New Research: The Calorie Count on Wii Fit Games

Wii and Wii Fit are a big hit at our house, so when I saw the latest study conducted by The American Council on Exercise, I was intrigued.

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Turns out playing Wii Fit games does burns twice as many calories as the old-school (sitting on your couch) video games, but (and here's the bad news) that's not as many as you'd think. Several of the Wii Fit games, those deemed most aerobically challenging, fell short in their potential to help maintain or improve participant's cardiorespiratory endurance. That means playing games such as Rhythm Boxing, Advanced Step, and Free Step burned significantly fewer calories than performing the actual activity itself. Bottom line, Wii Fit workouts alone are not enough! But that doesn't mean it's time to abandon Wii and its fitness games altogether. According to researchers if you're going to play, Wii Sports (a big favorite at our house) is the better option for calorie burning fun. Good to know!

Here's the Wii Fit breakdown: 30 minutes of
Free Run and Island Run burned 165 calories
Rhythm Boxing 114,
Super Hula Hoop 111,
Advanced Step 108,
Free Step 99.

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