Well, the research is in. Kids who regularly play Wii games burn up a significantly larger amount of calories than kids who play other game consoles, or spend their time passively watching TV.
Not really surprising news for anyone who has ever played Wii Sports. After a night of Wii bowling, the next day my arm was really sore and I knew that I had worked it!!!
Professor Tim Cable headed the study at Liverpool John Moores University, where they measured the impact of playing Wii versus playing a traditional non-motion-controlled console on 5 girls and 7 boys, between the ages of 13 and 15 years.
15 minutes of gaming using a traditional controller increased the subject’s energy expenditure above resting values by an average of 60%. With a Wii controller this was increased to a whopping 156%.
Heart rates also increased to 130 beats per minute while playing Wii, compared with 85 beats per minute with a traditional console.
Most kids who are serious gamers, average about 12.2 hours of playing video games a week. At 150 calories an hour, in a week they'll burn 1,830 using the Wii, which works out to be 40% more than your average video game.
Wow that's great news, but too bad it's next to impossible to get your hands on a Wii right now.
I made my friends come over and play Wii Sports this weekend and the next they both called me up whining because their arm hurt. They are both in really great shape too so I was just sitting back laughing.
1I think that is great to get people up and moving. It's really amazing what a video game can do for your body. It gets me jumping around and running around the house when I'm done playing it.
Now if I can just get some weights or wait for the Wii weights.