There has been an article claiming that the Wii doesn't contribute to burning off fat. http://www.physorg.com/news117433807.html

This is totally wrong. Any activity you do burns calories. The more you move and expend energy, the more calories and fat you will burn.

http://www.coolnurse.com/calories.htm

Driving a car can burn 125 calories/1.5 hours.

Housecleaning 864 calories/1.5 hours

Reading a book 86 calories/1.5 hours

Playing the right Wii game can fall somewhere between a reading and a brisk walk. Maybe more with Wiifit. It really comes down to exercise and a healthy diet. If you are burning 2000 calories a day and you are consuming 3000 calories a day, you WILL gain weight. There is no way around that. For people trying to put on weight they will need to consume more calories than they burn. Usually they try to eat good calories such as proteins and complex carbs so they gain more muscle without gaining too much fat. Carbs don't really build muscle but complex carbs take longer to burn so the chances of them being unused and turning to fat are less likely.

An active person conscious of what they are eating should stay relatively in shape barring any inherited medical conditions. Anyhow, they will be healthier than if they were not active and eating well. Even your friend down the street playing hockey 3 nights a week can be fat. If he is drinking 12 beers each night followed by pizza and chicken wings before bed, he will probably gain weight. That is because when you go to bed your metabolism slows down big time and all that unused fuel, fat, protein, carbs, and sugars, converts to fat. Beer guts and love handles at age 20 are becoming all too common in our society.

Playing the Wii won't make you skinny if you are eating crap. It will however contribute much more than twiddling your thumbs if you combine it with a healthy lifestyle that includes healthy eating habits.

edited.

It's not like everyone needs to be uber healthy. Being active makes you feel good though. Speaking of which, I need to drag my ass out of bed here and go to the gym.

The Wii can be used as a complement to a healthy lifestyle and an alternative to traditional siting/doing nothing.... and is fun as hell.

The idea that eating at night contributes to gaining weight is not proven, and is believed to be a myth. It doesn't matter so much when you eat, as long as it is reasonably balanced, and within your caloritic expenditure.

Just don't eat like an greaseball. Americans have the deck stacked against them already because our portion size is much, much larger than most other countries. Eat healthy, stop when you begin feeling full, and don't eat if you aren't hungry (this can be tricky for some Americans who misinterpret low energy with hungry).

I play very few games for fitness. DDR is one of the only games I've ever introduced into my workout routine, and I'd still be doing it but because of a little rascal it's become inconvenient.

Eating at night is terrible for you if you are trying to lose weight. Ask any fitness professional. Even bodybuilders avoid eating right before bed. The reason has to do with our metabolism slowing down. When we sleep our metabolism is at its slowest. Think of a bear in hiberation. It doesn't need much food to survive for months. Ours is the same way. A person in a coma doesn't eat 3 meals a day. What happens to fats, sugars, carbs, and even protein when they are not used is that they turn into fat. Fat is used as fuel as well but to most people its an undesirable quality. Fat fuel is much slower burning than carbs or sugars and is harder to get rid of once it is there. It burns slower over a longer period of time. So it's harder to burn the stores of fat in your body than say sugar. If you are in the middle of a intense activity like hockey, basketball or climbing, you could drink a bottle of gatorade, or a can of coke and not have to worry about it turning into fat. Your metabolism is very high and the sugars will immediately get used by your body. When you go to bed your body won't use all those sugars in your system and your body will convert them into fat for later use.

That said, no one here start going to bed hungry, that's not good either as you will end up waking in the middle of the night raiding your fridge. And when you are really hungry you will eat anything. The best thing to do if you are trying to eat healthy, is to eat a dinner consisting of some complex carbs and protein about 2 hours or more before bed.

If you want to know the really sad truth ... most of what we 'know' about weight loss and nutrition has never really been proven (and much of it has never been tested at all); this isn't to say that anyone contests that reducing caloric intake and increasing excercise won't result in weight loss, but no one can say (for sure) what the impact certain diets have on hunger and/or weight gain have.

Umm 864 calories/hour for housecleaning?  That seems like way too much.

Nooooo, not Vanillekipferl. I mean seriosuly, just forget ever loosing weight ever again.  

Ya those numbers can't be right. Even moving furniture wouldn't be that high I don't think. Maybe whoever wrote the article was some guy who wants women to do more housecleaning.