Try longer workouts, using weights, and other strategies to burn more calories in your Wii Fit exercise sessions.

Can video game exercise be as good for you as the real thing?

RODALE NEWS, EMMAUS, PA—Computers make it easier to do lots of things without having to leave the house—like shopping, bill-paying, renting movies and now, with the advent of Wii Fit, going running on a tropical island. But a new study illustrates that as fun as it is, a Wii Fit exercise session may not be the workout you think it is.

THE DETAILS: Wii Fit is a software and hardware combo for Nintendo's Wii video game system that enables users to perform fitness moves and activities on a small white balance board similar to a household body-weight scale. Researchers from the University of Wisconsin La Crosse Exercise and Health Program, with support from the American Council on Exercise, recruited 16 men and women ages 20 to 24 years old to test the fitness benefits of the six most aerobically challenging Wii Fit exercise programs: Free Run, Island Run, Free Step, Super Hula Hoop, Advanced Step, and Rhythm Boxing. Before testing the Wii, the volunteers each took an exercise test on a treadmill. They were also given time to practice each of the Wii exercise activities until they felt they could do them well. On a separate day, the volunteers performed each of the activities for six minutes while their heart rates and oxygen uptakes were monitored. Afterward, the exercisers gave each activity a perceived-exertion rating.

What the researchers found was that Wii Fit exercise sessions, in general, weren't strenuous enough to improve fitness. When played for 30 minutes, Wii Fit's Free Run and Island Run burned an average of 165 calories—the most out of the six activities tested (Rhythm Boxing burned 114; Super Hula Hoop, 111; Advanced Step, 108; and Free Step, 99). But the intensity of even the running activities wasn’t enough to improve or even maintain cardiorespiratory endurance as defined by the American College of Sports Medicine. And the researchers found, in all instances, the real activity (actual running and boxing and stepping) burned significantly more calories than the video-game version.