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HappySqurriel on 03 August 2008
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superchunk said:

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You’d think it was the year 2006 around here. Why else would I post the results of an exercise study for Wii launch game “Wii Sports“?

Good reason: While it seems like the folks at the American Council on Exercise are a little behind in releasing results of a “Wii Sports” fitness study in 2008, they’ve taken the time to present research that contains some useful data.

At long last we can now know how, in terms of calories burned, “Wii Sports” boxing compares to real boxing, “Wii Sports” tennis compares to real tennis, and so on.

The study reveals the following:

Compared to golfing at a driving range (3.9 calories per minute), playing Wii Golf burned 0.8 calories less per minute. Actual bowling burns nearly twice as much (7.2 calories per minute) as Wii Bowling, while baseball burns 7.3 calories per minute and Wii Baseball burns 2.8 calories per minute less. Similarly, Wii Tennis burns 2.8 calories per minute less than the actual game (8.1 calories per minute). Finally, Wii Boxing burns about 3.0 calories per minute less than conventional sparring at 10.2 calories per minute.

Now I don’t know how much exercise anyone expects to get when they go to a bowling alley, but this study’s report that “Wii Sports” bowling will give you only half the workout of the real thing should cancel anyone’s plans to drop weight via a Wii Bowling Workout.

Wait. No one was doing that?

(It should be noted that the people who conducted the study for the ACE at the University of Wisconsin La Crosse Exercise and Health Program did not allow their “Wii Sports” test subjects to just flick their wrists. They made them hop around like they were playing real sports).

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Wow, seriously, umm wtf. Did someone really need to spend grants on this type of research?

So ...

Wii Sports Golf burned 3.1 calories per minute?
Wii Sports Bolwing burned 3.6 calories per minute?
Wii Sports Tennis burned 5.3 calories per minute?
and ...
Wii Sports Boxing burned 7.2 calories per minute?

If you ask me those are some pretty good numbers for a product that is designed to be (primarly) an entertainment device and not an excercise device. If Wii MotionPlus comes along and is used in deeper versions of many of these games (possibly made by EA or Take 2) and you receive similar burn rates ... Which is better, someone playing an hour of Wii Tennis (with 45 minutes of acutal gameplay) and burning 162 calories or someone playing an hour of standard videogame tennis and burning (nearly) no calories?