PSP World

Does Wii Fit Make You Fit?

If your new year’s resolution was to hit the Wii three times a week in order to shed some pounds, you may want to put down that wiimote, fatty. Turns out that the actual efficacy of Wii Fit as a weight-loss solution is still not certain. While the game purports to be a fun way to encourage people to get up off the sofa and engage in physical activity, it is uncertain whether the program actually promotes weight loss. That is a question scientists from the University of Mississippi have decided to answer through a new study.

Professor of food and nutrition Scott Owens launched a six-month study this fall to follow eight families who have each been given Wii Fit. After three months the console will be taken away, to measure whether the Wii Fit program had an effect on weight gain, and whether family members change their habits in the absence of the console. As Americans suffer from higher levels of obesity due to reduced physical exercise and poor diets, the study of new weight loss methods is particularly important:

"Obesity has become an epidemic in the United States, and one of the reasons is the adults and children are getting less physical activity, there has been an upswing in sales of whole body movement video games over the past few years. This potentially could help family fitness, so we are looking at the research aspect to see if family fitness improves after purchasing one of these whole body movement game consoles."

Owens has included tracking software on the game console that keeps track of how often and how vigorously each family member exercises. This data will be triangulated with physical measurements to see if consistent use of the program has an effect on weight and fitness.

Promotional materials for Wii Fit.

[Source: UPI]