The Wii Fit has taken the world by storm, an innovative toy that promises to give you a great workout without feeling like exercise. The Wii Fit is an interactive platform that lets you play different sports on your television and is intuitive enough to register your movements so you can track how many calories you're burning as you get through each fitness challenge. Wii Fit enthusiasts are already jumping into yoga, soccer, tennis and other exercises to keep up with their daily exercise and fitness quota - and having fun in the process. But can the Wii Fit really live up to the hype, or is it just another fitness fad? Here's a closer look at the latest video game craze.
How the Wii Fit Fitness Program Works
The Wii Fit is designed to keep you motivated to exercise by offering easy and fun exercise sessions using a simple platform, and you do it all from the comfort of your own living room. You might choose to head some soccer balls, play a few rounds of tennis or practice yoga poses on the platform as it tracks your movements and tallies the calories burned each session.
The Wii Fit platform is built with powerful sensors that help register your movements on the TV screen; your avatar simulates all of your poses and movements so you can "watch" yourself get through each exercise and make sure you're doing all the right movements to meet the fitness challenge.
The Wii Fit also keeps track of your calories burned per session, registers your body weight and tallies your BMI so you can find out if you're losing weight as the days and weeks of Wii Fit exercises goes by.
Losing Weight with the Wii Fit
The Wii Fit offers several resistance training and muscle building exercise routines, so you won't be getting a vigorous cardio workout with each session. However, the Wii Fit can help you burn a few extra calories while doing some exercises you enjoy.
Military.com ran some tests on the Wii Fit to find out how many calories the average person can actually burn with each exercise. The researchers found that the average female in good shape can burn between 110 and 190 calories per hour with workout challenges including Step Aerobics, Hula Hoops and the Rowing Machine. The Wii Fit can raise the heart rate and increase the metabolism - a plus for anyone who isn't used to exercising regularly.
In order to lose weight and make the most of this fitness device, most people would need to stick with a healthy diet and incorporate at least two cardio sessions into their weekly routine. The Wii Fit can help provide some motivation for those who find it hard to just jump into a new fitness routine and makes it easier to try and stick with new workouts that most people may never try on their own; hula-hooping, playing tennis and running down a soccer field are much easier when you can do it from the comfort of home!
