Nintendo Wii Doesn’t Really Help Kids Exercise

My youngest son is a "Gamer". For those of you who are not aware of the term, it applies to kids who "seriously" play video games. By "seriously" I mean that they spend an inordinate amount of time playing. For some kids it absorbs their life. Others find a way to blend it in with the real world, but still invest a lot of time playing. One of kids newest tools to convince mom and day to buy them a gaming system is the promise that it will make them exercise more. Don't buy it!  A newly released study says that’s not the way it works.

Most people believed that the Nintendo Wii was a more "active" game that would encourage kids  with things like Dance Revolution to get them moving.

But now, researcher from Baylor’s College of Medicine is giving us other indications.  They gave Wii consoles to 77 9- to 12-year-olds who didn’t already have one. The groups were split into more passive and more active games.

After thirteen weeks of testing, the researcher found that the kids with active games had logged no more physical activity than those with the passive ones.

So, if your kids are using the promise that they will be more active, don't buy into it! They can still play the game for fun and entertainment, but it won't make them more fit!

[via Yahoo]