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My video game thinks I'm obese.
During my two-plus decades as a controller-toting video game enthusiast, I've been eaten by zombies, knocked out by Mike Tyson and lost the World Series to the Chicago Cubs.
But never have I suffered the kind of digital mockery I endured at the hands of my console while I spent a week working out with Nintendo Co. Ltd.'s new Wii Fit video game.
With the Wii, Nintendo has flipped the video game world on its head. The revolutionary system expanded the gaming market beyond basement-dwelling teenage males with its motion-sensing controllers – called Wii Wands or “Wiimotes” – which allow gamers to play by physically mimicking the motion of swinging a racquet or hitting a baseball rather than mashing buttons.
As a technology reporter, I figured that while I might be suited to assess the gameplay of the Wii Fit, to truly evaluate its fitness potential, I would need the help of my better half, Erin Moore, a personal trainer by trade. (Yvonne Berg for The Globe and Mail)
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In much the same way that games such as Guitar Hero have made it cool for teenagers to rock out to Guns N' Roses while wielding tiny plastic guitars, Wii Fit – which comes complete with an electronic balance board that measures your weight and posture – aims to promote healthy lifestyles by catering to women with the video game equivalent of a Tae Bo workout video.
As a technology reporter, I figured that while I might be suited to assess the gameplay of the Wii Fit, to truly evaluate its fitness potential, I would need the help of my better half, Erin Moore, a personal trainer by trade.
Erin has designed weight and cardio workouts for me in the past, which I try to follow a couple of times a week, so she was curious to see what she could do for me with the help of the kindly virtual trainers in Wii Fit.
Once the placemat-sized grey plastic Wii Balance Board is on the floor and wirelessly connected to the console, the game needs to determine just how out of shape I am so it can help me set some health-related goals.
I select a dapper-looking virtual character – called a Mii – in a blue shirt, to represent myself in the game and proceed to enter my height and age. The scales embedded in the board take care of measuring my weight. A moment later the data are tallied and it spits out my Body Mass Index rating.
It says I'm obese.
I realize I could stand to lose a few pounds off my six-foot, 220-pound frame, but obese?
Adding insult to injury, the game alters my Mii to reflect what I supposedly look like in the flesh, expanding his belly until he looks as rotund as that kid who eats the blueberry gum in the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory movie.
Wii Fit's activities are broken down into four exercise groups: yoga, strength training, aerobics and balance games. For every minute you spend working out, you earn points that unlock more exercises. In total, there are about 40 different activities. You can choose to work out with a male or a female virtual trainer.
To get started, Erin runs me through a series of yoga poses – keep in mind I have about as much experience with a yoga mat as Bill Gates has with an iPhone – which have me contorting myself while the board measures my balance and weight distribution. First the warrior pose, then the tree, then finally the half-moon. By the end of this warm-up, I'm feeling good and loose, relaxed even. My virtual trainer sounds impressed. So does Erin.
Next, Erin wants me to try aerobics to get my blood pumping. I start with a stepping game that is painfully easy – remember, the balance board is only about an inch tall – although the step activities increase in difficulty the more you do them, before moving on to a running exercise.
For this, I don't even use the board; I simply run on the spot while holding the Wiimote. While my Mii jogs past various settings of a digital park, Erin wonders aloud about the practicality of this exercise.
“It would probably be easier to just go for a run, but at least it gets you moving,” she says.
Moving on to the balance exercises, I find myself enjoying the games more. There's a skiing activity for which I must shift my weight from one foot to the other while planted on the board as my Mii carves his way down the slopes.
Finally it's time for strength training, and Erin's eyes perk up when she sees the list of exercises. Lunges. Push-ups. Torso twists. I start getting flashbacks to Grade 9 gym class.
Placing my hands on the board, I begin with the plank push-ups. After working my way through four or five reps, extending my arms above my body after each one, my sweaty hand slips off the board.
“Come on, baby, one more,” Erin says.
“Hey! Your muscles won't train themselves, you know,” the Wii Fit trainer says a second later.
No rest for the obese, I suppose.
Perform well on an exercise and the game provides encouragement; stop halfway through a workout and the game calls you a couch potato.
Finally, after about a half-hour, Erin says I'm done. As I sit breathing heavily and sweating at the conclusion of my workout, I'm tired but by no means as exhausted as I normally feel after Erin runs me through a cardio-and-weight workout at the gym.
Nintendo isn't making any specific health claims about the Wii Fit. The company says the game encourages physical activity and hopes families will find it a useful tool for staying active, says Nintendo Canada spokesman Matt Ryan.
“We're definitely not saying that Wii Fit will make you lose weight or reduce your BMI or make you stronger,” he says. “It is not intended to replace someone's regimented fitness schedule. It's supposed to act as a compliment to that activity.”
Some studies have found that playing games with a physical component, such as the arcade favourite Dance Dance Revolution, can have health benefits, said Dr. Arya Sharma, scientific director of the Canadian Obesity Network.
“The problem with any exercise or any game is that once you lose interest in it and you stop doing it, any benefits that you have accrued by using it rapidly wear off,” he says. “I don't expect to see a major impact on childhood obesity with the introduction of these kind of games. If kids go outside and play it's probably the best way for them to get the exercise they need.”
Before I started experimenting with the Wii Fit, the worst video game injury I ever sustained was an oozing blister on my right thumb caused by excessive button mashing on an old Street Fighter game.
But after four days of working out with Erin and my pixilated Wii Fit personal trainer, the muscles on the right side of my chest are sore, I can feel my quads tightening and I have come to hate the tree pose on the yoga setting.
The next day I'm back on the board as Erin and the cats observe from the couch. As I thrash my hips violently in a circle during the hula hoop activity, I can feel the sweat beading on my brow. I steal a glance over at my better half and she's smiling.
“You know, baby, I won't have a problem with you playing video games so much if it's games like this,” she says. “You could actually lose some weight.”
Thanks, dear.
