The Wii may be great entertainment, but if it hasn’t quite lived up to your fitness expectations, don’t be surprised. A small-but-telling University of Mississippi study followed eight families who were loaned a Nintendo Wii Fit to use for three months.
During that time, each family was evaluated through a number of different fitness measurements, including aerobic fitness, balance and body composition. Software on the game consoles tracked how much each family member used the games and how much movement was involved in that use.
While the kids did get more fit using the Wii Fit, the novelty of it wore off pretty quickly—along with the amount of use. Daily Wii Fit use per household declined by 82 percent, from 22 minutes per day during the first six weeks to four minutes per day during the second six weeks, leading to the conclusion that the Wii Fit had little impact on daily fitness and that that “modest amounts of daily Wii Fit use may have provided insufficient stimulus for fitness changes.”
