good weight-loss tool for true couch potatoes. For me it will have to be supplementary — great for a rainy day when I don’t want to leave the house or a super-busy one when I only have 20 minutes to spare, but no substitute for a good, sweaty stint of cardio.
I might have gotten more out of it if I’d spent more time doing push-ups and less time moving little animated balls around the screen, but that’s no fun. And fun is what I was hoping for.
My advice to all you new Wii Fit owners about to embark on your resolutions? Do some of the hard stuff — on and off the board. And don’t expect a miracle.
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