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Forums - Nintendo Discussion - Is Wii Fit Misleading? Ask a Doctor.

I wil just say, Any physical activity is better than being sitting in the couch, So Wii Fit is a good tool to being Healthy.



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Wii Fit is not made for the elite athelete. It's made for people looking to supplement their current active or nonactive lifestyle. If people are already active, this will make them feel less guilty if they want to play some games. Also though Wii Fit doesn't burn as many calories as going to the gym. It can burn almost as much, which is a lot for someone who wants to burn calories and have fun doing it.



 

 

elgefe02 said:

Dr. Judith Stern discusses the merits of BMI and what Wii Fit can (or can't) do for you.

Stepping on the Wii Balance Board for the first time, you may be shocked by being told that you are, in fact, overweight. We examined the potential ramifications of Wii Fit's approach to weight management and assessment in our previous article, Wii Fit: Bruised Boards and Balanced Egos. On the eve of the U.S. launch of Wii Fit, we decided to get an expert opinion on BMI measurement and the viability of Wii Fit as a platform for promoting exercise in our overweight nation.

To get an informed take on Wii Fit and the merits of Body Mass Index measurement (BMI), we spoke to Dr. Judith S. Stern, a distinguished professor of Nutrition and Internal Medicine at the University of California, Davis. An expert on diet and nutrition, Stern has published extensively on nutrition, obesity, and the effect of exercise on appetite and metabolism. She is co-founder of The American Obesity Association, a lay advocacy organization dedicated to advancing understanding of the condition of obesity.

GameSpy: Nintendo's Wii Fit is launching tomorrow in the United States. The idea is that with Wii Fit, people who would normally play games on their couch will get up, get active, and use the Balance Board to improve their personal fitness. What do you think of the premise behind Wii Fit, where using the game will help reduce your BMI?

Dr. Judith Stern: My understanding is that Nintendo is saying that if you track BMI, and by using this program, that you'll improve your BMI, or lower your BMI. I say baloney to that. In fact, I'm sure you'll see very little change in BMI. It's not just BMI you want to look at, but how fat you are.

When you are physically fit, you tend to replace fat with muscle, and your BMI probably won't change. It will change when you do extreme things, like if you exercise for two or three hours a day, I'm pretty sure your BMI will change. If you've just lost weight, you can maintain your BMI more readily with exercise, but I don't see anything that shows me that BMI will change, and I really think it's false and misleading.

 

The rest of the interview here:

 

http://wii.gamespy.com/

http://wii.gamespy.com/wii/wii-fit/875451p1.html 


If a person is 75lbs overweight, they are not going to replace that fat with 75lbs of mucles. That's just dumb. So yes an overweight person who carries a lot of fat can reduce their BMI if they exercise.

 

 

Kasz216 said:
Well the lady is an expert on Obesity. Still she does seem to be doing the "Judging something with no clue what it is" mode of crticisim.

Maybe she couldn't get on the Balance Board because shes obese. You know, most obese experts are obese themselfs :D

 

Probably somewhat incorrect - there's a lot of arobic excercise and muscle conditionning. If you pair it with a better diet, you'll probably lose weight.

It's not Body-Building - you'll never put on 20 lbs of muscle doing those types of excercises. Therefore, your BMI would decrease.



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Nice to see Gamespy use an unbiased source with nothing to lose if Wii Fit takes off -

OH SNAP!

http://www.obesitymyths.com/mythmaker1.4.cfm?id=14

Judith Stern

American Obesity Association vice president and co-founder Judith Stern is frequently presented as an impartial expert while her comments advance the agenda of her organization's pharmaceutical and weight-loss benefactors. Stern regularly uses hyperbole to describe obesity. In one case she said: "If we don't try something new, in about 10 years everyone in the country will be overweight or obese."

In 1997 the Newark Star-Ledger reported that eight of nine members of an influential government obesity panel were financially conflicted. One of those individuals was Stern, who sits on the scientific advisory board for Weight Watchers and has received "honoraria" from Knoll and Wyeth-Ayerst (pharmaceutical companies).

In 1995 Stern sat on the other side of the government table, showing up at FDA hearings on Redux to detail the health risks of obesity. That same year Stern chaired a government panel designed to set criteria for judging weight-management programs. Stern's group, AOA, is funded by Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, and Slim-Fast. In other words, the co-founder of an organization funded by weight-loss companies was setting the government's standard by which her donors should be judged.

According to the owner of a fen-phen clinic in Florida, Wyeth-Ayerst encouraged him to send money to Stern. The St. Petersburg Times reported:

"A month after opening his clinics in February 1995, [John] Trevena sent Stern a $2,500 retainer. Stern testified several times before the FDA favoring approval of Redux, a second-generation version of fenfluramine. A few months later, Trevena made a $5,000 contribution to the legal defense fund of the American Society of Bariatric Physicians, composed of doctors who specialize in weight loss. These friends came in handy. When the FDA's advisory committee initially hesitated to approve Redux, Stern was quoted in an Associated Press story saying that doctors voting against the drug 'ought to be shot.'"


Judith S Stern, on the left

Quite an athelete



 

 

here she is.. 



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CallousB said:

OH SNAP!


 Reading what you posted I have to concur. Oh Snap indeed.

I found IGN's article featuring Esquire's fitness columnist James Mitchell hands on take on WiiFit far more informative.

http://wii.ign.com/articles/869/869127p2.html 



elgefe02 said:

 

here she is.. 


No my friend, not this picture. Look at her sexy shapes in the picture I posted above.