How effective do you think a Wii Fit is?

Hi, Im thinking about buying a Wii fit, but I dont know much about them.

Do you have one?

Who do you play with?

Does it really help you get some physical activity?

Whats the weight bit of it like?

How many games are there?

and on it goes!

Can you help please? Thanks

from Anna

we've got one. The kids play snowboarding and skateboarding games on it, and there's one where they sit on their btm and 'steer' it with their hips. so they sort of exercise without trying.

The 'fitness' side of things works as well as you want it to. The more effort you put into it, the more you'll get out of it. For those with limited mobility, it can be a very good tool.

The whole of our family play on it, even the wiifit 'games', but there are also games like Mario and various zombie 'gankage' games to keep the old man entertained.

I wouldn't dream of playing on the kid's games consoles, but this is very much a family thing.

Often you don't realise how much exercise you've done playing on it until the morning, and you've got 'bowlers shoulder' LOL

I wouldn't imagine that this can take the place of 'proper exercise' but as an adjunct to just provide you with a bit of getting out of breath whilst playing a physical game then they're good enough.

Lots of research shows that people (children in particular) actually burn LESS calories whilst watching TV or playing with a standard games console than they do when they're asleep or doing what they think is nothing at all. This is mainly because the TV or game tends to make people sit still long after they would have got up and moved if they didn't have the end of a programme or the level of a game to finish.

So if you look at Wii Fit as an alternative to that then it should be a great success. It's not decent exercise like going for a long walk or a 90 minute game of football in the park on a Sunday morning though, and it never will be.

Hi Hayley and Joanne and medusa (remind me never to look at you directly lol)

I appreciate your comments. I'm overweight, diabetic, and don't do much exercise, hubby is not well. At present the idea of a 90 min football match or a long walk seem absurd! (sadly) I hope to get fitter then spend a fun evening folk/ceilidh dancing.much much more my scene!

Hi Hayley and Joanne and medusa (remind me never to look at you directly lol)

I appreciate your comments. I'm overweight, diabetic, and don't do much exercise, hubby is not well. At present the idea of a 90 min football match or a long walk seem absurd! (sadly) I hope to get fitter then spend a fun evening folk/ceilidh dancing.much much more my scene!

I know where you're coming from on that one! I'm overweight (thankfully not diabetic!) and struggle with multiple disabilities when it comes to getting enough exercise to lose weight.

You could start with getting out of breath with anything to be honest, whether that's hoovering, gardening or using a Wii Fit. You need to aim to get consistently out of breath for a minimum of half an hour every day and that will start getting your cardiovascular fitness increasing towards allowing for more exercise.

The very cheapest and most predictable thing that I found useful was just to start with step ups, using the bottom two steps of my stairs at home. There's even a banister to hold on to for stability. Half an hour of that was plenty enough to get my heart, lungs and leg muscles going and a good sweat on too.

I've moved on from that to going to the gym 5 times a week to spend some time on a treadmill walking up a hill (I can't run, so walking up a hill is all I can do) and get my muscles a bit stronger using some of the weights machines.

It's important to recognise that recent research has shown that exercise isn't actually much good at getting you to lose weight though. Restricting your diet is actually far more successful for weight loss, or a combination of diet and exercise together. Exercise is far more likely to make you hungry and break a diet though, statistically at least.

Thank you Medusa, I am fully aware of how to loose weight etc.. (doing it is another matter) I was asking purely about how much exercise the Wii can provide, so my questions have been answered now :-)

iv got a wi fit and its brill when i have time to go on. thers different types of excercise on it so ur not just doing 1 thing over and over.

some are actually quite fun and you will get that hooked on trying to beat ur own times you wont realise you have been on for an hour (or is that just me lol).

i try for half hr a night dosent allways work but i have lost most of my baby weight so i think it works

Thanks! I fink Im going to get one!! whohoo!

I find it too time consuming, there's four of us & if you're using the board of course you can only go on one at a time so out of a couple of hours on a game I wouldn't be satisfied about the amount of exercise i'd be getting. I do get plenty of exercise anyway so that's not an incentive for me to go on it so frankly... CBA with it

I find it too time consuming, there's four of us & if you're using the board of course you can only go on one at a time so out of a couple of hours on a game I wouldn't be satisfied about the amount of exercise i'd be getting. I do get plenty of exercise anyway so that's not an incentive for me to go on it so frankly... CBA with it

I'll have it them

I love my wii fit! its not a replacement for "real life" exercise but its a gentle way to keep healthy for those who can't for whatever reason go to the gym or run about a football pitch, or in addition to another type of exercise! It is great for all the family - the kids get exercise (while in the house with this horrible weather!!) and even the other half cracks a smile while hula hooping!!

Its ok for rainy days, I mean theres only so much that you can do on it really. If you looking to lose weight I would recommend the gym its just a right pain sometimes to drag yourself there!