Wii Fit exercise experiment

On the second day of testing the Wii Fit Plus, my Nintendo Wii was convinced that I had put on a pound. It then began to ask why I thought I put on a pound and proceeded to give me a list of excuses. I told the board (the Wii Fit Plus controller) it was because of late night eating and the game told me how eating after nine was not good because those would be calories I would not burn off. The Wii Fit Plus is like having your own personal mom in the room.

I repeated the same routines I did during the first day of the experiment but tried different games. "Perfect 10" had me shaking my hips to find the two numbers that added to the number 10. I felt silly playing, but as the game went on the workout got better as I had to get to the number 10 as fast as possible. It's an awful feeling when a video game can embarrass you. Next was an obstacle course where I had to walk and jump on the board to get to the finish line. This game had me falling to my death several times and it was intriguing enough to keep me playing for seven minutes.

My third day with the game was much better, considering I had lost that pound I gained; however, as I went through the day I noticed a pain in my leg and stomach. I decided to switch up the routine and try a couple of exercises that helped my back and spine. After a while, repeating routines helped me relax. On my fourth and fifth day, I repeated the exercises from the first two days, all the more eager to lose weight.

By the sixth day of the workout I had lost two pounds — down one pound since I started. That's not exactly the results I wanted, but I figured it was better to lose a little bit than to lose nothing at all. I decided to make this the intense workout day. I made a routine with push-ups, sit-ups and leg twists. Afterwards, I played the more intense aerobics games, which included "Advance Step," a dancing game that requires the player to step on and off the balance board, "Rhythm Boxing," "Kung Fu" and "Parade." I then ended my routine with some "Extreme Hula Hoop." I spent the last five minutes of my 30 minute workout doing yoga poses (some made me feel at ease and others made me feel like something was punching my back).

On the last day, I did more relaxing exercises and tried out some of the other mini games like juggling and Segway racing. I burned off only 150 calories that day, but I was getting burnt out exercising every day. However, I was happy to see that the game told me I lost two more pounds, which meant I lost three pounds in one week and was down to 235. The game also mentioned I was losing weight at a nice pace and would reach my goal in no time. Finally, the game told me that my balance had greatly improved and that the more it improves, the better my posture will become.

I saw many improvements outside of the game as well. My appetite had shrunken since I began doing jackknifes every day and I stopped becoming winded when walking up the stairs to the 4th floor of University Hall. I also feel more inspired to workout outside of Wii Fit Plus, since I have a set goal as well as a game reminding me of these goals.

Critic's Conclusion:

With the improvements of custom workouts as well as new and fun exercises and games, Wii Fit Plus is worth the investment of $20. The only complaint I have is the lack of new aerobic exercises to the custom routines and the fact that it is not as intense of a workout when compared to other games. However, if intense workouts sound scary, then Wii Fit Plus is definitely a fun, light-paced game to help you get in shape. A-