Instead of analysing its effectiveness as an exercise tool, I am more interesting to find out how it behaves as a motivational tool. To think – as of June 30, 2009, 21.82 million copies of Wii Fit have been sold worldwide^[1].

The big question on my mind is [how] has it impacted the fitness behaviour of these millions of people?

This overarching question leads to several sub-questions, each asking to be investigated.

Wii Fit - helping to achieve your Fitness Goals

• Does owning a Wii Fit exercise board enhance motivation and propensity to exercise daily?
• Which audience would most benefit from including Wii Fit into their exercise prescription plan?
• (How) does using Wii Fit increase an individual’s commitment to their fitness goals?

With these questions in mind, I started playing around with my Wii Fit board this evening, getting friends involved and generally enjoying the whole process. Here is the first, little glimpse into the fun that is Wii Fit.

Playing new generation active computer games uses significantly more energy than playing sedentary computer games but not as much energy as playing the sport itself. The energy used when playing active Wii Sports games was not of high enough intensity to contribute towards the recommended daily amount of exercise in children. Graves, L. et al. (2007)

I came across Lee Graves’ summary online in a Comparison of energy expenditure study and I had to stop and wonder: does Wii Fit provide any more exercise benefits than Wii Sport? Would there be any fitness gains to incorporating Wii Fit in an exercise program?

Since it’s world début in December, 2007, Wii Fit has become the third best selling video game in history¹. As a fitness consultant, I can see prescribing Wii Fit as an at-home component to an exercise plan if there are proven, viable benefits to using it.

Fortunately for me, I am in an environment that encourages examining these types of inquiries to the furthest extent possible. As part of my Masters of Human Kinetics degree at the University of British Columbia, I will probe into the physical fitness application of new generation computer games to determine to what extent – and to whom – I will prescribe Wii Fit sessions.

If you have any experience with the Wii Fit and would like to weigh-in with your opinions, I’d love to hear your anecdotal evidence. Please post below!