Wii Check-Up Channel

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."

Comments

Will recomend most to lose weight???

[DDLKermit007]

I'm sorry but this is for Japan, not America.

1984? You have got to be kidding?

[Whiney Mac Fanboy]

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.

Re:1984? You have got to be kidding?

[kabocox]

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. It's all to get you out of the house and walk about 5-10 miles and meet other local gamers that are actually into your game.

Combine it with some glove and shoe monitors, and shortly your super duper cell phone gaming platform could accurately animate you and show your moves. I could see many side quests where basically to get the power up or what ever, you've got to do x number of exercises with at least one additional player and/or certain character classes. (It would all be about meeting strangers and giving them all a known task to do. Basically, they are all in it for the quest items, but to get said item, they've got to get out and exercise and meet various people.

I could see people doing bad things with it, but generally more people would use something like that as intended rather than for bad.

Not a bad idea, but treat with caution.

[RogueyWon]

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.

[vrmlguy]

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.

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. 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. 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.

Re:Not a bad idea, but treat with caution.

[Gulthek]

Jogging in place? You shouldn't need any footwear at all, our feet are kind of designed for that.

Re:Not a bad idea, but treat with caution.

[Zebedeu]

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 movement because you can't do it when moving forward, but for standing in place it works perfectly.

Another benefit is that this movement works your calves much harder, which contributes to the calorie burning and those nice legs that make the ladies go wild :-)

Re:Not a bad idea, but treat with caution.

[geekoid]

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, good luck and I hope you find a new diet that works for you.

Update please!

[gravos]

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...

Re:Update please!

[RogueyWon]

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.

Overgadgetting

[Schiphol]

I love Wii; actually, I'm currently giving my life away to Super Mario Galaxy. But, having said that, I think this initiative is a clear case of overgadgetting. When playing Wii Fit, one already feels stupid when "jogging around Wii island" - that is, running on the spot with the Wii Controller in your pocket- but, making it part of a corporate health package? Come on. There must be some better use for that money. Better dental coverage, for instance, or whatever.

Re:BMI

[Kokuyo]

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 easily do with 40 pounds less. Interestingly enough, I don't even eat all that much. And it gets better:
My three week vacation in Canada last year, where my aunt demanded I do not stop eating her food unless I am in danger of exploding, had me actually lose weight. What did I do? I ate three very rich (meaning fatty) meals a day and would spend the day leisurely walking through Toronto.

Last Christmas I actually lost weight, too, even though I was eating like crazy once more. The day I had to get back to work I lost my appetite and since then I have trouble even finishing a normal serving of food. A small salad makes me half full, lately. Logically, if all those nutritionist quacks actually knew what they were yapping about, I would have to have lost even more weight. After all, I was not lazying about all week anymore stuffing my face with food, right?

Wrong. I immediately gained back all the weight I had previously lost.

I can't speak for anyone else out there, but hard FACTS show that my body stores much more energy, even from little food, when I'm under stress than it does from heaps of food when I'm relaxed.

What is making me fat is my fucking job and nothing else and everyone who ignores this is simply not interested in my health, only in the expensive diets that will help move my money into their pockets.

Re:BMI

[tixxit]

BMI basically provides a bit of context to your weight, not to your fitness level. Instead of just a singular weight measurement, it gives you a measurement that puts your weight in context with your age and height. Frankly, I'd rather someone say "my goal is to have a BMI of 25", rather than "I want to be 125lbs". Saying BMI is bad, is like saying weighing yourself is bad. Both measure the same thing, BMI just normalizes the weight among different heights/ages, which makes it a bit easier for a system like the Wii to use. Once you start really getting into fitness, then you stop measure your goals in terms of pounds or BMI, but everyone has to start somewhere.