A Wii bit active
Games such as Wii Sports may partially bridge the gap between the active child and the couch potato, a new study has found, but not enough to make much of a difference in a kid’s overall fitness.
Researchers at Liverpool John Moores University in the United Kingdom studied six boys and five girls ages 13 to 15 while they played four computer games -- a sedentary game and Wii Sports bowling, tennis and boxing. The children burned about 156 calories per hour playing Wii bowling, 168 during Wii boxing and 174 during Wii tennis. That’s roughly 60 calories per hour more than expended playing the sedentary game.
Co-author Tim Cable, a professor of exercise physiology, says the exercise was not intense enough to contribute toward the recommended amount of daily physical activity for kids and is probably about 25% less than the energy that would be used playing the sport. The activity of the boys was significantly greater than for the girls, particularly for the tennis game. The study was published in the Dec. 22 British Medical Journal.
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