It's been one of the mainstream media's safest feel-good stories of the year: how playing on the Wii can help fat kids lose weight. Only problem is there's not much science backing that up. Researchers at Liverpool's John Moores University have studied six boys and five girls, all aged between 13-15, as they played Project Gotham Racing 3, Wii Bowling, Wii Tennis and Wii Boxing, each for 15 minutes. While they found that Wii Sports required 51% more physical exertion from the kids than PGR, the total amount of exercise they were getting was still negligible, as it amounted to only 60 calories. Which is 1/5 of a cheeseburger (so working a whole one off would take well over an hour). Sorry kids, looks like you'll still have to drag yourselves outside if you want to shed those extra pounds.
Wii is not a fat burner [News.com.au]

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