Wii Check-Up Channel 38
Cemu writes with news that Nintendo is teaming up with Panasonic, NEC, and Hitachi to work on the Wii Fit Body Check Channel, which will use data from the Wii Fit to provide users with health advice. Quoting:
"Since last December, NEC and NEC mobile began a cell phone version of the 'Wii Fit Body Check Channel.' Starting this April, the NEC Group (NEC and NEC Mobile) will launch a hosted Wii Fit Channel aimed at employees and their families. The company hopes to offer this service outside NEC in the future. ... Also this April, Wii Fit and the Wii Fit Body Check Channel will be introduced by Panasonic Medical Solutions to health care workers with its Plissimo Sigusa health care plan. What's more, Panasonic Medical Solutions is offering the program to the country's health insurance union."
Update please! (Score:5, Insightful)
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Indeed. This is such a basic problem that I honestly can't believe it made it past testing. It's compounded by the fact that with a few exceptions (basically free jogging and the longest version of the boxing exercise) most of the exercises are very short. Having to navigate the menus at the end of each exercise really does break my pace.
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I hate to add a 'me too' post but...I agree! I don't know that I wouldn't have purchased Wii Fit if I'd realized there weren't built-in workout 'routines,' but it's the first thing that occurred to me when I started using it. It actually took me a few days to realize that it was a missing feature, and not just something that was going to be unlocked...
-Trillian
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How about an update that allows you to create an actual workout routine? Seems to me it currently takes longer to cycle through the menus than it does to actually do most of the workout activities...
There is an easy fix for the lack of routines: exercise in the nude with a partner to navigate the menus when it is your turn and vv. Guaranteed fun for all.
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Yeah, the interface is slow as fuck. It's especially terrible when there's more than one of you playing and you want to take turns doing the skiing or whatever. It needs at least a party mode or something, changing users is interminable.
1984? You have got to be kidding? (Score:3, Funny)
Out of all the slashdot stories posted in the last fortnight - you choose a story on a game to post your 1984 excerpt?
Jeepers! My guess is that you're Mum is trying to get your pudgy ass to do some exercise and you feel oppressed. Tell me I'm right.
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Out of all the slashdot stories posted in the last fortnight - you choose a story on a game to post your 1984 excerpt?
Jeepers! My guess is that you're Mum is trying to get your pudgy ass to do some exercise and you feel oppressed. Tell me I'm right.
Just wait for them to release the great real world GPS FF. You play it on your GPS enabled phone and walk around to certain locations battling the random moster every now and then or being guided to meet up with any other players to form real world quest parties.
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I want to play Wumpus IRL.
Will recomend most to lose weight??? (Score:3, Funny)
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I'm sorry, but Japan also has a growing obesity problem, one that is more strongly reinforced by their work culture then it is in America.
In fact, many countries do because it is short term advantages to eat quick.
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Not a bad idea, but treat with caution. (Score:5, Interesting)
I own Wii-Fit. I like it. With its help, I've been able to lose 8 pounds since Christmas day, on the basis of a 40 minute daily routine with it. However...
It's important to be aware of what Wii-Fit can and can't do. It's a good programme, but using it safely and effectively involves a lot of working around its limitations and doing a bit of your own research. IGN carried a good article a few months back in which a qualified fitness trainer assessed it, which is a good starting point. In short, the positives came out as:
+ The way it makes exercise more interesting and makes it easier for gamers to stick with it without getting bored.
+ The aerobics exercises in general, which are a good way to burn calories.
+ The balance games, and the general focus on balance, which won't burn many calories, but will underpin the rest of your exercise regime well.
+ Some of the muscle exercises, particularly the balance-focussed ones.
The negatives were:
- The yoga.
- Some of the muscle exercises, which are overly advanced for beginners and could well cause injury if not done properly (which the game does not adequately warn about).
- The failure to warn the player of the need for appropriate footwear, especially for the jogging exercise.
- The body tests in general - the focus on BMI is not great, as BMI is a blunt instrument which is now treated with a lot of caution, while the Wii-fit age concept is largely laughable.
- The overall lack of guidance given in the package as a whole, which gives beginners to exercise very few tips on what constitutes an effective regime.
Work around those negatives and this is still a fantastically good accessory and software package. However...
In short, I would be very cautious about any application which claimed to be able to give detailed fitness advice on the basis of your Wii-Fit body test results. Professional advice from a doctor or fitness professional will be far safer and more useful.
Re:Not a bad idea, but treat with caution. (Score:4, Interesting)
I got a Wii Fit back in September and lost twenty pounds by New Year's Day. I was earning 30 Wii Fit points per day for most of that period, plus I was walking with my kids two miles every Saturday on a local nature trail [stlouisco.com].
Unfortunately, between the New Year's Eve party and a bunch of unhealthy left overs, I managed to put about a third of that back. Plus, bad weather has kept me off the nature trail, which certainly doesn't help. And all of that has hurt my motivation, so where before I'd done over 100 consecutive days of exercise, now I'm skipping more days than I'm doing. I've apparently fallen into the trap described in this article [nytimes.com]. Overall, though, I'm still doing better than most years, where I would put on ten pounds between Thanksgiving and New Year's, and never take it off. Damn you, homemade English Toffee!
BTW, Nintendo has created a pedometer that talks to your DS [nintendo.co.uk]. The cartridge allows you to download your Mii for an experience similar to Wii Fit. What's missing is apparently any way to upload data into Wii Fit, but that may show up in a future channel.
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The number 1 thing you can do to maintain a new diet is to keep a daily diary.
Trust me, I love food..all kinds of food. I had to go on a min fat diet(20G a day spread out over 6 small meals) and getting ne through that was reviewing what I ate, and the encouragement of my family.
I just got a Wii fit, and it is going to replace my diary becasue I can use it to check my progress.
I list about 24 pounds in 6 weeks. Granted, the first few weeks is when you will see that fastest improvement with any diet.
Anyways,
Re:Not a bad idea, but treat with caution. (Score:4, Funny)
Jogging in place? You shouldn't need any footwear at all, our feet are kind of designed for that.
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Yeah? Try it on any reasonably hard surface for any amount of time with no footwear or unsuitable footware and, believe me, you will *feel* the error in your statement. Push it too hard and you could end up feeling it for days or even weeks. Repeated unabsorbed impacts are bad, mkay?
Running shoes do exist for reasons other than a) keeping sharp bits from poking into your feet and b) allowing chavs to flaunt their ill-gotten spoils.
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My experience is that running in place without footwear is possible, but you have to learn how to do it properly.
I once had an exercise regime which included a relatively long time running in place, and at the beginning I was doing it just as if I was really running: banging my heel on the ground, and then pulling up with the foot.
That hurts. A lot. And it keeps on hurting later.
Basically, pain taught me to absorb the impact with the front of the foot when hitting the ground. It's not a very natural movemen
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I used to run in place either barefoot, or with my normal shoes (can't remember) and I did it for around one month without any pain or discomfort, but I do agree that for longer times, or for people with less health/luck than me, getting running shoes would probably be a better idea.
I know I once tried running 10Km with normal shoes and it was a bad idea. Your back and articulations are worth much more than the 100$ you save on decent footwear (I got mine the next day).
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You're only supposed to hit heel first when jogging. The best way when running/sprinting is to only use the front of your feet; your heel should never touch the ground. Still, your advice for jogging in place is good and is another place where staying off the heel is wise.
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You're right. I was thinking about walking and jogging because that's what I do.
My sprinting speed sucks too much for competing.
Well, my jogging speed/resistance also sucks for competition, but at least I can manage not finishing mini-marathons in last :-)
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Well it didn't say not to use ice skates for that.
BMI (Score:2)
the focus on BMI is not great, as BMI is a blunt instrument which is now treated with a lot of caution
Nonetheless BMI, as crude as it might be, is still a very useful tool - specially between really defined categories (like 18-25 vs 30-35) - to have an approximate idea of health risk for the average person (i.e.: not some corner case like someone featuring Conan-style over-massive musculature...)
As the software is targeted to get gaming nerds and otakus to exercise a little bit, BMI is a good-enough indicator.
BMI is treated with caution because :
- lots of people abuse it and treat it as some kind of magic s
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Oh yeah, I don't deny that BMI can be useful - but it needs to be put in context. Exactly the kind of context you've just put it in. Because without that, it can either lull people into a false sense of security, or tell people that they need to change a perfectly healthy body.
I know two people who have serious issues with Wii-Fit's BMI measurements. I'm not one of them; I'm your average slightly-overweight gamer (probably still 8-10 pounds North of where I should be), who has never exercised much before th
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I believe BMI is the work of a few very irresponsible people who lack morals. It has thus far spawned some very ridiculous beliefs when it comes to health.
Seriously, there was this one woman who would drink five litres of water per day and made damn sure she only ate salt that was already in what little meat she consumed. This fear of salt and fat will someday kill a good number of people prematurely.
This whole angst about food is making people sick. As a little anecdote: I am overweight. I'd say I could ea
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Because you're stressed, I assume you have not much time to spend on making food. If you're consuming already prepared food, do you count calories? When I started doing that last year I was amazed at
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However, one of my friends has been working out fairly seriously for years and is in what must be considered to be spectacularly good shape. When Wii-fit told him he was obese, he just laughed (muscle being heavier than fat, for those who didn't already know).
Though clearly it is not what BMI is designed to detect, but if your friend has so much muscle mass he is rated obese there is a good chance he is opening himself up to a whole slew of other health problems; losing some of that weight might actually be good advice.
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In short, I would be very cautious about any application which claimed to be able to give detailed fitness advice on the basis of your Wii-Fit body test results. Professional advice from a doctor or fitness professional will be far safer and more useful.
Nah, I bet half of us could write a small app taking data from the average college health/PE class as a guideline. I hate to say you don't need any data points on the subject, but that's why you pick good general source material. (Those that wrote the health
Overgadgetting (Score:2, Insightful)
Wii wii wii all the way home (Score:2)
Eat less crap, exercise more and read a book once in a while.
There. Code that up.
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http://www.fourmilab.ch/hackdiet/www/hackdiet.html [fourmilab.ch]
http://www.physicsdiet.com/ [physicsdiet.com]
Weight channel (Score:2)
BMI is bad (Score:2)