Comments on OBESITY PANACEA: Nintendo Wii - Is It Really Physical Activity?

Exergaming through the Wii and other gaming consol...

2011-09-17T16:44:47.974-04:00

Exergaming through the Wii and other gaming consoles is great especially if you are like me.

I have no car so finding a good gym is hard, the one near me is too male centric for my tastes (as a female).

I also don't like working out in public. Nor do I have any motivation to stay on a treadmill for even 10 minutes.

Finally, playing tennis, baseball, and other sports in real life is absolutely no fun because I not only suck but I am also stuck around people who take the game too serious and suck the fun right out of that.

So exergaming provides all the benefits of the real thing but takes people out of the equation, which I like.

Thanks for the comments everyone, this is turning ...

2010-02-09T23:25:43.415-05:00

Thanks for the comments everyone, this is turning into a good discussion!

@ Gamercize,

I'm sympathetic to your argument. But screen time is a big part of the current obesity/chronic disease epidemic, and it is hard to believe that more screen time is somehow going to fix the situation. It's a bit like when Homer Simpson said that alcohol is both the cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems :)

It seems that a better approach would be to get kids unplugged from the TV in general. I imagine that the response to that would be that it is simply unfeasible.

I think exergaming is a tool that could be useful in some instances, but I am skeptical about it having a tremendous societal impact until I see some well designed clinical trials. It will certainly be interesting to see how this plays out.

@ Caroline,

I agree that it might be too much to ask a sedentary individual to suddenly start an intense exercise program. But I also think that small lifestyle changes (e.g. taking the stairs, increasing the number of steps per day, using transit instead of driving, etc) are likely to be more sustainable, and have an overall larger impact than videogaming. As I mentioned above, I'm really eager to see more research in this area so that we can start to nail these things down a bit.

@ Matthew,

I agree completely. But I also wonder whether someone who usually doesn't enjoy intense exercise, will somehow enjoy it more on the Wii. The discomfort that can come from exercise will be just as bad... the hope is that it's mitigated by the fun of the videogaming. I'm just not sure whether that will be the case or not.

Travis

Hi Travis, I like your post. It's thought pro...

2010-02-09T23:12:18.636-05:00

Hi Travis,

I like your post. It's thought provoking. Obese kids usually do not like exercising. This is part of the reason they are obese. On the other hand, kids enjoy participating in "fun-type" activities. This is where Wii comes into play. The problem with Wii (and I may be wrong with what I am going to say because my experience with Wii is limited) is that the intensity of the exercise in low. It hardly involves major muscles (thighs, back, etc). I believe Wii could increase kids' overall physical activity to a lot more than 2%, if the intensity of the exercise was higher. This of course means that the "fun" factor would have to increase, too.

Your prediction is correct in our case. Prior to w...

2010-02-09T17:12:51.140-05:00

Your prediction is correct in our case. Prior to we my son had a ps2 and his only game was dance dance revolution. Thats a work out.

The wii sports only led to other sedentary wii games. Now he doesn't do wii sports or DDR.

If changing one's levels of physical activity ...

2010-02-09T09:47:23.970-05:00

If changing one's levels of physical activity is anything like changing one's dietary habits, I think it would be really challenging to get someone (whether it be a kid or an adult) who does not exercise at all to go grom couch to outdoor vigorous activity overnight... I could see exergaming as being a sort of springboard to a more active lifestyle... I don't have any evidence to support this, this is just a hypothesis.

@ Travis Why is exergaming the wave of the future...

2010-02-09T07:59:38.890-05:00

@ Travis

Why is exergaming the wave of the future? Now that's an answer for an entire presentation, not just a single comment!! (I'll drop you the link if you're interested).

To cut a long story short exergaming takes the enjoyment of gaming into the physical realm. Being active must be sustainable and one way to make this possible (aside from warnings of grave medical peril) is the make it fun.

In the 21st century levels of PA have dropped due mainly to technology and changes in working lives, so we tend to think of exercise in a block as an activity by itself. To compete for free time with TV, gaming and other sedentary activities, exercise needs to be enjoyable. Exergaming does this.

As far as a study, I'm sorry to say that the aforementioned exergame has taken nearly all the research focus. This is a pity because the outcomes are just not there with this implementation, and if researchers looked at other options the results (and real strengths of exergaming) could be proved.

I must point out that it has to be free researcher choice, not "company sponsored", for a significant study to be credible. However, we have done some data collection which may be interesting. See http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/gaming/news/a93053/research-call-of-duty-4-aids-weight-loss.html

@ Sophie & Interrobang, Thanks for the commen...

2010-02-08T19:16:15.534-05:00

@ Sophie & Interrobang,

Thanks for the comments.

@ Gamercize,

I realize that exergaming is much more than Wii - but Wii is the one that is brought up most frequently in discussions with friends and colleagues, and frankly it's the one that I find most controversial.

But now that you're here, I'd love to hear your arguments as to why exergaming is the wave of the future. Since you mentioned weight management - could you suggest any papers examining the effectiveness of exergaming on weight management?

Travis

Exergaming is so much more than Wii; part of being...

2010-02-08T18:33:39.733-05:00

Exergaming is so much more than Wii; part of being a researcher is to do some research, so can you find out what exergamer is four times more energetic than Wii, six times more engaging than exercise and infinitely more effective in hard to reach populations with combating sedentary lifestyle and poor weight management?

Great, so now the dim bulbs at New Scientist (who ...

2010-02-08T14:46:49.957-05:00

Great, so now the dim bulbs at New Scientist (who seem to be on a fast track for a Templeton Prize) are calling myopia an "epidemic"? Isn't that, um, fudging a bit with the definition of "epidemic"?

Also, aside from the fact that it drives us hyperopes nuts to have everybody nearsighted and their equally-nearsighted brother peering into our faces from inside our focal length all the time, does anybody really care?

Exercising outdoors rather than indoors can help f...

2010-02-08T14:34:07.612-05:00

Exercising outdoors rather than indoors can help fight against the obesity epidemic, and against the shortsightedness epidemic.
Wii won’t help you in the second fight.
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20427331.100-generation-specs-stopping-the-shortsight-epidemic.html