Padres’ Heath Bell has a new look

Heath Bell reported to the San Diego Padres’ camp this spring weighing 25 pounds less than he did at the end of last season.

His secret?

He played video games.

Baseball’s current saves leader had put together an off-season training program that included many hours playing Nintendo’s Wii Fit game, which runs a series of interactive exercise programs.

Bell, who inherited the Padres’ closer role from the departed Trevor Hoffman this season, said he was convinced he had to lose weight when he entered his physical measurements into the system. The game told him he was obese. His avatar was bloated.

“My character was like this,” Bell said, holding out his arms to the side and blowing up his cheeks. “I had to have my thing thinner.”

Bell said he played Wii Fit so often that he annoyed his three children.

“They were like, ‘Dad, get off, it’s my turn,’ ” he said. And when he told them he was working, they replied, “Dad, you don’t work.”

Bell, who weighed 245 pounds at the start of spring training, has saved a major-league-leading 17 games and has posted a 1.42 earned-run average.

When he pitches at Petco Park in San Diego, he enters games to the song, “Blow Me Away” by Breaking Benjamin, which was featured in the video game “Halo 2.”

Bell said the opening of the song doesn’t get played because it is too similar to that of the AC/DC’s “Hells Bells,” to which the iconic Hoffman used to enter. The Padres’ talkative new closer said he was told by team officials that if he is still pitching well at the All-Star break, the entire song will be played.

“That’s another reason for me to dominate,” Bell said. “I want to have my full song out there.”

Not that he thinks he can replace Hoffman, baseball’s all-time saves leader. He said he would settle for being an “afterthought.”

“I want them to say, ‘We had Trevor Hoffman but we also had Bell for four, five years,’ ” Bell said.

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dylan.hernandez@latimes.com