Study: Playing Wii Does Not Lead to More Exercise

Greg Tito

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Sep 29, 2005
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Study: Playing Wii Does Not Lead to More Exercise



Kids don't burn any more calories playing "active" games than they do sitting on their butts playing Super Mario Galaxy.

It seems like a no-brainer. Videogames that make you move around should lead to a lot more calories burned - at least on average - but apparently playing games like Wii Sports or Dance Dance Revolution doesn't lead to a higher rate of exercise for kids, at least with 39 of them in Texas. That's according to a new study published by researchers from the Children's Nutrition Research Center at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.

"We expected that playing the video games would in fact lead to a substantial increase in physical activity in the children," said lead researcher Tom Baranowski, PhD. "Frankly we were shocked by the complete lack of difference."

The study was pretty simple. Dr. Baranowski split 78 kids into two groups, gave them a Wii and a choice of active or inactive games like EA Sports Active or Dance Dance Revolution: Hottest Party 3 or Madden or Mario Kart Wii. The kids wore an accelerometer on their legs for 13 weeks which allowed researchers to monitor how many calories were burned over that period. Whether kids compensated for the more active games by exercising less at school isn't known, but overall, there was no difference in the amount of exercise measured between the kids who played the active games and those who sat on their butts to play.

Dr. Baranowski admits there are limitations to his study. The accelerometer tracked leg movements, so all the motion of the kids' upper body could have resulted in more exercise than this study could track. Seeing as you hold the Wii Remote in your hands, and perhaps 90 percent of the motion required in Wii Sports is in the upper body, I'd say that this study could have used a different method.

Nevertheless, Dr. Baranowski said based on his study that "there's no public health benefit from having those active video games."

At least we are virtually certain the kids actually wore the accelerometer for the 13 weeks of the study. If they followed directions, they got to keep the Wii and all the games.

Source: Reuters [http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/early/2012/02/22/peds.2011-2050.abstract]

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Weaver

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Apr 28, 2008
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There was a time when I was dropping like 40 - 60 dollars a week to play DDR at an arcade. It was the leanest I've ever been in my life.
 

Tiamattt

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Jul 15, 2011
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Total science fail, but overall win since a bunch of kids got some free games and a wii. :)
 

thethird0611

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Feb 19, 2011
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Gotta say, after reading the study, there is ALOT left out in the summary of it. Hopefully people go and read it.

Its a pretty good study though. Good sample size for the amount of equipment needed, ok ways to measure physical activity, and some interesting results. Hope more studies come out of this one.

Also, heres a more direct link to the study (hopefully it works)
http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/early/2012/02/22/peds.2011-2050.full.pdf+html

EDIT: Gotta say, I love a news item that has a published journal behind it.
 

Dastardly

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Apr 19, 2010
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Greg Tito said:
Study: Playing Wii Does Not Lead to More Exercise
Flawed methodology is flawed. Now, hopefully no one is trying to sell the Wii as an "exercise machine," but it's clear that 'moving your arms' is going to be more active than 'not moving your arms.'

I'm just wondering how this particular idea could have been missed. If you spend 20 seconds actually watching kids play these games (rather than watching the commercials, with all of their excess movement), you'd notice hands move far more than feet. A failure to recognize and account for this sheds a lot of doubt on whether this guy was taking this study very seriously at all.

EDIT: I will say that the worthwhile finding in this study is that having active video games did not make the kids more likely participate in physical activity in other areas of life. To extrapolate this idea a bit: Video games do not reinforce the occurrence of the behaviors they imitate. It turns out, it seems, that the human mind is capable (even in the young, and even subconsciously) of separating video games from reality.

You "act" physical during a video game, and it doesn't make you more likely to be physical... you "act" violent during a video game, and it doesn't make you more likely to be violent.
 

Baresark

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Dec 19, 2010
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I'm not surprised because mostly you can do all the motions needed for a game in really short or small motions while sitting. No matter what the game is simply because it only reads the Wiimote positioning (in most cases).

That said, different kids will play differently. This study is a joke because it's fuckin' tiny and short. A real scientific study would run for years and get as many different kinds of people possible to participate.

Fail.
 

ciasteczkowyp

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May 3, 2011
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This study was apparently founded by the "90% of the jealous industry not using motion controls at all - association".
 

12th_milkshake

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Nov 20, 2008
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wow it took the world 3secs to figure this out after they got one. Motion controls are messy inaccurate and for casual play only. Thats what the Wii and the DS to an extent became - the acceptable face of gaming to the greater public and a casual party console. Nothing wrong with it. But lets call a spade a spade. If anyone at all is surprised by these studies then they aren't a gamer.
 

direkiller

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Dec 4, 2008
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JokerboyJordan said:
I can say this study is rubbish.

I hate the Wii, but even I lost a few pounds using Wii Fit.
yea the only thing i can conclude from this study is kids playing the Wii don't tend to move there legs.
 

SextusMaximus

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May 20, 2009
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The title of this post is not the same as the conclusion of the study, I'm not sure if that's a fault of the study or not.
 

Beautiful End

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Well, I hate to be that guy but I think those kids aren't playing right o begin with. I remember back when i used to play DDR at home, I'd sweat like a pig after 30 mins. of playing. And mind you, it's not like I was even skilled enough to play on Expert. I was playing on Easy/Normal.

Now, Mario Kart cannot be compared to something like DDR. Mario kart just requires you to move the controller/wheel around like a retard. Heck, you don't even NEED the wheel in order to play the game. DDR, however, requires you to move around and jump by default. It's obvious this study was wrong from the get-go. Maybe all these kids did was play Madden or Mario Kart instead of EA Active or DDR.

The Wii itself is no substitute for a workout machine. Of course playing Wii overall will not make you lose weight, even if you play Mario Kart everyday. If you're really committed, then you would buy DDR and play everyday for at least 30 mins. to an hour. THEN you're gonna notice the difference.

Or if you really wanna lose weight, you could, I don't know, hit the gym. :/