Wii Fit, Effective Weight Loss Device?

Nintendo wants to get gamers off their couches — again.

When it introduced Wii Sports in November 2006, hardcore gamers and casual folk grabbed a Wiimote (the Wii’s remote control) to play tennis, baseball and boxing in front of their TVs. These games left many gasping for breath, and some players even shed a few pounds.

Now the Big N is taking the physical video game further with Wii Fit, which is due out in the U.S. on May 19th. The game hit Japan in December, where 1.79 million units were sold as of March 29th, according to vgchartz.com, a website that tracks video game sales. The game is packed with a device called a Wii Balance Board, a scale-like platform that acts as a controller.

Players step on the board, then engage in activities such as moving their Miis (the Wii version of the player) to block soccer balls or swivel their hips in hula-hoops. Pushing a fitness angle, players can also perform Yoga moves like “tree” or place their hands on the board to do push-ups. Wii Fit users can then track changes in their body mass index.

Whether Wii Fit will burn enough calories to actually loosen the pants around some sweaty gamers’ bodies is yet to be seen. To Kevin Tambornino, who blogs under the name Vinnk, the game has proven to be an effective exercise machine.

“For 7 weeks I made a daily commitment to Wii Fit, and in my opinion it paid off,” the 28-year-old blogger wrote on 4colorrebellion.com, in a special section called “The Great Experiment.” Tambornino, who has lived in Japan for three years, “was able to both lose weight and gain muscle,” he wrote. “Along the way I also gained self-confidence in my body, and self esteem in general.”

Tambornino’s experiment started when he purchased Wii Fit and decided to see how much weight he could lose in the seven weeks leading up to his wedding on March 29th, he said. He ended up losing 11 pounds without consciously changing his diet by using Wii Fit on an average of 30 to 60 minutes a day.

However, fitness and health specialists who were asked to watch the Wii Fit ad online had mixed feelings about the device.

“Truthfully I think it will be great and the possibilities are endless,” said Cathy McGuire, a professor of Health, Physical Education, and Dance at Queensborough Community College. “But I’d have to try it myself. As an activity ‘game’ it looks like it would be fun and has the potential to be instructional as far as practicing Yoga asanas (positions).”

But Marion Nestle, a professor of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health at New York University and author of What to Eat, was skeptical. “It will only work if people do it,” she said. “I’m not a TV watcher. I can’t believe that people will do this and stick with it long enough to do any good.”

However, earlier video games like Dance Dance Revolution and Wii Sports have proven to be addictive even to non-gamers. This may help trick players into exercising.

“The same effects could be achieved by doing push-ups and sit-ups for 45 minutes every day,” Tambornino said in an email message. “However, I know that I for one would never have the motivation to do that. I do have the motivation to use Wii Fit though.”

Whether other gamers will stick with Wii Fit will be seen come the game’s launch.

Update: The new version of the game, Wii Fit Plus, is out. Check out my impressions of it.