Nintendo Wii No Substitute for Exercise, Study Finds
By James Walker
Those who bought the Nintendo Wii expecting to whip themselves into shape while playing video games are in for a rude awakening, according to British doctors.
According to a study by the British Medical Journal, the Nintendo Wii is not as healthy as you think it may be. The study states that while the Wii is a more active video game experience than the more passive gaming done on PCs, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, it is still no substitute for good old fashioned exercise.
The BMJ study had both boys and girls, ages ranging from 13 to 15, playing both a Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii, with the calories burned calculated at the end of the study. Unsurprisingly, the Wii outperformed the 360 in the study by 51% in terms of energy expended. The most physically demanding of the games was Wii Tennis, in which the kids expended roughly 750 kilojoules. Wii Boxing expended around 730kJ, and Wii Bowling expended 700kJ.
In comparison, the Xbox 360 game had players expending a mere 450kJ. While that doesn’t sound like too much of a difference, it is important to keep in mind that you expect 300kJ by doing literally nothing.
The study in itself is rather unremarkable. Anybody who plays video games can easily tell you that it takes more energy to play the Nintendo Wii than it does the Xbox 360, or the PlayStation 3, or any other game console. Also of little surprise is the fact that the real-life counterparts for both Tennis and Boxing expend much more energy than playing the game does.
However, slightly surprising is how similar in energy expended real bowling is to Wii bowling. Hmm.
British Medical Journal via 1PStart
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December 28th, 2007
You know what’s really sad about all of this? When people found out that the Wii gave any sort of exercise, justifications started flying for playing waaaay too much Wii. You shouldn’t have to make a study to prove that video games aren’t as effective at maintaining health as actual exercise…what a society we live in.
December 28th, 2007
You know, the whole time I was reading the study, and writing the story, I was thinking the exact same thing.